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Karl Marx Future Of Work

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Throughout the class we have been introduced to several articles, which have clearly depicted work in America. Today I have picked four readings that spoked to me in a variety of different ways. The first two articles Karl Marx, “Alienated Labor” and Thomas Jefferson’s “On Manufactures” were two of the readings that I could really relate to in my own personal work life. The final 2 readings were the Frithjof Bergmann’s “The Future of Work” and Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of a Nation” Frithjof Bergmann opens up “The Future of Work with this quote. “At the moment we have no picture of a future - certainly we do not have an image of a more attractive, better,, maybe even nobler social order that we could aim for, for which it would make sense to …show more content…

If someone was around a group of negative people that said, a person would become as negative as that group. The same good go for a happily/bubbly group, if you are surrounded by someone like this you’re outlook on life would change. I do believe our social reactions are the key, to become the person we want to be. Marx also believes that conflicts between humans are the key to help human’s growth. To put this in perspective Marx simply states “Furthermore, conflicts are essential for human growth and development.” So, why is this relevant in my personal life? Human growth and development is what we need to survive if we didn’t have this we could evolve as humans. I personally believe that because of the people around me I have specifically become the person I am today because of them, because if I wasn’t surrounded by my family and friends who knows that kind of person I would’ve become. Another strong point that Marx makes in his essay is his view on the “Political Economy,” mainly Communism. He believes that laborers are losing their ability to believe in work and because of this the quality of what they makes is lost. In my own working environment I’ve been able to see exactly what Marx is talking

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Laborem Exercens, by John Paul II was a reading that went hand in hand with the Iron Mills. “Man’s life is built up every day from work, from work it derives its specific dignity, but at the same time work contains the unceasing measure of human toil and suffering, and also of the harm and injustice which penetrate deeply into social life.” (Ioannes Paulus PP. II) Here we see that man wants to work, they want to create something, they want to add value, to themselves, and the product or service they’re creating.

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Prior to the Industrial Revolution, the economy was dominated by skilled artisans who took great pride and identity in their work. After the rapid shift in production, those artisans were replaced by machines. Marx and Engels described the condition of the average worker, saying, “the work of the proletarians has lost all individual character, and, consequently, all charm for the workman” (16). In the Manifesto, workers are also described as slaves to several different entities. They are tied to their machines and work.

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Marx explains that society needs to be understood by studying real, existing human beings. We think about individuals historically to gain an understanding of reality. Physical survival is the key component; moreover, individuals need to survive to create history in which Marx studied to create explanations. Social production is a fundamental part of Marx’s theory of historical materialism. He asserts that individuals need to organize themselves and create some sort of order to survive.

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The premises presented by Karl Marx on his manuscript were genuinely with accord to the ordeal of the workers as they lose themselves in the hands of the capitalists. But, as we stated in the first part of this paper, we think there is a flaw in his second premise, the estrangement of the worker from the activity production. We believe that labor done by workers - explicitly those who take pleasure in doing their job- doesn’t necessarily imply that everything that they do is not out of their essential being primarily because they love what they do, and any work that is done out of passion and love comes from the essential being of a

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To Marx, labor dehumanizes and alienates workers by making them exist as workers first and physical beings seconds. In the piece “Estranged Labour” from his Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, he states that “labour produces not only commodities: it produces itself and the worker as a commodity–and this at the same rate at which it produces commodities in general” (Marx, 63). As the worker puts value into his commodity, his labor and thus he himself lose value. By doing so, the worker has put a part of himself into the commodity, and parting with said commodity means the object becomes alien to him; thus, a part of him has been taken away from him and he becomes, in a way, alienated from himself. In making his commodity, the worker

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Marx felt that the current system of economics, and in general the free market system although containing some benefits was at its core unfair. He felt that only the capitalists received true benefits and exploited the labors for their own personal agendas. The people who owned the means of production received all of the benefits and therefore had power of the labors. He felt that this would create a class struggle between the capitalists and labors which would eventually be the destruction of capitalism. This appealed to him, due to how he believed that capitalism would be the last mode of production (the economic system being the base of society) that driven by an upper class.

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Marx begins this chapter by pointing out the fact that there have always been complicated hierarchy’s in society even as far back as ancient Rome we could see the clear differences between classes. He claims that society is splitting up into two even more clear cut classes, with great hostility toward each other, he call these the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. He goes on to say that the discovery of America etc. lent a hand to the rise of the bourgeoisie in that there was a rapid increase in the means of exchange and trade. He says that the feudal system no longer sufficed for the wants of the ever growing market. (Engels, 1996)

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Marxism studied what effect capitalism has on productivity, labor, and economic development. He believed that taking the control of the economy away from the people, and giving it to the government would be the best way to stimulate economic growth. He felt that the gap between the capitalists and working class is too large, and the capitalists are taking advantage of the working class. He sympathized with their struggles, and desired to provide these workers with a voice against the upper-class capitalists who were repressing them. His pieces were written from the view of a worker, and this made the working class feel heard despite the fact that, rather ironically, Karl Marx remained unemployed for a good majority of his life.

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Throughout each phase, humans’ modes of production are shaped and impacted by the previous generation’s contributions. But despite this, Marx rejects the notion of a fixed human nature, arguing that “we do not set out from what men say, imagine, conceive… We set out from real, active men, and on the basis of their real life-process we demonstrate the development of the ideological reflexes and echoes of this life-process” If human nature echoes an individual’s life-process, we can determine that there is not a single human nature that could be applied to all human beings in different times. One generation’s human nature cannot be applied to another since human nature is constantly modified my presupposed factors.

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John Stuart Mill argued that individuality comes from thinking for oneself, but Marx offers the different and more compelling view that through the help of others, an individual is able to achieve self-fulfillment and self-realization. Mill writes that in developing stages of society, it’s possible that there could be too much individuality. He says that people become more valuable to themselves and also to be valuable to others when they develop their individuality. One of the main problems that he sees with society is that individual improvisation isn’t necessary for our well-being - however, the danger in that is the suppressing of our desires and impulses. Marx differs in this argument for the reason that he believed in the “uniqueness

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Karl Marx starts off by saying that the people are split up into two separate classes, capitalists and the laborers. He then begins talking about his, “Theory of Alienation.” The alienation is what occurs in the laborers because since they put their whole hearted work into producing an object they get hostile when they realize that they do not own this object, the capitalist does. So, everything that the laborer does and works for is taken from him and used for the greater good, one that the laborer is not apart of.

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When thinking of the positive effect of specialized labor, Marx suggested that it could bring solidarity to industrial workers (as citied in Sernau, 2012, p.46). Before labor division, it was probable that people worked individually with limited interactions with others in a similar trade. Now with specialized industrial work, workers have the opportunity to work in close proximity with others, thus creating bonds. Unfortunately, one of the downfalls of specialized labor is the possibility of generating deskilled workers. Marx believed that creating jobs that required little skills opened the opportunity to vulnerable and easily replaced workers (as citied in Sernau, 2012, p.46).

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Marx (1844) argued that humans are naturally sociable and that work emboldens meaning and satisfaction in life, but that capitalism

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On January 1859 Karl Marx claimed the impact and the importance of any political institution to any society: “In the social production of their existence, men inevitably enter into definite relations, which are independent of their will, namely relations of production appropriate to a given stage in the development of their material forces of production. The totality of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which arises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness. The mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political and intellectual life. It is not the consciousness of men that determines

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Class conflict, Marx believed, was what encouraged the evolution of society. To quote Marx himself, The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one

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