Notes on Capitalism: Marx on Capitalism and Alienation

Notes on Marx


Preliminaries:

Two different economic theories

-Capitalism: the means of production (raw materials, industries, etc.) are privately owned.

-Socialism: the means of production are owned by the workers/the collective public.

Karl Marx was a socialist. He realized that capitalism and socialism couldn’t co-exist. So, he argued against capitalism.

Marx divided the members of a capitalist society into two classes: the capital and the labor. ‘Capital’ were the wealthy business owners (i.e., those who owned the means of production), and ‘Labor’ referred to the working class.


The main ideas:

Summary: Capitalism is, by its very nature, dehumanizing and unnatural. For it alienates people in a variety of ways. First, it alienates the laborer from whatever they produce by the work of their hands. Second, it alienates them from the actual act of labor. Third, it alienates them their creative side, which is what separates them from other animals (since things like assembly line work prevent them from using their creativity in their work). Forth, it alienates them from other people (the conflict of purposes between the laborer and owner of capital (for example, the boss)).

Criticism of Locke: Didn’t account for all of the land being acquired.
-This has happened!
-But if so, then the only thing left for the laborer to “own” is their labor!


Alienation:

-From labor:
-Business owner (“capital”) controls how you work
-He controls when you work
-He controls the terms under which you work
-He controls the price/rate you receive for your work
-Your labor is turned against you: the harder you work, the more you produce (i.e., the total supply of the product increases). But in a free market capitalist economy, as the supply of a product goes up, the demand for that product goes down. And if so, then the price for the product goes down as well.

-From product of one’s labor: Owned by whoever owns the materials from which it was made

-From one’s species-kind (our humanness): The distinctively human part of people is their freedom and creativity in producing things. But (for example) assembly line work prevents the worker from expressing their freedom and creativity. Therefore, such work prevents the worker from expressing what makes them distinctively human. But if so, then they are reduced to an animal existence.

-From other people
-From other laborers: In a capitalist market, workers are in constant competition to get and keep a job.
-From the business owner: Your interests conflict with his.