Karl Marx and the Alienation of Labor
Karl Marx and his ideas have had a profound impact on the world. His ideas have been spread throughout the world and form the basis for a number of different views regarding economics and its implications within a society. His theory of the Alienation of Labor is his best-known contribution to the base of human knowledge. Its importance has been widely acknowledged–and yet its true significance seems to have been lost to most modern societies. The lessons that it offers have largely been ignored by the majority of societies within the modern world.
Marx studied atomic physics–and it influenced the way in which he perceived the world. It allowed him to think about his work differently than others. This ultimately led him to think about economics in a different way. He was interested in the quantifiable aspects of economics; and was not particularly interested in its morality. This drive to quantify economics led him to contemplate where the value of a product actually comes from. Marx came to the conclusion that the labor itself added value to the final product–and as such, saw that laborers themselves had been commodified, that is turned into a commodity. Capital saw labor as merely another aspect of production whose costs were to be controlled like any other.
This realization pushed Marx to the conclusion that laborers were, in terms of economics, products–and not people. He came to the understanding that the concept of private property was the ultimate source of this type of behavior. He believed that the fundamental understanding of private property must be reevaluated and understood in a different way. Marx argued that the fallacy of private property is that its fundamental nature had never been questioned. Instead, it has been expounded upon without complete comprehension of what private property actually is.
Marx suggests that because laws have been constructed with little regard for the nature of private property, workers have seen their compensation lessened and their humanity itself devalued. Workers no longer produced goods from start-to-finish. In modern production, workers generally work on a single aspect of the production process–and as such lack the satisfaction that previously accompanied the production of a good or product. This lack of satisfaction has the effect of alienating workers from their labor. This alienation of labor is apparent as these workers often care little about the quality of the labor that they engage in. Lack of dedication, commitment, and quality are all symptomatic of alienated labor–and their manifestations are present in most contemporary businesses that utilize labor to any large degree.
As laws are generally created to respond to an existing problem, the alienation of labor predates private property laws. As such, the laws that were enacted in its wake were a consequence of alienated labor–and not of private property itself. Marx argued that the alienation of labor leads to private property abuses. In turn, these abuses lead to the further alienation of labor. This creates a downward spiral–a negative feedback loop–with the increase of worker alienation being the end result. Both aspects serve to further the other.
Marx believed that a reinvention of private property was in order–and the emancipation of private property was the path to the restoration of human dignity and individual significance. He believed that such a revelation of private property was not only desirable, but necessary to the longevity and health of society itself. He describes society as an abstract capitalist. This description is evocative of the implication that society engages in a kind of bargaining process between its two major constituents–workers and capital. The implications of this way of thinking can be seen all around us in modern society. A large portion of its constituents are subject to this alienation and behave in a manner that is fitting with their position in life–they behave like alienated people. References to the “1%” have become commonplace in recent years and indicates the pervasive nature of this alienation within contemporary society. Although society has progressed in many ways, we still have much to learn from the ideas that Karl Marx put forward. Our society could benefit in a number of ways by taking these valuable lessons into account.
clayboitnott 