In her essay “Reflections on the Communist Manifesto”, political activist Lindsey German asserts that “The Communist Manifesto was invaluable in providing a unique introduction to Marxist politics and to the theory of revolution. It remains one of the great political texts which still inspires new generations of socialists and it can still serve as a guide to action.” In these words, German recognizes that, because of its connections with the development of communism, Marxist thought has long been seen with considerable suspicion in the modern world. Yet no matter what one thinks about communism or socialism as political doctrines, the undeniable fact is that Marxist ideas have had a MAJOR impact on the development of the modern world. Therefore, it is important to take a careful look at the subtleties and realities of central Marxist thought in order to fully appreciate its doctrines (for good or ill). In that spirit, for this Blog I want you to pick a major power-related theme or social concept that Marx and his fellows bring to the page in their wide-ranging analysis, whether it be an issue related to education, politics, banking, agriculture, militarism, labor, and so on. Your post should be two in-depth paragraphs long, and your task is to try and explain what, exactly, the forefathers of Marxism have to say about your chosen issue. To do so, you must directly engage with the actual words and ideas of Marx, Engels, and/or Weber. What is their view of your chosen issue, and what is their rationale for that view? Finally, I’d like you to connect today’s assignment with the politics of the modern world by offering a contemporary example or application of this premise. In other words, how might this “Marxist” notion bring rise to understanding and exploring a modern-day problem or challenge? And what do YOU think about the matter? I will be very curious to hear your thoughts in this Blog response!
The Art(s) of Ideology
A professor run, student driven community
The issue that I have chosen to discuss is an individual trying to properly educate themselves when the proper resources to do so are not always within their grasp. It is different for someone who has been afforded several opportunities in their life simply because of the money that has been inherited by them through generations of wealth. In the German ideology, Marx strongly disagrees with the work of Feuerbach who was another writer during Marx’s time period. Feuerbach strongly believed that man create their own images with the help of religion and faith. Marx strongly disagreed with that statement because he believed the conditions in which an individual has been given throughout their daily lives affect their future.
This can be related to politics today with the election. Today it would be very hard for an average individual such as myself to become the president without some form of political background. Although our next president does not have a strong political background, he has com from prominent family that has afforded him several opportunities to better himself and his children. Some people are simply lucky with the amount of opportunities given to them simply because of the wealth inherited by their parents. I believe it is not fair because it should not matter who you are or how wealthy, and prominent your family is, it should only matter on the loyalty and hard work you put into a career that should determine your success.
The political idea of Marxism is that for it to come into power the people need to be conditioned to the idea. That the elite must come up with the idea but the people of the nation must accept the idea for it to take root in society. Such that if the conditioning of the people is not up to par the people will reject the idea or ideas that are trying to be put into place by the higher class. As stated in Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels from The German Ideology (1846) “the class which is the ruling material force of society is at the same time its ruling intellectual force.” Simply shows that the people in the elite, maybe in the highest seat of power, but they don’t hold all the power. That the power is in the hands of the commoner even if it doesn’t seem like it is. This idea goes for every system of power even though Marxism has perfected this way of thinking and applying such practices. This further solidifies the fact that the governmental powers realize that if the people under their rule all realize that they have the most power the governments will most likely be in huge trouble with over throwing government not working for the people in a way they want it. Which this concept is seen in everyday life and everywhere you go no matter where you go for a department store to the government itself.
Using this idea to explain issues of the modern day is not as difficult as it might seem. One of the best examples that can be used is the presidential election of 2016. It shows the opposite of what the common people wanted compared to what the elite wanted the people to think. Which was seen in subliminal ways throughout the years leading up to the election itself. Much of the big media outlets focused on the short coming and vulgar past words of President elect Trump, trying the skew the peoples out look of Trump as a negative one when the people disagreed with this idea and conditioning. Even Barack Obama said in an interview that Donald Trump will not win the election. Now there was a lot of people who fell into the category of accepting what the elite had to say and want us to think and this way of working goes to both side of the parties not just one or the other. Hence giving the people under a governmental rule have more power than the government itself in most cases. Which this idea to me is common sense and I see everywhere I go. This is due to the fact of my family is very politically oriented and this type of discussion is a very common one in my house hold.
