Sunday 6 January 2013

Marx thinks capitalists exploit workers under capitalism. What does he mean by this and what is his argument?



Karl Marx is a renowned scholar whose philosophy gave firm foundation to quite a number of 20th century communist states. Marx school of thought is grafted on the notion that society rise and fall is largely dependent on the gaging of human ability and power to produce. Marx asserts that communism will replace capitalism in the long run. In defending this observation, Marx identified class struggle as the main ignition of this radical shift.  Karl Marx radical analysis on the economics of Capitalism is largely aligned to a personal version of labor theory of value (Amable 96). In addition, Marx critiques includes the dissection of capitalism profits, here the scholar seeks to relate profits with surplus value resulting from worker exploitation.   This economic analysis of the capitalistic system brings Marx to a conclusion that the breakdown and subsequent replacement of capitalism is inevitable. This essay seeks to assess critically the Marxism thoughts relating the exploitation of workers under capitalism.
            Capitalism is a form of economic system that advocates for individual ownership of property and the production of commodities i.e. goods and services for private gains. This economic system is often guided by the forces of demand and supply. This implies that governments interventions are often very minimal or not in existence at all. Despite being a Leissez faire system, Marxists assert that governments play a very critical role in nurturing and preserving capitalism; a guess in point is when an economy is seeking to harness new markets.  Capitalism advocate for private ownership of the means of production. This implies that capitalist are at liberty to manipulate the means of production in their favor as long as they are able to maximize their profitability.
            According to Amable, capitalism is designed in a manner that worker wages and salaries are captured in their work contract (137). Capitalists often assert that wages are often aligned to the market demand and supply forces of labor. This propagated illusion implies that at any given time, workers dues are very well in line with the value of their efforts or services. However, more often, capitalists pay peanuts to workers in terms of wages; these dues fail to match their productivity value. The huge difference in wage and productivity often add to the capitalist profits. From the aforementioned, it is apparent that workers who operate in a capitalistic system are often exploited in their work by capitalists. In addition, it is clear that profit is the key motivator of the system. The worker under a capitalistic system operates like a slave. This implies that most of its efforts are not rewarded and more often than not end up as surplus value. Surplus value can be defines as the profit accrued by capitalists by paying workers less wages than the value of their productivity. Therefore, this type of capitalistic profit results from the unpaid wages of workers. The rewards of labor are often throttled by the rapid competition between capitalists. In most cases, these capitalistic competitions are aimed at cutting down wages to spur profits. This insane move often cripples the worker.
            Karl Marx advanced that labor value is the output of efforts fully utilized to produce a good or service. This theory of labor values capture all forms of labor, both direct and indirect that are utilized by workers to produce a given quantity of a commodity. On the other hand, the surplus-value theory asserts that profits accrued by capitalists are an additional surplus value that a worker creates but never benefits from it. In simplicity, a worker in a capitalistic system receives no wage or any other reward of the surplus value. From the above, it is clear that the capitalists additional profits result from value created by a worker, though he/she is never rewarded for it.  Furthermore, Karl Marx observed that market values of a capitalistic system revolve around the labor value of a produced good or service. This therefore drove him to identify two distinct values, Exchange-Value and Use-Value (Amable 207).
            The Use value of a commodity can be defined as a value responsible for the satisfaction of a need. For, example the value of a house is that it can provide shelter to a person. This value responsible for the satisfaction of a need or want results from labor or a natural effort. Marx borrowed the above definition of Use-value from economists, Smith and Locke definitions of value (Amable 209). The two economic scholars observed that labor is responsible in the creation of value. According to Locke, a value that is deep within nature is a very common resource as it is never the creation of a human being. However, any use-value that is not deep within nature is an outcome of labor; this makes it a property of the individual who worked hard to create it.
            On the other hand, Exchange-Value can be defined as the market value of a commodity; this value is often a creation of the system or society. In other words, Exchange value is that value accorded to a commodity in relation to other goods in the market. For example, two goats are worth a heifer or a watch is worth 20 United States dollars. However, during an exchange, parties often resolve use to exchange value (Mankiw 253).
            According to Karl Marx school of thought, social classes sprout from how persons/individuals relate to the means of production.  Marx never saw the ‘rich, poor’ classes, he judged individuals on how they relate with the output of their efforts (Mankiw 261). According to Marx, there are two classes of people namely, Proletariat and bourgeois. Bourgeois are persons who play the pillar role in capitalistic economies. They are the proprietors of production means and hire workers for profitability purposes. Proletariats on the other hand are individuals who own the labor power. These persons sell their labor efforts to bourgeois in order to make a living.
            The antics of bourgeois and their subsequent selfish interests bring about capitalistic exploitations. To fully understand how exploitation happens in a capitalistic system, it is paramount to view an economy in a wider perspective, not only in matters of product buying and selling. The market place often brings together bourgeois and proletariat. Here, each one of these classes try to outdo the other to get the best value of a commodity. Bourgeois often look to sell their products at the highest possible market price to harness high profits. On the other hand, proletariat seeks to realize a good price for his labor efforts. Therefore, the above makes it hard to realize how exploitation thrives in a capitalistic state. However, the analysis of Karl Marx dissects capital-labor relationships in a sober manner. Karl Marx analysis relies mostly on the value terms of productivity. From the value terms parse, it is apparent that capitalists often race to maximize laborer value, in this case surplus value from earlier points of labor use i.e. in the production stages. This therefore shows that the profits accrued by capitalists do not necessarily come from the sale of goods and services in the market. This shows that final market prices impacts to capitalists’ revenue are minimal. Surplus Value associated with machines is minimal compared to that of labor power. This implies that capitalists can easily exploit workers than they can do to machines. The efforts derived from laborer power is the lone input that enables an employer harness more from it than what he/she paid for (Mankiw 489).
            In conclusion, the amount of profits a capitalist makes is directly proportional to values under his/her control.  The huge values that capitalists control result from worker exploitation, where a worker is not paid a wage equal to the commodity generated or effort used.  In a free market, capitalists are unable to realize the same amount of profits as they do through worker exploitation. That is, they can’t simply increase their profit margins by high levels by banking on high market prices. That is the cardinal reason why Karl Marx asserted that capitalist profit source can be traced to the exploitation of a laborer. The scholar further asserts that the accumulated profits are responsible for the survival of a capitalistic system. This implies that failure to exploit workers will throttle the revenues of capitalists leading to system collapse or crisis.

Works Cited

Amable, Bruno.The Diversity of Modern Capitalism. London, UK :Oxford University Press, 2003.

Mankiw, Gregory.  Principles of Economics. Stamford, UK: Cengage Learning, 2011.

1 comment:

  1. Why workers are exploited under capitalism according to Karl Marx?

    ReplyDelete