The Human Nature of Production
Karl Marx and Adam Smith forged themselves into history through their pioneeristic theories on political economy in their respective times. They took the task upon themselves to make bold statements about mankind’s natural actions, their fullest potentials, and their means of producing for themselves and their communities. Years of deep thought and empirical study gave birth to the two most influential and contradicting economic systems: capitalism and communism. While both great economists, it wasn’t a calculated economic approach that allowed Smith and Marxs to effectively support their doctrines. It was however, their differing philosophical assertions on human nature that acted as their cornerstone.
Smith’s view of mankind derives from a sense of drive, an unprecedented sense of motivation found in “no other race of animals”.*** It’s this motivation that warrants the need of efficiency in labor, best accounted for by Smith’s theory of the Division of Labor. For Smith the Division of Labor creates a community that allows man to thrive off each other with continual betterment for all via commerce. Smith explains that relationships are a natural by-product of commerce as man can do better off in trade if he strives
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Value is placed upon the individual’s love, friendship and inner worth instead of money and success. Capitalism he argues destroys the notion of one’s “absolute spirit” which is key for an ideal communist society. This occurs because as he claims, “The production of ideas, of conceptions, of consciousness is directly interwoven with the material activity and material relationships of men…”*** When this spirit is decayed, true community suffers. As he asserts that man never achieves his true potential of sensual self, which communism relies on for evolving social sphere of the community as well as the production forces of the economy without the instances of class