The Marxist idea of labour is something a normal citizen today would agree with. Back then in Karl Marx’s time, the division of labour was an environment filled with horrible conditions and long working hours. According to Marx’s explanation of The German Ideology, the labour in which a human being works is linked to the well-being of themselves. Marx also notes on how the labour a human goes through is also a way of survival, and can be considered an identity of themselves. Marx also seems to criticise the idea of capitalism, and believes that capitalism estranges the worker from the work and the identity in themselves. Marx’s view on capitalism does not surprise me due to the fact that he was a well-known socialist in the 1800’s.
The Marxist idea of labour can be linked to our capitalistic society. Many workers nowadays work jobs that do not fulfill their happiness, and only work to have a paycheck. Marx’s words on how capitalism could cause problems with our self-identity is a very accurate description to our society today. According to Forbes (2013), only 13% of Americans are happy with their jobs. The people whom work the jobs they are unhappy with seem to disengage with their work, only putting little-to-no effort on anything, which Marx feared would come true. In my opinion, Marx “hit the mark” on the issue because when our society forces many to pick a job they have no true passion in because of money, it causes many unhappy citizens in the world, and I fear that one day I will go through the same issue.
The issue I have chosen to discuss the political idea of Marxism is that for it to come into power the people need to be conditioned to the idea. That the elite must come up with the idea but the people of the nation must accept the idea for it to take root in society. Saying that even though we think the higher up people so called or government rule and decide all ideas in this world we are wrong and do not know it. Anyone can have an idea and bring it to the table; it is just the one who speaks up and stands up to the idea of it. As Marx said in the Preface A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, “It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness.” (1859). Saying the higher up man is only determined by what their brain determines them as. The government does give ideas for the system, but if the commoner below realized that they could overthrow the government, the government would be in big trouble.
This is related to today’s political issues with now President Donald Trump. Everyone who voted for Hillary Clinton was obviously very upset that Donald Trump won, but if only they knew Donald Trump as president does not have that big of an impact we think he does. Yes, the president comes up with new laws and ideas, but he must go through many steps to create that law or change in the system. He cannot just click a button on the computer and change it. Although the people had their part in voting and choosing him as our president, we cannot all just give up and say we are done because we are not. We could become the higher power with our brain if we think we can.
The idea of Karl Marx that I have chosen to analyze is his standpoint on where viewpoints for a certain age come from. To quote him, “The ruling ideas of each age have ever been the ideas of its ruling class.” Marx states this in an intriguing way, and it seems as if his point is trying to say that each generation of rulings have been catered to the ruling class (which is mostly the wealthy). This quote has been pulled from his Communist Manifesto, and it brings up some interesting ideas for everyone. Through communism, leaders seem to thrive on the ideas of the people that are worth the most and contain just about as much power as the actual ruler. Marx is stating that the ideas of the rulers have always been those of the wealthy, higher up people.
Since the U.S. is a democracy, there is not much in the political sense that this quote is relatable to in this nation. However, it is very apparent that those with money in this country often times have ways of becoming involved with politics i.e. endorsing who they want to win the presidential election. If a presidential candidate receives a substantial amount of money from a certain endorser, they are very likely going to listen to what this endorser has to say and incorporate it into their campaign. This surely exploits some flaws in the presidential election process, but it is how this world is run today. Personally, I do have to agree with Marx simply because when there is money involved, and power tied into money, there is always going to be shifty rulers and constantly shifting ideas and standpoints.
The power-related theme from Marx that I have chosen is education. Karl Marx and Frederick Engels’ state, “The class which has the means of material production at its disposal, consequently also controls the means of mental production.” Marx and Engel are basically saying that the rich or elite who are wealthy enough to have material production whenever needed also have the most mental production. The ideas of the elite or wealthy are much more prominent then anything that would come from someone who is poor and uneducated. Also, Marx and Engel’s talk about how history is interpreted. That the known thinkers regulate what is told and who is told the history. Marx and Engel also talk about independent ideas. They use the example of during aristocracy the concepts of honor and loyalty were big.
I would relate Marx and Engels’ ideas of education to today. Marx and Engel believed that only the elite only had access to education and were the ones who would decide what of history would be said and to who history would be taught to. To relate these ideas to modern day I believe the government would be the elite and they are the only ones who get the higher education or information that not everyone like the average middle class can know. The government knows everything from military, new laws, and much more that the average person does not know. Also, the government has the power to not let average American’s know what is happening in certain topics like war. I believe Marx and Engel’s views on education do go along with today’s government as they are the elite and control what American’s know. I think it is good and bad for American’s as it is not fair for the government to have all of this information and keep it from us yet it is necessary that American’s do not know everything that is going on in the government.
