Marx's Views and Exploitation

Karl Marx believed that the bourgeoisie exploited the proletariats in this new-found industrial age. The proletariat masses lived in poverty, while the bourgeoisie lived lavishly, feeding off the labour-intensive work and money made by their workers.

Marx’s wants factories and shops to exists, but not to be owned by the bourgeoisie. Marx’s explains that the average price of wage-labour only “produces the bare existence.” The proletariats, the working class, heavily rely on capitalism and exploitation in order to survive. Private property revolves around the antagonist the reduction of wages is implemented, and the products created by the proletariats turn into capital. Marx states, “does wage-labour create any property for the labourer? Not a bit. It creates capital, i.e., that kind of property which exploits wage-labour.” This implies that if wage labor continues to exists the bourgeois with only receive the benefits while the proletariat cannot attain any property. The more the proletariats worked for the bourgeoisie under wage labor the more their individuality diminishes. Marx wants to target the ruling class and abolish their rights and privileges to make equality for

Marx's theory on Capitalist exploitation is an incredibly deep theory, but to explain it in a nutshell, it is that the working-class people are improperly compensated for their work. The rich, the higher-ups, they continue to expand their wealth by exploiting the working class, the Capitalist system not only allows but effectively demands that Capitalists increase their wealth, long-term or short-term, whether at the cost of the working-class or not. There are three “values” to take into consideration, the use-value, the exchange-value and the

Karl Marx witnessed first hand the rise of the industrial revolution and the beginning of capitalism. He also became one of capitalisms biggest critics. Marx believed that society needed a better way of distrusting wealth but also a better way a finding people’s full human potential or what he called “species-essence”. Marx believed that what we do connects to who we are, for example, work is what makes us human. It fulfills our species essence, as he puts it. Work allows us to be creative and flourish. However, in the 19th century Europe work did the quit opposite, it destroyed workers, particularly those who had nothing to sell but their labor. To the mill and factory owners a worker was simply an abstract idea with a stomach that needed to be filled. The workers had no choice but to work for long hours for a pathetic wage. Even worse, their labor alienated them. Alienation is a disorienting sense of exclusion and separation. Factory labor, under capitalism, alienated the workers from the product of their labor. They made stuff they couldn’t afford to buy themselves. The products they made were shipped out to other places far way to make money

Marx divided the society into two classes, those that are property owner and those that are property-less workers. This is an analogy that still can be found in this modern era. For example, wealthy people for the most part own a variety of property, while the least wealthy often do not own much property as they are working for the wealthy. These workers suffer estrangement and impoverishment from the world. It occurs because these workers are a mean of production and allows the job to hold them hostile. These workers also invested their life into the labor, but they do not own the fruits of the labor. This make them more estrange as he produces more.

Marx points out that the means of production are owned by only a small group of the population and most other people do not. These people who don't own the means of production (land, machinery, factories, tools, etc..) are called the proletariat and cannot sell their produce, only their labour-power... that is, they can sell hours of their time to other people. So the profits of their labour always go to those who hire them, and they are left with only a bare minimum wage.

Marx saw this development in capitalism as one which had a fundamental contradiction: it tries to squeeze more and more profits out of the consumers, who are also their labour, whom they are trying to pay less. As the worker became more exploited in this manner, Marx believed that the frustration would eventually be sufficient that workers would revolt, seizing tools, land, and produce to create a communist society.

Marx points out that “the laborers life is to merely increase capital, and is allowed to live only in so far as the interest of the ruling class.” The more bourgeoisie exploited the proletariats for work, the wealthier the bourgeoisie became, thus reaping the benefits of the proletariats.

Another concept that brought about inequality among the bourgeoisie and proletariat is the labour theory of value. As stated in the textbook Classical and Contemporary Sociological Theory, “One of the basic truths of capitalism is that it takes money to make money, and the more money a business owner has at his or her disposal, the more ability the business owner has to generate profit-making schemes” (Appelrouth and Edles: 25). In this case, the bourgeoisies are at a benefit as they own the means of production, while the proletariat are at a disadvantage as they don’t have capital to make money. Marx’s ‘general formula for capital’ explains the class and power relations that predominate in modern capitalist society through the formula M-C-M. Marx describes this law of value to be beneficial to the bourgeoisies as they increase profits and capital. Bourgeoisies are able to do this because they have the money (M) to buy capital, which converts their money into commonality (C), which they then use to produce other commodities that are sold for money (M). Bourgeoisies predominate the proletariats through power relations as the formula is inversed for the working class, C-M-C. The working class sells their labour through commodity (C), which then is exchanged for money (M) and used to buy commodities (C) necessary for survival. The C-M-C

At its very core, Marx’s capitalist theory is an economic system based on three things: wage labour, which comes from land owners employing individuals to work for a wage, control of the means of production (factories, farms, offices and machinery), and production for exchange and profit. Considering the majority of society do not own the means of production, and are not private owners, they are forced to offer their ability to work in exchange for a regular wage,

While some look at the United States of America as the land of free, the proverbial, land of milk and honey. Others argue that our nation is a corrupt land that is where only the affluent capitalists thrive while the rest of the country 's workforce are heard through like cattle, only kept alive enough to keep them working to be the slaves of maintaining the gigantic corporations and business that they work for. This bleak look at the America’s foundation is conducted by Karl Marx, who saw capitalism as a dangerous and unstable economic system.

Marx never addressed the actual capitalism we face today in his Das Kapital. Instead, he proposed a setting of ideal capitalism, in which there are “no monopolies, no unions, no special advantages for anyone. It is a world in which every commodity sells at exactly its proper price. And that proper price is its value” (Heilbroner). The value is defined as the amount of labour it took to create that certain merchandise. This obviously has a flaw, as if products were traded at its true value there would be no margin of profit. The margin is produced via the discrepancy of the labour value and the value of the actual labour performed; that is, if a labourer needs six hours of labour to survive at the rate of one pound a day, the labourer would actually work for eight hours while being paid for only six hours. This is because a labourer can only ask for what is due by his subsistence; he can only ask for six pounds a day, because that is all he needs to survive. The capitalist, by owning the means of production, can force the terms into ten our eleven hours as opposed to six, while

The system of capitalism is partially based around the unpaid surplus labour of workers that allows for the generation of profit for the workers ' respective superiors. Marx argues that such a system rewards those who have some sort of domination over the workers, the actual producers of commodities. This results in terrible living

The definition of utopia is an ideally perfect place especially in its social, political, and moral aspects (dictionary.com). This paper will discuss the changes in capitalism since Marx’s critique in 1848. Marx’s fundamental critique remains correct today. Marx is still correct about his critique of capitalism because even though there have been changes made to capitalism to prevent some abuses, capitalism still produces inequality, reduces the family relationship, destroys small business, and enslaves.

According to Karl Marx, capitalism places emphasis on the commodities of labor systems and uses the normalized wage system to distribute the most value to the pocket of the owner. Though this system has been unperturbed in its general exploitive nature, it can change the social relations that the worker has to the employer. By establishing a means of connection, the employee can use ethos to appeal to the human nature of the employer and the students that they are working around. It will have an effect on workers, as it will push them to account for all hours that the workers are over timing. As a result, workers will be seen as more than a means for economic benefit. It will also make students aware of the conditions that laborers may be under at their school, so they can both appreciate and stand up for their rights if they choose. So, changing the way that the people within the working system interact, will change what the system accounts for as important. To make any change within capitalism there needs to be an acknowledgment that laborers are being taken advantage of. This is the first step to a change in the way people are recognized for their work.