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Karl Marx Theory Of Exploitation Essay

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This work will look at Marx’s concepts of exploitation and how Marx’s comes to his theory of exploitation. This will include looking at how Marx viewed capitalist society and how this capitalist society was created. This will enable an explanation of exploitation. Karl Marx (1818-1883) is thought of as one of the founding fathers of sociology and his work in the mid nineteen hundreds is still discussed and taught today throughout the world. Marx developed an understanding of the term capitalism, as historic events such as the French Revolution 1789-1799 and the Industrialisation became key to a change in society. For Marx, capitalism refers to commodities for sale that in-turn makes a vast profit above wage-labour and costs. The industrialisation led Marx to his idea that the most prevalent relationships in society were formed as part of a structure based around how goods and services were produced. Marx viewed capitalism as an exchange market. Production was for exchange not for need. Marx discussed the relationships between the modes of production and the workforce and sees this as the base of society within his superstructure of society. Marx refers to all the …show more content…

The bourgeoisie are the profit-making class, they own the factories or machines needed to produce commodities then in turn to sell and in turn then make a profit he discussed the circuit of capital. Production is reliant on working class the proletariat the wage-labour. The proletariat must sell their ability to work to survive so they must sell their labour for a wage. The proletariat does not own their means of production, they do not own what they produce or benefit from any of the profits which they produce. Marx sees this lack of means of production and wage-labour as exploitation as the bourgeoisie sell the products or commodities back to the proletariat at a higher cost than the actual production

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In the beginning of the 19th century, the Industrial Revolution caused a massive economic spike from small-scale production to large factories and mass production. Capitalism became the prevalent mode of the economy, which put all means of production in the hands of the bourgeoisie, or the upper class. Karl Marx and Frederick Engels argue that capitalism centralizes all the wealth and power in the bourgeoisie, despite the proletariat, or the working class, being the overwhelming majority of the population. The manufacturers would exploit the common proletariat and force them to would work in abysmal conditions and receive low wages, furthering the working class poverty. “The Communist Manifesto” predicts that as a result of the mistreatment

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Industrialization also enhanced the capitalism which is focused on the issue of more profit and conflict between capital and workers. While owner of productions take more profit with less labor, workers take less profit even with much more labor force. Karl Marx is one of the thinkers who criticizes this situation of capitalism in terms of workers and capitals in industry, especially he focuses on the situation of

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It is argued that social inequality occurs because of the conflict between the upper-class and the working-class, or as Marx defines it, the Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat. Based on the Manifesto of the Communist Party (Marx and Engels, 1848), the divergence emerges because the aim of the Bourgeoisie is to obtain a surplus-value that is produced by the work of the Proletariat. On the other side, the Bourgeoisie provides the Proletariat with the minimum required, such as a place to live and a minimum wage, in order to keep the society under control and avoid a rebellion. However, Marx did predict a revolt of the working-class that would eventually lead to a communist regime. When it comes to applying this theoretical approach to reality, it is evident to notice that no global revolt in regards to capitalism has occurred.

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Marx and Engels believe that capitalism exploits workers. This is evident throughout our texts for Social Theory. To begin with, Marx developed a labor theory of value. This states, “A commodity’s value is based on the quantity of labor required to produce it” (Kivisto, 9). This in itself makes labor into a commodity, thus adding more value to the product.

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Marx and Engels look at capitalism with seriously negative opinions. They regard the system as extremely unsuitable, and are deeply concerned with getting rid of it. In a capitalist society, capitalists own and control the main resources of production - machinery, factories, mines, capital, etc. The modern working classes, or proletariats, own only their labor. Proletariats work for the capitalists, who own the product that was produced and then sell it for a profit.

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He sees power as a corrupting force and further sees capitalism as the root cause of the corruption. The economic system can never produce a fair power dynamic, as it relies on private property and when the means of production is wielded by the few, members of society can be sorted into two groups, the employer, and the labourer. Marx used the phrases capitalist mode of production to refer to the systems of organizing production and distribution within societies. He highlights wage-labour and private ownership as two means of

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Bathroom remodeling is most likely the best ways of preparing a house on sale. After kitchen remodels, bathroom remodels are next in raising the sales value of your own home. Bathroom remodeling ideas must not be restricted to a house that 's to be sold, however. You can enjoy a bathroom remodel now, and understand that it will be a good edge when the time comes to sell the property. The home 's bathrooms are the rooms of heavy use.

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As he aged, Marx became increasingly interested in capitalism and economic theory. This lead to him publishing the first volume of Das Kapital. Within this book, the Marxian Class Theory, one of Marx’s most influential contributions to economics was

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The proletariats are the wage earners or the labour class, in a capitalist society the proletarians don’t have much wealth, and their main asset is their labour power. The bourgeoisie is the class that owns the means of production, their class interest lies in the value of property and the preservation of capital, and this ensures their perpetual economic supremacy in society. According to Marx, in the capitalist mode of production, a worker slowly loses the power to decide upon his or her life and destiny, they lose their Gattungswesen (“species-essence”), and this is a consequence of living in a socially stratified society, where human beings become a mechanistic part of a social class. Even though human beings are self-conscious and autonomous, in a capitalist society they are nothing but an economic entity whose acts are dictated by the bourgeoisie, with the aim

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Marx believed that the current capitalist society is separated into two classes, the Proletariat society, and Bourgeois society. The Proletarians, as perceived by Marx, are part of the working class that only possess one significant material value, that is the ability to work, or labour power. The Bourgeoise, on the other hand, is the societal class that owns the means of production and hence rule over the Proletarians. As I quote from Marx’s book, “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” (Marx and Engels, 1988, p. 473)

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Marx’s theory on exploitation is related to his earlier writings on the theory of alienation. They are both similar in that they are both highly critical of the capitalist system. Grint,(2005) emphasises that before Karl Marx nobody had ever confronted the idea of exploitive wage labour, many great thinkers of Marx’s time like Locke and Ricardo thought that the value of the wage labour was exactly equivalent to the labour expended while producing a product. Watson,T.J (2008) states that “ capitalist employment is exploitive in attempting to take from working people the value which they create through their labour and which is properly their own. ”P.62.

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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.

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Capitalism, according to Karl Marx is divided into two major social classes: the Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat. The Bourgeoisie, which is the minority of the class system, own the means of production such as land, machinery, factories and raw materials whereas the Proletariat, which is the majority of the class system, having no means of their own production and have to work to earn wage for a living. Karl Marx has his own theory that history is made up by class struggle which he mentioned in his book – Manifesto of the Communist Party: “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” (Marx and Engels, 1848) and had predicted that the Proletariat would lead a revolution to overthrow the Bourgeoisie. Karl Marx believed that there will be intrinsic conflict like exploitation, alienation of labour and commodity fetishism between both of the classes.

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Karl Marx (1818-1883) considered himself not to be a sociologist but a political activist. However, many would disagree and in the view of Hughes (1986), he was ‘both – and a philosopher, historian, economist, and a political scientist as well.’ Much of the work of Marx was political and economic but his main focus was on class conflict and how this led to the rise of capitalism. While nowadays, when people hear the word “communism”, they think of the dictatorial rule of Stalin and the horrific stories of life in a communist state such as the Soviet Union, it is important not to accuse Marx of the deeds carried out in his name.

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In the Communist manifesto, a well known quote of Marx, “the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” This is introductory to the first part of the pamphlet and a conclusion to Marx’s theory about class struggle. Marx’s highly structured on how the class struggle emerges and affects the development of a society. The development of a society from the old and from the new is the result of the conflict of classes in the society.

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