The topic I am addressing is his ideas on how the social being of men influence their conciousness rather than it being the other way around. Marx claims that “the material productive forces of society come in conflict with the existing relations of production” therefore causing these productive forces to be restraining and will be the eventual cause of a social revolution. He goes on to explain how the “ideological forms in which men become conscious of this conflict and fight it out” and we as people can’t “judge of such a period of transformation by its own consciousness; [because it] must be explained from the contradictions of material life, from the existing conflict, and [from] the relations of production”. Mankind only sets tasks for itself knowing that it can be solved because the task is an effect of the already existing material conditions or the beginning of a formation of these conditions, which leads to the solution of the said task. Social formation is a combination of the social processes of production as well as the materialistic conditions.
I agree with Marx’s views on this because, in a way, the social situations around us are what causes us how to feel– whether it be out of a guilty conscious or not. The way we act on them though is a different matter. There are a lot of influences in our lives that we see every day: social, economic, political, etc. Taking the election, for example, there were a lot of things that influenced the peoples’ feelings. We learned in class, however, that most of these sources are biased based on what they agreed and disagreed with. We as voters have to think critically based on our own views as well as do research in order to make the most rational choice, whether it be for the presidency or even if it’s just a local election. I also agree with the fact that we as humans set tasks for us that we are 100% sure they can have solutions for it. It’s not because we’re lazy or we aren’t willing to put forth the effort to solve a problem that may take us longer to solve; we pick the easiest tasks to solve first so we feel a sense of accomplishment. Therefore, this causes us to build the confidence in order to solve the most complex problems we pick up.
I have chosen to focus on the concepts of ruling and universality, as discussed in The German Ideology. Marx and Engels state that “For each new class which puts itself in the place of one ruling before it is compelled, merely in order to carry through its aim, to present its interest as the common interest of all the members of society, that is expressed in ideal form: it has to give its ideas in the form of universality…” Marx and Engels are essentially stating that, the more a class expands, the more abstract its ideas will become. With the emergence of new a new class, comes the emergence of new ideas that must speak to the common people and represent these people in a broad, general basis. Marx and Engels go on to state that, with a new class also comes new opportunity for some individuals of lower working classes to move up to higher classes. In this context, “universality” represents the self-interests and needs of the society.
This can be compared to the 2016 presidential election, in terms of what Marx and Engels are describing as a “change” in society and the ideas associated with this change. Generally, with each new president, comes new ideas and new concepts, although not entirely universal (in this case, universal meaning that not everyone agrees with them, or that they do not apply to the best interest of certain people. Eg. how the existence of food stamps would not positively affect people of a wealthy class, as they would not have a need for them). Although not everything a president advocates can be agreed upon, the president is there to represent a larger scale of people (Americans), which is comparable to the new class described in The German Ideology, which represents all of the members of society. Some have stated that the 2016 election results will bring upon a breaking point for politics today, as new ideas may be created under the presidency of Donald Trump, potentially causing the emergence of new political parties and ideas. Overall, I agree with Marx and Engels on how they present the outcomes of a new class as a sort of revolution, bringing new opportunities to those of other classes. It would only make sense that a new class and society is able to represent the population in a way that will apply to and benefit everyone.
I chose to analyze working the individual according to Karl Marx. Marx lived in a time where there were no labor laws, 15 hour workdays for virtually no money was a common occurrence during the Industrial Age. Marx questioned the effects of these kinds of workdays on the human psyche. Marx believes “life involves before everything else eating and drinking, a habitation, clothing, and many other things.” The workdays and wages of Marx’s time allowed for little to none of these standards of living. Reacting to this, Marx recognizes the lack of basic necessities damages the psyche of a person. This then trickles down into the individual’s future family unit. These horrid work conditions serve no purpose to the individual; therefore there is no reason for this kind of work in a communist society.
Today is something of an enigma; socialism is highly misunderstood in the United States. A lot of people complain about socialism and its practices – yet fail to recognize things like social security, public education, and other government programs are taken from a socialist’s page. Of course there are people who abuse the system, but it’s because socialism is as invested in as capitalism. While today people have livable work conditions the drudgery of work continues. Too many people are left unsatisfied with their jobs and most of the times only work it for money for their family. This kind of labor yields unhappiness and creates frustration and sadness in a person who then has to go home and raise a child and pay bills. The child then picks up on the slight frustrations that the father makes seem normal because it’s normal to him. With this in mind, the cycle continues in the family lineage because it will be made normal to someone by someone who was shown it was normal.
