Marx's teaching on alienation and exploitation

Alienation and exploitation

He shared some of Rousseau's assumptions that there was a stage in a 'state of nature' where families all shared the means of production without anyone being exploited.

However, as a society, we reached a point of being able to create a surplus at this point and class divisions occurred between those who had the means to produce more and those who did not (land owners).

This is seen in the feudal system where the feudal lords own the land and therefore, the means of producing food. The serfs, who work the land but do not own it are reliant on the lords for access to the means of producing food and must give their surplus to the lords in return for the job working the land.

This soon led to competition an alienation through the introduction of a capitalist culture. The theory of Alienation states that workers become estranged from their humanity as a consequence of living in a society in which capitalism is a mode of production. Capitalism changed the relationship between people and the means of production. This shift caused social division where the wealthy (the bourgeoisie) who owned the means of production are divided from the workers (the proletariat).

This shift results in alienation.

Marx himself presents four areas of alienation

1. Alienation of the worker from their product: The design and development of a production rest not in the hands of a worker but within the decisions of the capitalists. A worker does not have control over what he or she intends to produce or the specifications of his or her product.
2. Alienation of the worker from the act of production: The production of goods and services within a capitalist society is repetitive and mechanical which offers little to no psychological satisfaction to the worker. Labor seems coerced because a worker undertakes this as a means of survival.
3. Alienation of the worker from their species-essence: The species-essence or "Gattungswesen" of an individual comprises all of his or her innate potential. Under a capitalist mode of production, an individual loses identity and the opportunity for self-development as he or she is forced to sell his or her labor power as a market commodity.
4. Alienation of the worker from other workers: The reduction of labor to a mere market commodity creates the so-called labor market in which a worker competes against another worker. Labor is traded in a competitive labor market instead of considering it as a constructive socio-economic activity characterized by collective common effort. Marx argued that beyond capitalism, another major cause of alienation is God. The reason is two-fold:
5. He rejected that God is the driving force in history: The belief that God controls history is false consciousness and leads to false hopes and illusions – this is where the idea that "religion is the opium of the people" comes in.

Marx subscribed to a labour theory of value, which means that just like any other commodity such as butter or corn, the price (or wage) of labour power is determined by its cost of production.

Marx thought that workers under capitalism would therefore be paid just enough to cover the bare necessities of living. They will be paid subsistence wages.

Marx thought the worker's day is split into two parts

1. labourer works for himself – producing commodities that are equal to his wage
2. the labourer works for the capitalist, producing surplus value for the capitalist for which he receives no equivalent wages