The Contradictions Of Capitalism In The United States

This intimate relationship between man and nature, his activity and the objects of nature, is the ‘appropriate’ relationship because worker is not capable of creating without nature, that is, without the sensual external world. Hence, the world is the material into which man invests his labor, through which he produces things, and without it he cannot live. However, in a capitalist society, such relationship does not exist and man is alienated from nature, from the products of his activity or work. Under capitalism, workers produce for the market rather than for their own use or enrichment. According to Marx, the object produced by labor in modern society stands as an alien being to the worker. His labor is embodied in the product he created, and this product is an objectification of labor which represents a loss to the worker, as well as servitude to the object. Hence, alienation occurs when worker lacks control over the products of his labor. Additionally, during the process of production, man’s labor are seen as much an object as the physical material being worked upon, since labor is a demand in modern society, which can be bought or sold. The more objects the worker produces, the fewer he can personally possess, and therefore the greater is his loss. For instance, in

The working class, or the proletariat, as Karl Marx referred to them, is often overlooked for their role in the economy, particularly in the manufacturing of goods. When discussing this ideal, Marx refers to this notion as the fetishism of commodities. The conception that the people behind products produce the real value of it, the labor. Without such labor, these products would just be a large heap of disassembled pieces, instead of a functioning commodity (Marx, Lecture 3). Capitalists buy this labor at

So essentially the increase in production and specifically the power of mans product of his labour suppresses him further into an alienated state at the cost of his humanity. His fulfillment at work is minimal; on the contrary he is miserable and survives only as a means to produce capital. The worker remains detached from the product of his labour and produces only wages in an attempt to prosper in the same way as the capitalist seeks to prosper – only the prosperity of the capitalist ascends at a higher level through the exploitation of the worker . (ibid).

Making products in a capitalist system puts many people in a position that are repetitive and laborers end up going through the motions. They have one specialized job in producing the whole product. The labor does not give input into the purpose of design, distribution, and marketing of the product. According to his essay “ Alienated Labor,” Marx tells us the things we go through in a work under the capitalist society:

"Instead of 'exploitation,' growing out of the nature of production, our industrial evolution shows certain evils of competition imposed by an 'unfair' menace." Since Marx was wrong to assert that ownership was the source of oppression, Commons held that appropriation of the means of production was no answer to the laborers' needs. (Dawley, pg 181-183)

Started on September 17, 2011, the Occupy Wall Street Movement began in the Financial District of New York City and has received resonance in other American cities as well as to 82 other countries. Concentrating on how the current economic system has affected peoples’ lives, the movement raised issues about the lack in democracy of the financial system, social and economic inequality, and the connection between financial and political power. The income inequality between the rich and the poor was reaching a concerning proportion, and the unequal wealth distribution is emitted in the movement’s slogan, “We are the 99%.” Protestors believed that the movement would send the message that the united, the people would succeed against the corporate power of Wall Street (Bashir, 69) and create a revolution in the global financial structure (Brahm).

Since the beginning of the 1900’s the world has seen more and more social movements being led by young people, who protest against the worlds inequalities. These movements range from the civil rights movement, to the hippie movement in the late 60’s to more “modern” movements. One of those movements is the Occupy Wall Street movement or OWS for short. From October 2011 onward, OWS was not only the largest protest movement in North America but also sparked worldwide protest that either used the Occupy name or embodied the OWS ideology in some way. This essay will first talk about the origin of OWS, its ideology, goals and controversies surrounding protest and police involvement. It will then move on to talk about the ripple

We live in a world controlled by an invisible yet very present force that shapes the way we live our daily lives. With industry as its host and technology as the blood being pumped into its heart, it is a force powerful enough to bend politics to fit its needs. Capitalism; a method of industry where production and distribution are privately or corporately owned, its operation grows through profits, exploitation of labor, and extinguishing competition. During the Industrial Revolution technology was on the global stage. Factories and machines are built in existing cities producing and distributing mass goods on a global scale. Over time this fast production of goods would replace the old agricultural economy to a modern urban economy. Today the revolution is praised for creating a global trade market while surging us into a world of technology.

The Occupy Movement is an international activist movement that fosters social and economic change and originated from the actions of the Occupy Wall Street movement (source #7). The focus is on the Occupy Wall Street movement that was launched on September 17th 2011 and was catalysed by Adbusters activist Micah White. White created a web page about the corruption that was happening surrounding the financial crisis in the United States leading to the most recent recession. Large corporations based in the area of Wall Street have a great deal of wealth and in turn considerable influence on the democratic process. This particular occupy movement is motivated by the revolutionary protests in Egypt and Tunisia. The American protestors were convinced they could have an effect on the government through their protests. What this means is 1 percent of the population holds 35 percent of all stock and the other 99% marginally less (Source #3). Holding this much wealth this 1% has a great influence on democratic decision making. The official website for the occupy Wall Street movement puts it best saying: “aims to fight back against the richest 1% of people that are writing the rules of an unfair global economy” (source #2). The procedure of the Occupy Wall Street movement is quite simple. White outlines on her web page how she wanted 20,000 people to occupy Zuccotti Park near Wall Street. The protestor’s occupied the square, made signs and chanted messages like “We are the 99%”