In “Karl Marx and Frederick Engels from The German Ideology” the opening discusses how the upper class perpetuates the ideas and behaviors of the lower, middle, and upper class. Since the “ruling” class is perceived as the socially superior, the population behaves according to the actions of the superior. They also go into detail how the upper class can be divided into those who just manifest the ideas that people have of the upper class and those who actually perform the actions that create a real standard for the upper class. It is said that this system will most likely prevail because society will always be set up in such a way that there will be a need for a ruling class. In short, it is said in this reading that the ruling class does have power over the minds of the upper class down to the lower class because of the standard of living they hold that influences the populous to behave and strive for their standard.
This idea strongly correlates to how today’s upper class, whether it is celebrities or the owners of large businesses and corporations, controls the populations behaviors and ideals. For example, Rupert Murdoch, owner of News Corporation and 21st Century Fox, was able to control much of the worlds media for years. By controlling these media outlets, he was able to plant specific subjects and ideas into people’s heads forcing them to think a certain way about whatever it is that appeared on the news or any other media outlet that day. Another form of the upper class are celebrities, which in today’s society hold high value to the public. It is very common to see everyday people mimicking or striving to be like someone in the spotlight whether it is the way they dress, talk, or just the way they behave. Another example of this is the Colin Kaepernick story. He kneels during the national anthem protesting the oppression of African Americans, in hope to raise awareness for this issue. Shortly after many people followed this and started speaking out about the same issue. It is these people that show us how members of the ruling class
The topic I am discussing in regards to the Marxist ideas is the concept of the economy. It is the idea that allows for society to be well off and be in a place that will benefit the whole as a unit. It is the one aspect that directly effects all other systems that play a role in everyday life, touching base with social relations, morals, legal matters and the way individuals experience life. Marx believed that this formed a term called Base and Superstructure that influenced the social organization of society. Base and Superstructure is defined as the base being the employer and employee where the superstructure is everything acting upon this relationship. The ideas behind the concept of the way Marx thought stemmed from influences of Smith and Ricardo, two British political economists. A main point that is described in the idea of an economy in Marx’s eyes is that the specialization of labor paired with a growing population will in turn bring wage down and create a defect in the true value of labor costs. This sparked his belief in how items should be valued, he suggested goods and services should be priced by the amount of labor hours were placed into it rather than one set cost.
Throughout today’s society the issue Marx explained is very much present. An issue that shows this would be the concept of workers wanting to raise the minimum wage amount to 15 dollars per hour compared to the current rate of about 9 dollars an hour. If this event were to occur, it would be placing everyone on a set scale for occupations regardless of the fact some are specialized versus not. By raising the wage minimum it will also result in raising the cost of living. If this were to happen it would make prices for items rise and like Marx described, would distort the true value of an item. After reading the ideas set forth by Marx on this issue, I do agree with what he had to say. If the society wants to create a system that is all connected and places everyone on a set scale it will ultimately effect the way money and the costs of goods and services will be viewed in a negative way.
The social concept that I have chosen to discuss is the issue of education. Marx’s stance on the ruling class is that they have the ability to establish working classes with an idea1 thought. A Marxist, Louis Althusser, suggests the primary role of education in a capitalist society is the renewal of a loyal workforce. The institution should spread the ideology that capitalism is fair and logical. School teachers are for students to help them complete schooling. Each student should strive to do better than their peers. Once one tries to use their education to enter the workforce, future workers must be ready to conform to higher powers. For example, if your boss orders you to do something, then you must complete the task given to you. According to Althusser, schools and the workplace compensate promptness, submission and hold one’s independence, critical awareness. In a Marxist society, the greater a person’s class, the more suitable they are to attain a high paying job instead of the most hard working person receiving the best position.
The concept previously discussed is present in the education and workforce now. In many cases in the world today, there is constantly someone giving you orders whether it is your boss, teacher, or parents. Students are not told why they must follow a particular order, but they comply with society. When a person selects their major in college, they are introduced to a new generation of schooling forcing them to be disciplined to accept their role in society. I think that the matter is an important topic that should be brought to the public. Students and workers have little control over their work and are rewarded for following the rules instead of branching out, creating new ideas and expressing their independence from society.
Karl marx had many controversial views on different aspects of society but the one I chose was labor. Marx believed that a product’s value is measured by how much labor it took over increments of time. The more time it took to create said product directly correlates with the value, time equals money. This is why he disliked the idea of capitalistic production because of the inevitable exploitation of the working class. The working class will never be getting the full value of their labor because the means of production are controlled privately.
