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Karl Marx On Minimum Wage

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On April 15th of this year, workers across the country mobilized and united to demand a 15$ minimum wage and a union to represent them. This was the national demand of the Fight for 15 campaign endorsed by SEIU (Service Employees International Union), one of the largest and more progressive labor unions in North America. About sixty thousand low wage workers, such as fast food workers and service employees, and supporters had taken matters into their own hands to fight for raising the federal minimum wage up to fifteen dollars an hour. Today, the demand for a fifteen dollar minimum wage has stirred up deliberation about one of the most pressing issues in America today- income inequality.
On January 20, 2015, President Barack Obama made the …show more content…

In this portion of the manuscript Marx describes labor as causing alienation from the human self. Species being is a term that defines the essential nature of a species, which in the case of humans is to be socially cooperative and creative producers. In Marx’s view, human beings are fundamentally creative and that we long to do more than just to survive. Creativity is not reduced to reproducing works of art, literature, or music but used in the broader sense of making things that use our imagination, judgment, and skills. Under the existing economic system that we have today, people in this country are working low wage jobs while prices of goods and services skyrocket. When wages are as low as $7.25, the work of a laborer become a means of survival; people “[produce] only under the dominion of immediate physical need” and take on the nature of animals instead of humans (Marx, Engels …show more content…

In popular narratives, it seems as though the fight for fifteen has scared Americans into thinking that raising the minimum wage would create job loss. The thing is that it just hasn’t happened. In major cities such Seattle, Los Angeles, and San Francisco this is proven not to be the case. In Seattle specifically, the Income Inequality Advisory Committee has been gathering data about increases of the minimum wage all across the country. It has been concluded that there is no evidence of job loss, but an increase in employment levels in some areas. Washington State has one of the highest employment level in this country and also has the highest minimum

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In the article, “Minimum Wage Hikes Hurt Low-Income Workers,” Jame Sherk debates how an increase in the minimum wage would impact workers and corporations. Sherk builds his argument by first explaining the recent history of an increasing minimum wage and how much it has risen. Following, he argues why it would hurt businesses and low-income workers. Lastly, after illustrating the consequences, he offers statistical evidence to support his claim and to prove to the reader why the hike would only hurt both businesses and low-income workers. Sherk’s use of evidence and explanation offers a strong argument and a clear stance.

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In the article A Capitalist’s Case for a $15 Minimum Wage, the author Nicolas Hanauer urges for a raise in the nation’s minimum wage. Hanauer is a founder of Second Avenue Partners, a company focused on startup and emerging technologies. He also plays a major role in the founding of a dozen big name companies. As an entrepreneur, Hanauer has thoroughly analyzed the benefits raising the minimum raise would have on citizens, and especially on businesses. In his central argument for this change is that it will repair the economic cycle.

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In the article “A $15-Hour Minimum Wage Could Harm America’s Poorest Workers”, Harry J. Holzer outlines the effects of a fifteen dollar federal minimum wage. He interprets statistical data from different credible analyses and thoroughly explains the meaning of each. The author also does a great job informing us the results from past federal minimum wage increases. He recognizes that jobs will inescapably be lost; therefore, many people will be unemployed. While some citizens believe that a $15 raise will help the economy, the author comprehends the negative consequences of any federal minimum wage increase on the economy.

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The level of job losses in the minimum-wage category is the critical issue of our day. It is much more difficult for someone with nothing to rise to higher levels on the economic scale. Inequality is feeding on itself. ”(Zuckerman) that leads to the next point.

