Reasons why Marx philosophy doesn't apply in today's
society.
Listening in class to Marx philosophy, a lot of his claims about
capitalism were very debatable. The first claim that society is broken up into
only two classes. Marx defines the first class, the bourgeoisie, as the people
who own the means of production and the second the proletariats, the workers.
Marx believes that all proletariats get the short end of the stick. They produce
the most and receive the least. Because there are only two classes, Marx
believes that the proletariats will get sick of being exploited, come together
and overthrow the bourgeoisie, capitalism will come to an end and socialism or
communism will take its place.
I believe this is false. If we dissected the working class
we would see that not everyone is miserable. A lot of working class people make
enough money to where they are content. For example, despite many CEOs, CFOs
and managers are not the bourgeoisie producing the means of production they
live happy, some even extravagant lives. They make well over the mean to be
comfortable. In Marx's claim, he believes that they are not receiving the
amount they put in. To be honest that might be true. A CEO of some major
company might be making a mere 150 thousand while his company is making in the
millions. There might be a thousand CEO that are in the same position. However,
because they are comfortable and do not need any more than they are receiving
there is no reason for them to come together and overthrow the bourgeoisie
because they are not making the millions that the company itself is making.
Do you think Capitalism is the last stage before America
goes to socialism or communism based on Marx's claims?
Yes it's already happening as it has in other western countries. A key part is understanding that although there are exceptions to the rule it doesn't mean the rule does not apply as after anyone can become a part of the bourgeoisie but can everyone really?
ReplyDeleteAs far as western countries concern, I strongly agree that capitalism is definitely here to stay. Even though we have discussed alienated labor in the workforce as proletarians, we can see slowly how machines are now replacing the "human" workers in today's society. If this cycle continues the upper class (owners) can decrease the probability of the workers going on strike/revolting against the owners, as well as, throw this theory of alienated workers. In conclusion, this pattern will only allow for the owners to continue to pull the strings behind the curtain to their bidding, leaving capitalism here to stay and unchanged for the better.
ReplyDelete*unchanged not for our benefit.
ReplyDeleteIn class we discussed how as long as competition is prevalent (in a sense that workers are easily replaceable), the "inevitable rebellion" will get put off because workers are too distracted in keeping job security instead of trying to achieve class consciousness.
ReplyDeleteLike you mentioned, a lot of CEOs are content with their "mere" salaries of $150k because that allows a comfortable lifestyle along with luxury. Others that make substantially less than that (who may not be content), don't really have a choice in the matter because they can be easily replaced (i.e fastfood worker, factory worker, etc). As far as communism goes, the two principle operations that were mentioned in class "From each according to his abilities, and to each according to his needs" seems a bit too impractical and idealistic. I don't think it's possible for it to work out because there would always be people that are selfish/greedy and want more than they actually need.. and there's really no way to regulate that.
I think, like you said, capitalism is here to stay, but improvements can definitely be made (better wages, cheaper education, etc).
I think this is absolutely right. There is no reason for capitalism to go away. There are poor people now, and rich people as well. However, there have always been poor and rich and there always will be. It's just the way the world works. The way capitalism works is that there will be winners and losers. Some people may think that communism would be a miracle cure for society, but in reality it probably wouldn't change the amount of poor people in the world.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with that. Not all of the working class is miserable, some if not most of them are probably fine with what they are making. Humans are however selfish and greedy by nature, so everyone will always want more than they already have so its not 100% that they are happy, but more that they are content with making how much they do. Some lower workers may be working a lot harder than others and not make as much and they may be miserable from this, but those workers don't make up the whole working class.
ReplyDeleteI understand why you would think that but I think that CEO's get enough money as it is for running a business. Compared to what many other hard working people who get a low income to only cover the bills and maybe food.
ReplyDelete