Many people have different opinions on the practicality of some Marx’s views and this one is no exception. There are a few holes to his theory which is why the labor theory of value is considered unorthodox. His theory assumes that companies actually directly link price to value which is simply not the case. They place prices of products regardless of time of labour or value of materials used to make said product.
One of the main power-related issues that Karl Marx touches on is labor divisions. In Marx’s The German Ideology, he elaborates in the process of consciousness and that it is formed by material conditions that the individual engages with, not the other way around. Therefore, people are distinguished from animals since they coincide with the means of production and rationally organize this production, which only can be achieved through labor. This will bring out consciousness and Marx states that only individuals are the sole creator of the world, meaning that individuals form their own perceptions of the world through their actions. However, using labor as a means for production is not uniform throughout all individuals and results in divisions. These divisions can start off small as positions within a tribe to a larger scale like divisions within a nation. The division of labor is what Marx thought to be the error or wrong-doing of humans that strays from the path of a unified society. Marx believed as long as humans did not face alienated production, labor can be unified. However, people will, and did, face alienated production, like private property. The labor used for alienated production create divisions. People began to appropriate products of other people for their own uses. Social classes and economic divisions arose from this division. Because economic classes were then formed, a State also has to play into existence in order for social control to be achieved. Here, Marx favored a communist society and believed that such a society would eradicate the division social and economic classes. Specialization within society would disappear and all men would become equal. Looking into our society of democracy, Marx and his followers as well as other social scientists with similar beliefs would not look at democracy as the best to eradicate this division. In fact, our society of democracy depends on States and social control and contains different classes of divisions like lower-paid workers and business CEOs.
In today’s world, social classes and the use of private property are in a scale never seen before. Individuals are allowed to obtain private property and obtain an educations, which results in arising professions. However, an issue is the existence of social and economical class divisions. Those with low social and economic standards can be looked down on. Divisions of these classes can also establish a system of “the have’s and the have-not’s,” as mentioned previously in class. This is why homelessness exists because it is based upon a system where an efficient social/economic standard of living of an individual would require a good paying job and a good social standard (e.g. good reputation throughout the community). However, this system is flawed and it’s the fact that not everyone can meet this standard makes it flawed. Marx mentions the scarcity of resources and because of this limitation, there will always be someone out there that does not meet equality. Resources are always going to be finite. I agree that this is an issue. However, I also agree that resources are indeed finite and not everyone is going to meet a sufficient living standard. However, I also do believe that the rest of us living in “luxury” can help. It depends on everyone whether we want equality or not. The decision is up to us.
The Marxist theme I will be focusing on is that of the labor of those who weren’t a part of the Bourgeois upper class. Marx believes in the Labor Theory of Value, which I believe can still be applied to modern economics, as well as power.
The theory suggests that the more people who labored over the design and make of a product thus makes that product worth more than that of a product which had less people slaving over its make. This can be applied to modern economics because of the factory workers of the Industrial Revolutions in both Europe and America. The material goods produced in factories where children were subjected to awful conditions and work hours sold for less than handmade goods because the factory-made items could be mass-produced for cheap labor.
This can still be applied to labor conditions today because there are factories in other countries, some of which are used by the us, that use those natives for “slave labor” the way that children were used during the western Industrial Revolution. These methods of cheap labor are used because the few powerful at the top want to make money at the expense of the workers because, in those types of factories that aren’t on US land, there aren’t unions.
I believe that the Big Businesses that control America would be considered the Bourgeois that Marx discusses in his perspective. The lower/middle classes would be considered the workers that the Big Businesses step on for their own gain. While the government should be able to stop those commercial giants from trampling the people, they don’t because the businesses have more of a economic control over the people, and even some parts of the government than the actual government does.
Marx’s view on labor comes from his belief that the value of something comes from the amount of labor used to create it. Form this he derives that the value of a person is comes from their effort. Marx believed that the upper class was basically enslaving the lower class for their benefit. The lower class was working ridiculous hours in factories and other labor-intensive jobs just do they could get by. Marx thought this was wrong that the rich were profiting of the work of the poor. This is what he called the division of labor. Man was pitted up against another man to see who would come out on top. Marx believed this class warfare could be solved through communism. Man wouldn’t be at completion with his fellow man instead they would be working together to improve society.
