1. Marx explains the basis of profit as coming from not paying the extracting surplus value from the exploitation of labor. Profit is pocketed by the capitalist by the laborer working harder than necessary. Marx explains the capitalist as selling, “not only what has cost him an equivalent, but he sells also what has cost him nothing, although it has cost his workman labour.” Profits are sold, according to Marx, at their real value, not above or below, meaning to gain profit, the capitalist sells the labor that was originally bestowed upon the workman, and also the extra work the workman was unpaid for. Marx did not predict modern changes, such as the middle class and trade laws and reforms to stabilize capitalism. Neoclassical economists view …show more content…
Weber suggested that inequality comes from active and passive mechanisms of oppression. Active mechanisms of oppression are when inequality is established and maintained through actions of groups and individuals to benefit themselves and their interests, such as discrimination, exclusion, and laws. Passive mechanisms are the processes of socialization that maintain the inequality through what is accepted in society through system maintenance. Passive mechanisms include groups and individuals seeing inequality as normal, and there being no need to change anything. Inequality is always tied to these mechanisms so as long as they are implemented in society, inequality is unavoidable.
3. One can argue the bourgeoisie as a revolutionary class in more than one sense in Marx’s theory of classes because of their constant innovation and competition which lead to changes in society, and the bourgeoisie “cannot exist without constantly revolutionising the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of production, and with them the whole relations of society.” The bourgeoisie, according to Marx, “creates a world after its own image,” with their modes of production and increased
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The World Systems Theory argues for a distinct vision of class exploitation that is established in a global perspective. This theory focuses on the flow of profits, capital, and goods between nations of different status. Core nations, such as the United States and England, have an outflow of capital and an inflow of goods and profits. Semi-peripheral nations, like Mexico and India, have an inflow and an outflow of goods, capital, and profit. Peripheral nations, such as Cambodia and Vietnam, have an inflow of capital and outflow of goods and profit. The exploitation goes beyond classes, with the lower class benefiting from the exploitation of labor in semi peripheral and peripheral nations.
8. Weber’s analysis of class contributed to the effort to disaggregate class because although Weber maintains the focus of an aggregate class, he argues that class interests are differentiated by ownership, skills, and education, therefore workers are not a large group of exploited people with shared circumstances. Their skills and education determine their different positions and advantages, as class is not solely determined by market