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Lesson 6: Capitalism and Work

Social ProblemsRobert Wonser

Capitalism

Capitalism - the economic system that is based on the private for-profit operation of industry.

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Marx’s Analysis of Capitalism

Karl Marx believed that there were two main social classes in capitalist societies:

Capitalists (or bourgeoisie), who owned the means of production

Workers (or proletariat), who sold their labor for wages

He believed that the classes would remain divided and social inequality would grow.

Has social inequality grown?

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Capitalism and Karl Marx

Marx lived during the Industrial Revolution, when major societal changes were leading to the emergence of capitalism, the economic system that is based on the private for-profit operation of industry.

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Karl Marx

Marx believed that capitalism was creating class conflict and social inequality between the bourgeoisie, who owned the means of production (money, factories, natural resources, land), and the proletariat, who were the workers.

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Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat

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Men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly encountered from the past. The tradition of all the dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living.” (Marx, 1852/1963:15)

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Human Potential

Our human nature is a product of the time and place, the social relations and institutional context we find ourselves in. What effect in human nature does

capitalism impose?

Species being the potentials and powers that are uniquely human and that distinguish us from other species.

Manifests through labor.

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Labor

Our labor can create something that previously only existed in our imagination. Production reflects a purpose.

Process where we create external objects from our internal thoughts – objectification

Works with material nature to satisfy our material needs.

We transform nature through labor but it also transforms us.

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Alienation

There was inherent relation between labor and human nature that is perverted through capitalism. This perverted relation is called alienation.

Rather than being an end in itself—an expression of human capabilities—labor in capitalism is reduced to a means to an end—earning money.

Because of labor is not our own (paid by the capitalists and all) it no longer transforms us. Instead we are alienated from our labor, and therefore our true human nature.

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Alienation from:

1) Their productive activity

2) The product

3) Their fellow workers

4) Human potential

Inherent contradiction found in capitalism: between human nature and what capitalism requires of us.

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The Structures of Capitalist Society

Capitalism creates alienation

An economic system where workers work for owners of capital and the profits are privatized.

More than just an economic system but also a system of power. Political power has been transformed into economic relations.

Under capitalism the economy appears to be a natural force.

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The Demeaning of Work

A job

A career

A calling

Why does each type exist and why can’t they all be callings?

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The Wal-Mart Approach