Friday, January 16, 2009

Resources to Supplement Sessions on Marx's Critique of Capitalism Connections

Karl Marx has a dialetic (analyze over-time) vision that capitalism would lead to communism. He said that all economic system always consists of unpaid surplus value and "the relationship of rulers and ruled" (Why does capitalism go through cycles of booms and slumps?). The base and superstructure of the economy society is where the basic structure of the economy determines how everything in the society/culture works. Because of that relationship, classes are split in capitalism between the rich and the middle+poor. The workers are the oppressed and the rich people, capitalist are the oppressor (Communist Manifesto chapter 1). The workers all have to work for the capitalists to get money to survive like many of the people in the world. The workers are always fighting against the capitalists to get what they deserved but it is always hard because they do not have as much power as they do so they would always be the one struggling. They are the ones that are doing all the work, in the labor theory of life, the workers are the source of all wealth, meaning the workers are the "direct producers" -the ones who do all the labor work for the capitalists to get their wealth. However, in return for the capitalists wealth, the workers gets tiny amount and possibly, if worse, the capitalists would get more evil and lessen the pay/wage on the workers. Leading the workers in struggles for help but unlike the really long past, we have the union created to help benefit the workers. Then the capitalists has restricted their right to lessen on the wage but they are still in power. Similarly, like vampires, or Marx's calling - vampirization, capitalists are like vampires who suck labor out of the poor workers and spread the capitalism around fast. With each workers, they would use them fully to get as much capital from them and then throw them away.The capitalists has "the need of a constantly expanding market for its products", they must expand to continue living and then finally, covering "the entire surface of the globe" and "nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connexions everywhere". Capitalists has already surrounded all of America, making connections with all the workers, and just relaxing since they don't have to do much work, unlike the workers. They only have to wait for the money to come. 
"Free Trade...exploitation, veil by religious and political illusions, it has substituted naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation" (Communist Manifesto). (Not sure about the religious aspect) but for "shameless, direct, brutal exploitation", my meaning of that phrase are how the capitalists steals the profit from the workers and use it for themselves to earn big and become rich/wealthy. The three words in the phrase, shameless, direct and brutal shows Marx or the translation from the German original shows how capitalism is rather evil system and by shameless, I think whatever means to get rich and using others for that. The "bourgeoisie" cannot exists without production which connects to the relations of society because they need labor to get their businesses working. Since the workers, who we also called proleterians (one who sells their labor power) are being used and the capitalists expropriating our labor and money, "man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind". Capitalism is not "holy" and we cannot all think that by working hard, we would get to where we want (maybe some do, like rags to riches) but we all have to face the real conditions of life, and the connections that we have between each others.
"The modern working class - the proletarians". The more hard we work and more work is piled up, the wages decrease. Because capitalists threaten us in a way, saying how if you don't want to work, I can go outside and find anybody to substitute for you and which makes it hard for all the workers. It is hard to find jobs and the workers have competition within each other as well as with the capitalists. The better one would get the job but doesn't mean their pay would be as much. The competition makes the workers become "stronger, firmer," and "mightier". This helps the workers to slowly overthrow the capitalists since their demands are getting higher and higher. They are not dumb and they are able to help each other to make a "revolutionary party" to free everyone from the capitalists. I think in the end, the victory would go the the proletarians, becoming communists because after reading what Marx's wrote, it changes my mind about what America is becoming. With all these booms and crashes that are happening over the history, someday, all the workers would get fed up and aufhebung capitalism and start changing. 

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