Response To John Locke's Responsibilities

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 and John Locke both formulated philosophical theories that worked to convince people of their rights to freedom and power; however, they had conflicting viewpoints on the idea of private property. Locke felt that property belonged to whoever put their labor into it, and one could accumulate as much property as he or she wants (692). Marx, however, considered the private property of the select few who possessed it to be the product of the exploitation of the working class (1118). Personally, I believe that Locke’s conception of private property is more convincing than Marx’s point of view.

Locke describes the Earth to be free for the use of all men, however each and every of those men have the right to their own property. “Though the earth and all inferior creatures be common to all men, yet every man has a “property” in his own “person.” This nobody has any right to but himself. The “labor” of his body and the “work” of his hands, we may say, are properly his.” (Documents 81)

Locke believed that all men are born with natural rights and they are the right to life, liberty, and property Locke said "Life refers to the fact that people want to live and will fight to survive. Liberty means that people want to be as free as possible. Property represents the fact that people want to own things that help them survive, such as land, food, and tools." Locke claims that these rights aren't given to people and that people are born with them.

And so on, back to A, the original taker of land.” (Brubaker, 219). Locke refutes this through his idea by basically stating that when one takes property he doesn’t take it for himself, rather it can and will help others as

As we know from Karl Marx, in “Communist Manifesto”, felt that society was divided into two, the haves (capitalist) and the haves-not. Marx felt that this was unfair and it would not work because there would be a constant struggle over resources between the two different groups. Karl Marx felt that this created a division between the two and essentially leads to the unfair and imbalanced distributions over wealth within a society that could stem and create many problems. Marx felt that there were many evils in the capitalist society some of which led to exploitation. One these evils were a surplus of labor. He felt that the bourgeoisie would acquire labor for less than their worth from individuals, which created an imbalance of worth. He felt

Karl Marx on the other hand, has a wildly different opinion on property. In his most famous piece, The Communist Manisfesto, Marx’s opinion is set up in one line; "… the theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property” (Marx in Cahn 885). Marx firmly believed that ownership of private property was a way in which the social classes became more divided, and in turn, a way to oppress the poor. His opinion largely stems from the time period in which he lived (1818-1883), where factory owners infamously underpaid employees for dangerous work in treacherous conditions. However, Marx idea of private property was a bit different from Locke and did not mean things like land ownership or personal items, but the relation of individuals used for the means of production in a privately owned enterprise. Marx points out however, that in this state, unlike the ideas and time of Locke (1632-1704), the laborers do not benefit or acquire any property from their labor. In fact, the capital they are producing is the “kind of property that exploits wage labor” (Marx in Cahn 886) and serves to oppress them and further the division of classes. Therefore, Marx aimed to take this “private property” and give it to the Proletariats in order to change its status from the elite ownership of the Bourgeoisie, to the

Therefore, it can be simplified down to this: the proletariat is always working not for himself but for the bourgeoisie in order to survive, producing products that will not only be taken away from them but decrease their human value as well. If one is to assign a monetary value to a proletariat’s life, for example a hundred dollars, each time the proletariat works, a dollar will be decreased from his total value and in the end he is basically left with nothing. However, since the bourgeoisie is the capitalist, he gains from the products produced by the proletariat and increases his own wealth as well. This inequality is why Marx believes there should be a classless society because the bourgeoisie will continue to exploit the hard working proletariats until they void themselves of any human value. It is unfair to have a minority ruling wealthy class over a majority class of working laborers. However, Davis and Moore disagree with how it is unfair to have a wealthy class ruling over the working class.

First, Locke mentions the idea of property of person. This means that everyone has ownership of their own self, because they own their body. Also, this includes the work they do with their bodies; when someone exerts their body on another object, that object becomes theirs. For

Marx’s problem is not with labour inherently, but with it’s alienation from workers. In Marx’s opinion, the thing that makes human beings different from animals is their capacity to produce when it is not needed. Marx’s concern is the use of labour to produce a commodity to be traded.

I think that although there were limits imposed by reform legislation Marx still believe that exploitation can not be overcome under capitalism. I feel like he wants to get the point across about how important the two are and how they connect in the way they do. In the “Working Day” you see how the limits of the work day are listed and the many reasons why they are listed. Basically, the author is trying to show us on page 361, that no matter how much of the surplus value is, there is sill no comparison to the limit of the working day. Another thing that supports Marx’s argument on exploitation not being able to overcome under capitalism is a quote from the “Working Day which the author states, “The capitalist then takes his stand on the law of the exchange of commodities. He, like all other buyers, seeks to get the greatest possible benefit out of the use-value of his commodity (Marx, 363).” This quote explains how exploitation is being used under capitalism because the

When examining both theories about private property one cannot go without recognizing the important role that labour plays. Locke who considers labour the cornerstone of man’s ability to provide upon himself and that the act itself is so important “labour indeed that puts the difference of value on every thing” (MPT 297). Locke’s belief that every man is born into the world with an equal amount of capability with labour as the main variable determining success. Marx’s writings take a look at where private property comes from and who is the beneficiary of such a product. This is where labour is introduced into his analyzes of private property and “the concept of externalized labor, that is, externalized man, alienated labor, alienated life and alienated man” (MPT 771). Marx’s theories look into the exploitation of one social group, the proletarians, by the wealthy class, the bourgeois that is now in the open due to the structure of capitalism. The workers eventually

Marx has a firm belief that capitalism is the biggest enemy for any society trying to achieve liberty from the economic system. According to Marx, the Alienation of Labor comes from the root of capitalism which he already thinks is the worst enemy and is a very bad idea for any countries economic structure. “Appropriation appears as estrangement, as alienation; and alienation appears as appropriation, estrangement as truly becoming a citizen” (Estranged Labor, 34). Marx states that the Alienation of Labor resolves itself once the general nature of private property and its relation to truly human property are combined. Marx believes that there is not enough freedom between the public and the private realm of property, which is another reason why capitalism

Karl Marx’s theory is based on the surplus value (Karl Marx 's theories? .2008). According to Karl Marx capitalists are able to exploit workers(doing involuntarily labour as a mere means to an end and not as an end in itself) because they only have labour to offer and this could be their only source of income, thus resulting in workers getting paid less than value created by their labour. Through these exploitations capitalists are able to increase their profits. This will cause workers to become rebellious and in result refusal of being further exploited (Shaw.2011.149) Workers will then create a system that will fully benefit

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