I feel that Marx’s ideas still hold water today. In today’s society everybody wants to be rich, they will do whatever it takes. Because of the dominant American ideology people believe that as long as they work hard they can do anything. This is somewhat true but people put in so much work and waste away their life for monetary gain. In recent years there has been a increase in the average hours worked for Americans but pay has not gone up. I think this shows that people are so obsessed with getting rich they are blind to the reality. As for Marx’s argument that there will be a revolution and our capitalistic society will become a communist one I think it is possible. I don’t think it will happen anytime soon but we can already see a shift toward socialism.
In The German Ideology, written by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, two renowned German philosophers, the concept of class struggle is meticulously examined. Marx and Engels believed the ruling class to have complete dominance over material relations through expression of their own ruling ideas. They believed that those who controlled material production and distribution also possessed the means of mental production to its full extent in society. A hostile collision within the internal workings of the ruling class is determined by Marx and Engels, providing insight to the concept of division of labor and its relation to the class struggle. The ruling class is branched into two distinct parts, explained by Marx and Engels in the statement, “…one part appears as the thinkers of the class… while the others’ attitude to these ideas and illusions is more passive and receptive, because they are in reality the active members of this class and have less time to make up illusions and ideas about themselves.” A division of the ruling class is depicted with one part consisting of thinkers who form ideas and perceptions of their class, and the other part consisting of active members who don’t engage in the construction of self-made illusions. Marx and Engels conclude that the inevitable clash between the two structures of the ruling class that arises can immediately decline once the non-ruling, inferior class poses a threat to the ruling class in its entirety.
Marx and Engels expertly depict an internal struggle within one ruling class, as opposed to the class struggle commonly discussed and associated between the dominant class and subordinate, non-ruling class. However, they do consider the endangerment that the ruling class experiences when confronted by the prevailing common interest of the inferior class. A modern day example of this class struggle between ruling ideas and general interest is demonstrated in the relationship between business owners and workers. With clear evidence of workers being denied a multitude of benefits and fair income, despite the tremendous work they contribute to the business, a vicious struggle between class becomes unavoidable and industrial actions such as strikes and go-slows occur for the purpose of pressuring the owners of businesses to adhere to interests of the non-ruling class. If successful in opposing the owners, or ruling class as Marx and Engels examined in The German Ideology, the whole of society will benefit in ways such as transitioning themselves and their ideas into a revolutionized ruling class. It is important to note that while positive changes can ensue from combating class struggle, the cyclical nature of socioeconomic warfare will become apparent, as well as its effect on individuals and groups who hold power and face the possibility of new conflict in correlation to reformed ideas that are connected to a newly developed ruling class.
The Marxist theme I have chosen is that of the labor of those who weren’t a part of the Bourgeois upper class and were not apart of the elites of society. People who were not elites in society were not treated fairly and thus had started the creation of equal rights. Marx had a belief in the Labor Theory of Value, which I still think can be used today in association with modern economics and power.The theory states that the more people who worked on the design and make of a product makes that product worth more than that of a product which had less people trying to make it the best it can be. This can be applied to modern economics and in the workplace today because of the factory workers of the time of the Industrial Revolutions in both Europe and America. The material goods created in those factories, mostly made by children, were subjected to awful conditions and work hours. The items they made however sold for less than handmade goods because the factory-made items could be mass-produced for cheap labor. Child labor was the easiest way to get items out to American and make a huge profit at the same time. The employers did not care about the working conditions or about their workers at all. All the employers cared about was the profit they were making and how much their company or business was growing because of that profit.
I do believe that that the big businesses today that control America and the flow of money and products would be classified under the Bourgeois elite class that Marx discusses and preaches about in his writings and lectures. The lower/middle classes would be considered the workers that the big businesses step on for their own gain. The government should put an end to this dilemma but they do not because of the power the big businesses own and how much money and profit they make for America. Because of this, this problem cannot be solved.
Karl Marx believed in a perfect human society like a Utopia. Marx believed in the existence of a society in the past, which in this world, men experienced no sense of alienation because there was no alienated production. He also feels that working with hardly any pay, which what the labor laws were like in the 19th century were, really damaged the man and made him feel almost enslaved. Under this system of alienated labor, Marx argued, man’s very life forces are stolen from him. The source of man’s immediate difficulty is, the division of labor.
In todays world it’s almost the same thing. People aren’t happy who work for one another, they “don’t get paid enough”, “they don’t enjoy it”. It’s odd because we get paid more than those who worked in earlier times, minimum wages are getting raised so many can provide for families easier, and more jobs are being created. So if were not slaves to the system and not happy what are we? Also the way we express our frustration can be seen and effect others around us leading for them to worry or get sad as well leading to a train of problems.