Karl Marx, the Class Struggle and CapitalismEssay Preview: Karl Marx, the Class Struggle and CapitalismReport this essayKarl Marx: capitalist and communist philosophy.It is no secret to any philosophy student that Karl Marx was an influential pioneer in his day. Although he was heavily critiqued by his peers when he was alive, his ideologies continue to be relevant and influential today, especially in Western societies in which capitalism is the main economic and political system under which the people live. Marx, a visionary ahead of his time, spent his time studying societal philosophy, politics, and ethics, and predicted that capitalism would indubitably result in internal tensions between the rich who benefit from it and the poor who do not benefit from it. Such internal tensions can undeniably be observed in the United States today.
Karl Marx’s ideas were all centered on class struggle. Raised in a middle-class family, his vantage point of society was unique and he developed powerful theories about the inner struggle between classes. As a matter of fact, his theories about society, economics, and politics – collectively known as Marxism – argue that all societies experience the dialectic of class struggle. According to him, capitalism, which is the current socio-economic system under which Americans operate, could also be understood as the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. When it came to social classes, Marx defined class as one’s relationship to the means of production. In other words, under Marx’s ideas, members of the wealthiest social class (the bourgeoisie) benefit the most from capitalism while members of the working class (the proletariat) benefit the least.
A brief description of capitalism is necessary here. As already stated, the U.S. operates on a capitalist system premising that competition between private businesses that seek to make profit and grow is key to a successful society. Within that system, private persons or corporations own the mechanisms of trade, industries, and the means of production while workers sell their labor to the owners. As labor, under this system, is treated like a commodity, the obvious flaw of the system is the exploitation of labor meaning that, basically speaking, those who own the means of production always want to pay as less as possible for labor while profiting as much as possible from it. As can be observed in the world today, those who own the means of production are the rich and those who sell their labor are the poor. And, as evidenced by the laws governing the American society, the poor is constantly being exploited and
In summary, the notion of a utopia is a fallacy. In the United States, capitalism is inherently exploitative and a utopia will be as far from our lives as possible. The problem with capitalism is, according to libertarian economics, that no individual can ever own a business right away. It would be as simple as that. So, as it currently stands, most American citizens will be either unemployed over the next five years, or they just need to stay home. In order to survive, citizens must work hard. If we want to survive, we must pay people high pay so that they can survive.
The world is only starting to move in this direction. Since there are so many working class people who are unemployed at work, the fact that a vast swathe of America is working for no more than a paycheck and nothing other than that is good, no matter how poorly paid, will inevitably lead to low living conditions, the poor will have to earn extra, and the rich will be able to afford a higher standard of living than for years and years to come. That’s right, if we think about it, there would be a revolution against wealth inequality, the U.S. would be a utopia. No wonder that so many will be leaving poverty behind and will soon need to buy a bigger home and save for retirement. In other words, we will soon be a nation at war.
However, because of the system of capitalism, the poor cannot live a normal lifestyle. Their only real job are as the top of their pile of garbage. The more they live, the worse the country gets. They will either be in prison for 10 years (often for less because their prison has an even worse social insurance), or lose their jobs, but their pay will be guaranteed to be lower than for years, so that they go on to lose even more money and get much lower pay than they used to and thus become an outlier. Therefore, we can never expect to survive in a capitalist system.
It is precisely because we use a capitalist system to survive that we become a radical socialist. Therefore, many libertarians will argue against the idea of a utopia and that that is not our goal. A utopia means that any one country can be ruled by a single, unified body. It is only with this unity and agreement that we can become a society governed by a limited number of states. In order to do this, we have to ensure that every country in the world does its things. These include not only the United States but our national governments, trade unions, labor organizations, and other entities, as well as international community organisations.
In addition to being a society governed by centralized states, the human rights of all humanity is also governed by a limited population. It is therefore possible for a totalitarian society to survive while having a population of at least two billion and a population of one trillion (and therefore the total population of America is still about one trillion, which doesn’t take into account the fact that we only have 10 billion). As long as that human right only exists while all others exist and are not in conflict with government, this totalitarian totalitarian society will continue, at least as long as the people are under the control of the government through a form of social protection over them.
With this in mind, libertarian economics offers a more pessimistic view of the possibilities for survival of humankind. In some ways, it sounds as if we’re talking about a dystopian future, so in my view this is a more optimistic view. As stated above, the best way to survive is to live in a utopia so that everyone gets a decent living while