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The 15 dollar minimum wage is a commonly debated topic in American politics and is quite controversial because of its unknown outcome if implemented. Many believe raising the minimum wage would cause more harm than good. Those opposing the $15 minimum wage must attempt to convince upper, middle, and lower class Americans through the use of commonplaces, inductive logic, and a deliberate argument that raising the minimum wage would cause massive job loss, increased dropout rates and encourage companies to outsource production. Making an efficient rhetorical strategy to convince the target audience against the $15 dollar minimum wage will take different strategies depending on which audience group is being addressed. Through past attempts, the

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Marx states that labor “not only produces commodities. It also produces itself and the worker as a commodity, and indeed in the same proportion as it produces

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In his capitalist system “the worker receives means of subsistence in exchange for [their] labor power,” which serves no purpose but “immediate consumption,” whereas the capitalist receives “a greater value” than they had previously (Marx 209). The worker, despite creating additional earnings for the capitalist, only receives their “means of sustenance,” or their bare minimum for survival. Because the worker has been alienated from their work and the system however, they normalize this exchange, and are content with receiving a mere fraction of what they produce, unaware of their exploitation. Alienation provides the framework for both Douglass’ and Marx’s economic systems to function, as it allows the ruling class to establish a norm of

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1297 Words | 6 Pages

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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Marx, in this work, points out the buyers are naive to where the products come from. We glance past the fact that these laborers are exploited for our gain. In The Alienation of Labor Marx discusses a political economy. Political economy is, “what we would call macroeconomics, that is the economics of large systems” (pg. 250). Marx argues that there is a connection between many aspects of economics.

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Los Angeles is just one of many American cities using a rise in the minimum wage to try to address poverty and inequality. State and local governments are acting where the federal government has not. Just over half of American states have legal minimum wage rates above the federal minimum, which has stood at $7.25 an hour since 2009 (The Data Team, 2015). The big question with minimum wage is what should it be raised to?

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Introduction More numbers of state are joining to take action to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour in a few years even though there is a high disputing controversial all over the nation. The federal has set the minimum wage level to $7.25 on Jan. 1, 2015. In less than a year the index number of the minimum wage is going up automatically with cost of living. And eventually it will be likely to increase year by year with automatic and expectation index.

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The worker becomes an even cheaper commodity the more commodities he creates” (Marx, 2). The second is the estrangement from the activity of production itself. Third is the worker’s alienation from a sense of life purpose, human identity, or what Marx coins, “species-being.” Marx states that the process of transforming physical matter (raw materials) into something of substance is fundamental to a person’s identity. The fourth and final form is the “estrangement of man from man.”

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151 Words | 1 Pages

Analyzing his work is fairly easy especially since he wrote everything and separated it into four parts pertaining to alienation. This first kind of alienation is the division between the worker and the product that was made by that person. The second form of alienation is the division of the worker from the act of production, which means the work that the person does, isn’t being done freely and doesn’t belong to them since they are working for someone else and that represents a loss of themself. The third form of alienation is the worker’s division from ‘species-beings’ or human potential. For humans, work gives life a purpose, but Marx thinks that in the ‘private ownership’ and the division of labor, a person will operate and act less like

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582 Words | 3 Pages

America today is faced with its fair share of problems. There are low employment rates, debt, and inflation everywhere, riddling the economy with issues. There is absolutely no reason that any American citizen should want to pile upon the problem. Yet, some believe that it could be done by raising the federal minimum wage to fifteen dollars an hour. Fortunately, history, economics, and common sense prove the minimum wage raise proposition wrong.

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Karl Marx argues that modern labor practices lead to the alienation of human beings from the product of their work. He states that human beings will become alienated from their product because there will be no “pride” in the product, humans will become alienated from one’s own labor because the task will be so mindless that it will become autonomous, losing his free will, humans will become alienated from others because todays labor practices are based on everyone fighting for the best jobs; forcing everyone to only look out for themselves, and finally alienation from oneself in the sense that what people contribute to the world is a manifestation of oneself and when we do not have to be creative we begin to lose who we are as people. More like people will live to work instead of work being an extension of our own being. I disagree with Marx on his idea of alienation because people it is impossible for someone to come completely alienated from everything because they did not have full hands on experience with the creation of the product. Karl Marx first argues against modern labor practices by saying that people will become alienated in four ways, from their product, from their labor, from their counterparts and finally from

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