Social Class Vs Working Class Analysis

Marx was a big proponent for the working-class movement and the equality in terms of property. To him, the issue that is most important to conquer is the issue of the estrangement and alienation of man, where man himself is the alien power over man – more specifically, it is workers who are being estranged (Marx 1988, 79). Consequences of this estrangement can be seen with private property, because although it seems to be the root of the problem, private property is actually the consequence of “alienated labor”, explaining why capitalism is a horror to him (Marx 1988, 81). It may be thought that an easy way to give workers equality would be to pay them equal wages, but this is yet another estrangement of labor (Marx 1988, 82). Progress, to Marx, would need to consist of a way to diminish the root of the problem – estrangement of the worker. This would consist of “emancipation of the workers” because the emancipation of the workers would have a large ripple effect, and result in the universal human emancipation (Marx 1988, 82). As it has been addressed multiple times, the estrangement of the worker is the root of the problem, and a step towards progress would need to consist of the workers being emancipated so they are no longer alienated and forced to labor while getting nothing but monetary payment for their labor. The alienation of workers furthers the issue by leading a society towards private

Social class is a “tag” to define your status in a community. One of the main requirements you must have to be in the Upper class, is to have wealth and power. That is basically it, and obviously the absence of those characteristics could mean you are in a Middle or even in the Lower class. Sports are an activity that people do for pleasure that requires physical activity and sometimes has rules for the players to follow in order to play the game. It is most commonly played outdoors. It can improve your cardio, health, and physical condition. For example, it can prevent things like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer or even mental illnesses like depression.

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

Social class is a division of a society based on social and economic status which can include levels of wealth, success, power of authority, and influence. Status is can be defined or grouped having common economic, cultural, or political interests.

“Workers of the world unite; you have nothing to lose but your chains” (Engels and Marx). Peter Georgescu, author and chairman of Young & Rubicam wrote the article “Capitalists, Arise”. Capitalism is a political system famously known for letting individuals own things such as businesses and property instead of the government. In his article, Georgescu tries to inform the readers about the widening wage gap. He also explores the idea that big businesses need to improve wages for workers so that the standard of living can improve for everyone in capitalist America. He does this through tone, diction, and rhetorical devices.

Capitalism refers to an economic system whereby ownership of as well as investment in the means of production is made by private corporations or individuals to whom wealth accrues since they own the means of production. Society morphed from the feudal system to a bourgeois one that did not eliminate class antagonisms (Marx and Engels para 8). Instead, “it has but established new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old ones” (Marx and Engels para 9). At best, the capitalist society that emerged in place of the feudal system merely served to abridge class antagonism by erasing multiple hierarchical classes and replacing them with two classes, the proletariats and the bourgeoisie (Marx and Engels para 10). The bourgeoisie refers to the wealthy class who own the means of production and can, therefore, accumulate incremental wealth by subjecting the proletariat into endless labor. On their part, the proletariat does not own the means of production and are forced to sell their labor cheaply to earn a living, ultimately sustaining the capitalist machinery.

In Capital, Karl Marx reveals the ugly truth that capitalism lays on the foundation of class exploitation. Without such exploitation, there is no profit to be made and capitalism will cease to exist. Capitalism, which relies on the reproduction of capital, creates and concentrates wealth to a small portion of society’s population while reproducing poverty and widening the size of inequality.

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

The owners own the workers and the workers depend on the owners for their well-being; as a result, the owners only utilize the workers to gain wealth. And the working class in society is cheated from being financially stable. Capitalistic society see wealth as a privilege earned through education, hard work and dedication. Poor working class people are not afforded the same opportunities and upper-level society perceived them as lazy, uneducated, and unmotivated who are looking for a continued hand out to survive. Society perceive this class of people as havining a personality flaw. This capitalistic system is the power of wealth that keeps the working class struggling to make ends

In Marx words “… the price of a commodity, and therefore also of labor, is equal to its cost of production. In proportion, therefore as the repulsiveness of the work increases, the wage decreases” (8-9). The proletariat now is not only a slave of the bourgeois class, they are also daily and hourly slave by the machine. Because of this many children, women and old people started to become part of the proletariat, the need of a source of income was a necessity that consequently made the low division of the middle class to also fall progressively into the proletariat. Profit is an embellished word used by capitalists for

In regards to the labour-capital relation within a traditional capitalist corporation Marx & Engels (2007) refer to the dialectic between the capitalists (or bourgeoisie) who own the property and the means of production and the laborers (or proletariat) who own no property and are obligated to sell their labour to the bourgeoisie to gain substance. For Marx & Engels, this labour market is inherently fraught with tension, since the interests of the capitalist and labourers are diametrically opposed, and the balance of power between capitalists and labourers tips further in the favour of the capitalists. Because workers have nothing to sell but their labour, the bourgeoisie are able to exploit them by paying them less than the true value created by their labour. Furthermore, because of the unequal positions of capitalist and labourer, labourers must work for someone else- they must do work imposed on them as a means of satisfying the needs of others. As a result, labourers inevitably experience alienation which Marx’s Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts (1844) summarizes as the separation of individuals from the objects they create, which in turn results in one’s separation from other people, from oneself, and ultimately from one’s human nature.

With society falling apart into the two classes of property owners and propertyless workers, the workers sink to the level of the commodity so much so that the worker is not receiving the power and magnitude of his or her product. Instead this power is falling into the hands of the property owning bourgeoisie. At the heart of the capitalistic system is the estrangement of the laborer which not only creates commodities but also transforms the laborer themselves into commodities. The laborer is also exploded, “increased productivity does not necessitate increased wage” ,resulting in the increase wealth of the bourgeoisie. The product, “the manifestation of the laborers on objectification and exploitation” , then becomes estranged from the laborer

Nowadays, people are easily affected by different forms of information, including Literature. Literature shows how the experiences of characters affect the way readers are living or thinking. Thus, it acts as a role to influence human thinking. In other words, literature is teaching people about life’s lessons. Every literature shows what social class the characters are in order to let reader understand the background of characters. In a meanwhile, readers understand more about the situation or life experiences of each social class. In order words, literature defines the words of social class for us. In the society, there are two main classes. One is ruling class and the other one is working class. Working class as the majority of characters

Although capitalism requires the use of force to maintain a power relation between bourgeoisie and proletariat and to accumulate capital through the relation, a class division and alienation play more important roles that allow capitalism to survive (Marx, 1887). Capitalism is a system that relies on the pursuit of profit, and division of labour and alienation make it possible to produce the greater profits by re-invest the profit.

Developed by Karl Marx, this form of socialism revealed the disparities within capitalist systems that put industrial workers or “proletarians” at a disadvantage compared to capitalists or the “Bourgeoisie.” Capitalist systems oppressed people because it exploited “wage workers,” and allowed for capitalists to profit while proletarians suffered. For instance, “overproduction and under consumption” of capitalist systems could eventually threaten proletarians with “lower wages or unemployment.” (611) Marxism called for the oppressed to fight for equality and dictate their means of production and distribution. This was evident throughout European countries in 1848, as it pushed workers to overthrow capitalism and put an end to the feud between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie.