What, for Karl Marx, Is Wrong with Capitalism - Coursework Example

What, for Karl Marx, is wrong with capitalism? Karl Marx is making a technical critique of capitalism not a moral one based on the logic of a unique mode of production which he refers to M-C-M’ and social relations. Though he was critical of capitalism, he also praised it due to its liberating nature. This essay will argue that although Marx considers capitalism as flawed, he does not blame the bourgeoisie but rather, its structure and the only logical solution to those flaws is social transformation to communism. First, capitalism will be defined and the reasons for the inherent nature of the M-C-M’ cycle explained. Secondly, capitalism will be compared to feudalism in order to understand the historical role of capitalism. Thirdly, the classes produced by the capitalist mode alongside their flaws will be looked into. Lastly, communism as the only logical solution to capitalism flaws will be evaluated. Although Marx is not making a moral critique of capitalism, it is worthy discussing how such a critique would look like and why Marx avoids using it. Moral standards are established by the society to judge the rightness or wrongness of actions of all its members hence morality is relative. What is wrong in one community may be right for another and so it follows that capitalism may be bad for some but good for others depending on their values. Marx in the Communist Manifesto argues that the “history of hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggles” (246). The capitalist mode of production produces two antagonistic classes: the bourgeoisie who own the means of production and the proletariat who sell their labour to the bourgeoisie as a means of subsistence. The bourgeoisie class exploits the proletariat by giving them a wage which is not commensurate with their work. From a moral point of view, the bourgeoisie is unjust to the proletariat as he does this consciously in pursuit of profit. Furthermore, in the long-run capitalism leads to degradation of workers as they work under unfulfilled conditions (Marx & McLellan, 2000 p. 85). Capitalism also forces peasants off the land to create a poor population who would be willing to sell their labour at low wages. This is unjust although Marx views it as a necessary condition for capitalism to thrive (Marx, Capital, p. 703). It also disintegrates the society as individuals strive to survive on their own. However, Marx prefers to blame the system for the flaws as each class just does what it has to do. Marx defines capitalism as a mode of production that reflects how societies organise production of goods. It is a structured system whereby commodities are produced for sale. Marx thus views the capitalist society as just producing for the sake of earning profit using the logic of M-C-M’. In this case, M represents money or capital, C represents commodity and M’ is profit. He thus views commodity as comprising two value components: use-value and value. Value is the necessary labour embodied in an object expressed as exchange-value in money terms (Capital, p. 46-7). In Marx’s words therefore, “a capitalist needs to find a commodity whose use value possesses the peculiar property of being source of value and this is labour” (Capital, p. 164). Labour power in this case is transformed into commodities which can be bought and sold in the market. Marx like Adam Smith believes all commodities in a capitalist system are exchanged in order to increase wealth or accumulate capital. This is in contrast to the feudalist mode that uses the C-M-C logic in that all commodities are sold for acquiring other commodities which the owner does not produce (Marx, German Ideology, 179). The profit by craftsmen in feudalism is used to buy other commodities and not for reinvestment. Since the commodity only achieves value when labour is added into it, the capitalist has to acquire labour to work on his raw materials to produce a commodity. The commodity is then sold at a profit so as to continue accumulating capital for reinvestment. From this inherent logic of capitalism (M-C-M’) two classes emerge: the bourgeoisie (capitalist) and proletariat (worker). The Bourgeoisie are the owners of the means of production and buy labour to produce commodities for sake of profit while the proletariat sell labour power in exchange for wages which is their only means of subsistence. Due to their different interests, the two classes are always opposed to each other meaning capitalism is inherently antagonistic. Marx also considers capitalism as inherently exploitative as in their pursuit of surplus value (profit); the bourgeoisie have to make the proletariat work for extra hours or to do more work in less time. Lastly, capitalism is dynamic and innovative as bourgeoisies continuously invent new ways of increasing profits. Marx asserts that capitalism forces capitalists to engage in constant search for surplus value. In this search, competition between capitalists increases forcing capitalists to invent machinery to gain competitive advantage. This leads to improved productivity as workers can produce high quantity of products in less time thus reducing costs. This results in high profit for the capitalist but after some time the other capitalists acquire similar machine which reduces their costs thus pushing product prices down. This inherent nature of capitalism to continuously innovate due to continuous search for surplus value, changes the composition of capital hence the tendency for the rate of profit to fall (Marx, Capital, p.589-604). The small bourgeoisies are pushed out of the market as they cannot withstand the competition due to high innovation costs involved. This leads to concentration of wealth in a few hands of the wealthy bourgeoisies. For Marx, this is the product of the system hence the bourgeoisies are not to blame for amassing wealth; they just do what they have to do to survive in the system. On the other hand, the employer can decide to lessen the cost of production hence force workers to work more for less time but wages remain the same. The work they perform above the necessary labour is surplus labour and earns surplus value or profit. As such, capitalism is inherently exploitative but this is a necessary consequence of the technical nature of capitalism. This surplus value cannot be achieved without exploitation. Another logical flaw of capitalism is that it forces the worker into immiseration. Marx argues that continuous innovations of machinery lead to increased productivity. This changes the composition of capital leading to worse situations for the worker. Instead of the capitalist hiring more labour, they buy more machines thus making workers appendages to those machines. Workers do not use their own mental effort but perform basic machine operations to produce more commodities and higher profits. In time, the workers are replaced by machines hence losing their jobs. Furthermore, everyone can operate these machines hence the pool of labourer’s or Industrial Reserve Army increases (Capital, p. 589-604) pushing the price of wages down. The labourers have no option but to accept these conditions to earn a wage for their subsistence. Individuality also increases as member of the family including children and women begin to fend for themselves. It also leads to increased dependence on the capitalists. The capitalists can also force employees to provide surplus labour so as to get surplus value which only accrues to the capitalist. This surplus value which is stored up labour accumulates and is reinvested to get more capital (Marx, Capital, 165). Since wages remain the same, it means the workers are exploited by capitalists leading to immiseration. Even though Marx treats class relations as exploitative, he treats this as a technical product of the system, rather than a moral failure by employers. Capitalism empowers one class over the other. Class in this case refers to the position one holds in the structure of mode of production and relations of production and not according to wealth as Smith suggested (Smith, 1776). These classes are defined in opposition to each other as their interests will never merge but always conflict. The bourgeoisie’s interest is to earn high profits and exploit labour while the proletariat aims at high wages and to revolt. As a result, class antagonisms are inherent in the system especially when the proletariats gains class consciousness. They join together to fight their common enemy who is the bourgeoisie. As the forces of production improve, the relations of production also change and so do the internal contradictions of capitalism (Marx, Capital, p. 88). This is because the relations of production try to restrain the forces of production and are crushed for capitalism to flourish. For Marx, it is the nature of capitalism that produces these contradictions. Employers have to exploit workers and workers have to resist this exploitation thereby leading to class conflicts and revolutions. This logical solution according to Marx is to abolish all private property thus institute a classless society. Marx predicts that capitalism will collapse under its own logic, problems and contradictions inherent within it. However, not everything about capitalism is bad as it brought about greater freedom, increased productivity, and overthrow of the old idyllic system. For Marx, there is no way of going back to such a system. Marx views the history of existing societies as that of class struggles which each time ended in a revolutionary reconstitution of society or in the common ruin of contending classes (Marx & McLellan, 2000, p. 247). Capitalism with its class antagonisms would be no different as the proletariat would form a communist party and use their political power to overthrow the capitalist. Marx argues that the bourgeoisie just like the feudalists had “forged weapons that would bring death to itself and also called into existence the men who are to wield those weapons-the proletariats” (Marx & McLellan, 2000, p. 250). These same productive forces that bourgeoisie had innovated continuously would bring their end due to tendency of capitalism to produce falling rates of profit. Furthermore, the problems experienced by proletariats would become the solution to their problem. Since private property was the source of classes and class antagonisms, it is only its abolishment that would end such antagonisms. The proletariat through the communist party would thus abolish this private property and have a classless society. At first, the state would control the private property in a socialist state hence wield power. Since this might force the state to exploit its citizens, pure communism would follow to abolish all private property. In this system, it is “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs (Marx, Criti. Gotha. Prog). Conclusion Capitalism in Marx’s view is not morally wrong but technically wrong due to its logical structure (M-C-M’). This logic of capitalism results in a system which is inherently exploitative, dynamic and innovative produces two classes defined in opposition to each other, and inherent class conflicts. Capitalism is a structured system oriented towards production of commodities for sale or M-C-M’. It evolved from the collapse of the feudal system leading to formation of two classes who are constantly in conflict with each other: bourgeoisie and proletariat. The bourgeoisie owns the means of production and buys labour while proletariat sells labour. The bourgeoisie continuously engages in pursuit of surplus value leading to continuous innovations, increased productivity and a tendency for falling rates of profits. It also leads to immiseration of the proletariat class. The proletariat’s interest is to earn high wage and revolt against the bourgeoisie. Since capitalism is inherently exploitative, class antagonisms are also inherent and the only logical solution is total transformation of the system thereby establishing a classless society through communism. The logical structure of capitalism is the source of the problems apparent in this system. Therefore, for Marx the bourgeoisie is not to blame. Capitalism is wrong because its structure does not work and not because it is unfair thus the logical solution is to transform it. References Marx, Karl (2000). Capital: A Critique of the Political Economy Volume I Book One. Trans. Samuel Moore and Edmund Veling. Moscow: Progressive Publishers. Marx, Karl. Critique of the Gotha Programme. www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1875/gotha/index.htm Marx, Karl and David McLellan (2000).Karl Marx: Selected Writings. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Marx, K., Engel, F (1970).The German Ideology: Part One with selections from Part 2 and 3. International publishers. Smith, Adam. (1776). An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations Volume II. Introduction. . Read More