The Paradox of Capitalism

Marx thought of capitalism in a pessimistic way, he saw the relationship between the employee and employer in a capitalistic society as toxic. To Marx, in a capitalistic society the employee would always be at a constant struggle for power be never endlessly repressed by the bourgeoisie. The employer would pay employees only what they needed to survive making it impossible to move up in class or society. He also recognized that in capitalism everything becomes corporatized. Things like marriage go from a sacred bond between two individuals that once never included money or the government, to something that is regulated by the national government and must be done through the federal court and include ties between the individual's financial status. Small businesses would also become corporatized, a local family doctor has now become part of a larger practice that brings in complex forms of payment such as insurance instead of simply paying a small family doctor directly. He also goes into the downfall of capitalism. The way capitalism works is through a series of economic highs and lows, each high is marked by prosperous times, high employment rate, and overall happiness. But the lows are marked by deterioration of the national economy, low employment rates, and struggle for all classes. To Marx’s these highs and lows are what's killing capitalism with each low being worse than the last until the people revolt and create a new form of government. The next would be socialism and once this fell like capitalism, the new governing system would be communism. Communism is an ideal system where people are never struggling for money and are paid based on their needs rather than their particular job. Through this system a

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

“to a mere money relation,” (Marx and Engels [1848] 2013:35]. Marx, saw the tear down of the old as the only way for the bourgeoisie to survive. Periodically, a crisis occurred where productive forces threatened their conditions and bourgeoisie would have to bring in new productive forces and destroy the old. Marx believed that these changes to technology and productive capacity were the main influence on how society and the economy were organized. The bourgeoisie had to push for the modern world to quickly and continually develop to protect capitalists’ monopolies. However, constant development caused continual disturbances of social conditions by breaking down stable aspects of human life. Capitalist used their power to push the world to advance so that they could prosper with no concerns to the possible effects on the economy, which would have been most detrimental to the proletariat. For Marx, this showed that capitalists’ self-interest pushed economic progress, which led to societal progress but also risked crisis. Capitalism not only affected society through the creation and separation of social classes but also in influencing societal progress and social relations.

Under capitalism, if you purchase a business and pay people to work there, you are entitled to all of the profits earned. Marx views this as an immoral and an unsustainable socio-political model.

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

For example, it shapes the nature of religion, law, education, the state and so on. According to Marx, capitalism sows the seeds of its own destruction. For example, by polarising the classes, bringing the proletariat together in ever-increasing numbers, and driving down their wages, capitalism creates the conditions under which the working class can develop a consciousness (or awareness) of its own economic and political interests in opposition to those of its exploiters. As a result, the proletariat moves from merely being a class-in-itself (whose members share the same economic position) to becoming a class-foritself, whose members are class conscious – aware of the need to overthrow capitalism. The means of production would then be put in the hands of the state and run in the interests of everyone, not just of the bourgeoisie. A new type of society – socialism developing into communism – would be created, which would be without exploitation, without classes and without class conflict. Marx’s work has been subjected to a number of criticisms. First, Marx’s predictions have not come true. Far from society becoming polarised and the working class becoming poorer, almost everyone in western societies enjoys a far higher standard of living than ever before. The collapse of so-called ‘communist’ regimes like the former Soviet Union, and growing private ownership and capitalist growth in China, cast some doubt on the viability of the practical implementation

Marx believed that machines were a sign of progress in society and he was not opposed to it. However, it has negatively influenced employees globally. According to Marx, these machines caused workers economic impoverishment as it impacted their wages.. The wage a worker received was influenced by the use value and exchange value of the workers labour. Marx claimed that the there is the labour commodity and the capitalist commodity. The workers exchanged their commodity, known as their labour power for the capitalist commodity, which is the money. The wages are the price of the labour that the workers put forth. Often times, they do not pay workers a quality price for what they earn or how much work they do. They are constantly looking for bargains and people who do not sell their work for much. Industry’s try their best to get inexpensive materials, enhanced machines, and cheaper wage workers in order for them to decrease the amount of money coming out of their pockets. Marx believed that due to the unavoidability of capitalism, business owners are basing their business activities solely on the attainment of profit. For that reason, workers will continue to be replaced with machines causing business owners to decrease their spending on a workers’ labor power, leading the unemployment rate to increase. Marx states that value of labour power decreases causing wages to decline.

Capitalism is seen as the American Dream with so many possibilities to become a success. Marx does not see capitalism this way. In fact, he sees it as the exact opposite. Rather than living a meaningful life, Marx thinks that because of capitalism that people live an alienated life. He thinks that we are dominated by impersonal powers and that people do not have control over their own life when capitalism is in the way. Marx says, “the positing of social activity, the consolidation of our product as a real power over us, growing out of our control.” Marx imagines society pre and post capitalism and sees it as a better place. He thinks that if we drastically reorganized our economic system, alienation could be abolished. One of Marx’s biggest claims is that because of work, people stress themselves

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.

Marx believed that capitalism was a temporary phase, however, it was unjust and abusive system. He describes the capitalist system as “an evil exploitation” (qtd, in Handout book 17). After the industrial revolution political, economic, and social changes drastically change. There were new opportunities, however, it only noticeable benefited one class. During the mid-nineteen centuries the bourgeoisie, those who own the means of production, were the only ones that acquire all the economical befits that industrial revolution brought under capitalism. The working class, the proletariats, were the ones who were ‘brutal exploited’ by the bourgeoisie according to Marx. Under the capitalism, the proletariat were hired with low wages and

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,

Capitalism started up as a system of investing and sharing money in order to increase the value of resources in the future. Capitalism was just an economic system, but then soon turned into a complex system of ethical practices. Harari defines capitalism as, “a set of teachings about how people should behave, educate their children and even think” (Harari 314). This economic system evolved along with the people that were endorsing it. Capitalism enables the rich to get richer, while the poor continue to get poorer. There are many benefits to capitalism, but there are downfalls as well, and these downfalls tend to be masked because of the rapid speed capitalists grow at. Harari first presents a definition for capitalism, and soon goes into great detail on why capitalism, while fast paced and unforgiving, is able to stand unwavered while other productions fail.

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

Capitalism is when the rich gets richer and the poor gets poorer. Capitalism has mercy on no one. Each individual lives in a society where the mass crowd complain about how the big business are buying the smaller ones but just doesn’t grasp the idea that all this is happening because of the consumers themselves. Within a system just as there is pros there are also cons, cons that are costly in the end. One of the biggest cons that capitalism promote is wealth inequality. Wealth can be inherited, so some people can be rich just due to luck of their ancestors. The others that are not so lucky has to work hard for their earnings. So this becomes a problem because not only does it promotes wealth inequality, it also promotes inequality of opportunity. Capitalist societies are failing to create both equality of outcomes and equality of opportunities. Example of this is the Great depression which lasted from 1929 to the beginning of World War II, profoundly shook the world’s confidence in the capitalist system. The crisis began with the crash of the New York stock market and resulted in widespread economic damage throughout the world, including bank failures, massive unemployment, and bankruptcies. According to the article Capitalism it states, “In addition, the suffering that resulted from the Great Depression highlighted the vulnerability of the labor force. In the United States, 25 percent of workers lost their jobs, and bank failures wiped out many people’s life savings.”