Peet says “Mechanization raises the surplus exploitable by the owners of the means of production by increasing the productivity of labor, and thus increases the capital available for reinvestment in more machinery, facilities, and raw materials” (566). This means that as economic development takes place, the relative demand for labor falls because mechanization provides and faster and more efficient means of production. Production costs become more and more the costs of depreciating machinery and less and less the costs of hiring labor as machines are increasingly used to increase capital. As mechanization proceeds, unemployment increases and a labor reserve army is created. Under capitalism, economic development does not proceed smoothly. There are sudden bursts of expansion and even old declining industries bloom during economic booms. Peet says “ In such a situation the economy needs a quick transfusion of labor; a labor reserve is necessary, to be pulled into the labor force when needed, and discharged just as rapidly when demand slackens or mechanization proceeds” (567). In other words, the labor reserve prevents surplus value from being diverted from capital accumulation to labor; thus, serving its role under capitalism. The Marxist argument, therefore, is that “inequality is not a ‘temporary aberation’ nor poverty a ‘surprising paradox’ in advanced capitalist societies: instead inequality and poverty are vital to the normal operation of

The point of occupy movements are to get back from the one percent and give to the ninety-nine percent who are not rich in the world and those who do not make the laws and decisions of a nation. Occupy Wall Street is a people-powered movement that began September 17, 2011 and has gained actions in over 1,500 countries worldwide.The author says that “[They] call occupy wall street a constructive failure because in failure it revealed the limitations contemporary activism... [though] it did achieve some things and did have some positive outcomes”(“Occupy black lives matter”). Occupy Wall Street aims to fight back against the corrosive power of major banks and multinational corporations over the democratic process. The role of Wall Street is

As the bourgeois advanced financially, they also gained political influence. They progressed from a once oppressed class to an independent urban republic. As their political influence increased, certain changes became clear. The bourgeois had “torn away from the family its sentimental veil, and has reduced the family relation to a mere money relation (Marx).” This force eventually grew to the point that it was able to force other nations to conform to its values and methods or suffer extinction. As the bourgeois became richer, the proletarians began to suffer more. The balance of property began to shift even more rapidly than before leaving property “concentrated…in a few hands (Marx).” Eventually, the super-efficient production of the manufacturing economy began to take its toll on the bourgeois as well as the proletarians. More goods were produced due to the cheaper costs and ease of manufacture leading to an over-production of goods (Marxism). Over-production became a serious problem, resulting with widespread unemployment of the proletarians, and threats of a revolution on the horizons.

In capitalism, the commodity holds the utmost importance, for it is the organic unit of every capitalist society: one simply does not exist without the other. Yet, the commodity also proves to be the greatest enemy of the individual, particularly to the worker. The reason for this lies behind the commodity's deceiving property: the exchange-value. The exchange-value traps the worker in an unbreakable cycle of capitalism that tortures the worker with constant self-devaluation and gradual dissociation from the essence of being human, as Karl Marx describes from his early works, such as “Estranged Labour,” to his magnus opum, Capital. In order to break the cycle, the worker must scrutinize and eventually estrange himself from the exchange-value.

Capitalism as a concept has mainly gained traction in modern, industrial societies due to its nature of being able to remain stable in times of economic instability- whether because of lack of resources, tension between two trade competitors, or otherwise- and therefore remain a dominant economic force (Global Capitalism: Imperialism, Corporate Repression, Autonomism and Direct Action, 2010). As a dominant force, other varying economic structures have mainly given way to the rise of capitalist trade-focused economies (Global Capitalism: Imperialism, Corporate Repression, Autonomism and Direct Action, 2010). Accumulating capital, the main goal of capitalist production and consumption, requires an output of productivity and efficiency from those who produce the means of acquiring capital; this often ends up creating an image in which those who acquire the most capital rely on workers to produce goods in order to profit (Global Capitalism: Imperialism, Corporate Repression, Autonomism and Direct Action, 2010). To meet this demand, capitalists rely on a reserve army of workers, the surplus of workers that overpowers the demand for workers (Akitu, 2002). Often, despite the working class present in nations accounting for an overwhelming percentage of national population statistics, those in power demand productivity through repression of personal freedoms by working within

The increase in industrialization opens up the job market of labor which induces an increase in workforce. Through the fact that “Tokyo is bigger than Kumamoro,” industrialization is taking over rapidly (16). Coming from a traditional Japan, Sanshiro cannot keep up with the fast pace of industrialization. Industries increase the use of machinery which creates the demand of products at a higher pace. This creates conflict between the proletariats because more people are losing jobs. This leads people joining forces to create union groups to express their anger. “Some walked along looking at the sky, others at the ground. All wore shabby clothing. All lived in poverty. And all were serene” (62). The working classes who lose their job due to the increase of machinery are angered by these rich owners. Although Marx predicts that the workers do not have appropriating properties and that they will destroy the properties of bourgeois, this won’t happen is because they are destroying their assets.