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Karl Marx And Capitalism Essay

1269 Words6 Pages

Writings of Karl Marx had formed the theoretical basis for communism and the continual debate against capitalism. Marx understood capitalism to be a system in which the means of production are privately owned and profit is generated by the sale of the proletariat’s labour. He considered it to be an unfair exploitation of hard work with alienated social interactions and purpose. I agree with Marx that capitalism is indeed unfair and alienating, because it concentrates wealth within a small group of people by exploiting the surplus value of workers’ labour, and creates an alienated workforce. Hence, this essay will first discuss the relevance of Marx’s perception of capitalism as an alienating and unfair system for the contemporary world, before examining the potential of governments to influence the extent of alienation and unfairness that occurs.
Marx (1844) argued that humans are naturally sociable and that work emboldens meaning and satisfaction in life, but that capitalism …show more content…

It provides capital for economic development and encourages global expansion by compressing the world into a single space (Robertson and Khondker, 1998). This in turn delivers political stability (Miller, 2001), and as is seen in China, improves living conditions and educational opportunity for more people (Chun, 2013). Competition often drives technological innovation, and online debates has pointed interest towards capitalism in providing the impetus for democratisation through the creation of a middle class that demands civil liberties (Bailey, 2007). Furthermore, where individual liberties are prioritised, individuals are able to develop hobbies and activities that allow them to travel, create and explore, which arguably fosters the control over one’s environment that Marx believed to be natural. Hence, capitalism could possibly reduce alienation, although this can be considered to ultimately be a form of false

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