Karl Marx's Economic Development Theory

Karl Marx has come up with the “Law of Motion” of capitalist development theory including six major tenets in order to identify the negative effects of capitalism. Even though the stages of the Law of Motion are continuously linked together and are influenced by one another, the Canadian government should apply two of them in the policies and other actions, which are the theories of Worker Exploitation and the Capital Accumulation and “Inevitable” Falling Rate of Profit. These two ideas highlight the problems of capitalism that only benefit the powerful elites and suppress the lower working class. This creates inequality, unemployment, which further hinder economic growth, prosperity and social stability. The theory of Worker

It claims in lecture five that the profit earned by capitalists at the expense of workers will eventually fall due to the diminishing returns. Thus, the value of the commodities will decrease, which further reduces the workers’ wages and some of them might even lose their jobs due to the rising technological unemployment caused by the growing population. Workers will end up working even longer hours for less wages. As a result of this grown exploitation, not only the economic growth will slow down, but the disparity between the social classes will further increase social conflicts that lead to social instability since the rich are constantly trying to catch up with the “capitalist tail” by staying rich, powerful and ahead of the competitive game. However, this behaviour, as Marx believed based on Chris Hedges’ article, would cause capitalism to eventually exhaust its potential and collapse. Since capitalists are trying to gain as much profit as possible, there are no adjustments made in their conduct and decisions even though their actions are worsening the economic growth and social well-being in the country as a whole. Thus, capitalists keep competing with one another instead of cooperating with each other to solve the problems arising from their

In order to avoid this, the government of Canada should implement policies that reduce the disparity between the two classes by allocating income in a fair way and not favouring any sides. For example, a basic income for everyone that is higher than the subsistence wage would lessen the inequality and would decrease poverty since the higher class would not be able to exploit and profit from the workers. Also, the government should establish a policy that guarantees workers being paid on the basis of the hourly rate when working extra hours. Governmental funding should be provided to each workplace to implement a machine that workers slide their cards through once they enter or exit the building. As a result of this, when wages are being distributed by the end of each month, it is easier for employers to keep track of each worker’s labour hours. Employees who worked overtime hours must receive overtime pay for each hour worked. If these two policies are imposed, we can measure their success by looking at the Gini coefficient before they are introduced and compare it with the one after they are enacted. By this