Capitalism was a crucial focus of the analysis and criticism of Karl Marx, with a large portion of his work devoted to the condemnation of the system he found his contemporary society engaged in. Marx’s theories developed through discontent with the society he found himself within. He criticized philosophers for deliberating too heavily on irrelevant abstract questions, instead stating the focus of questions should be relevant to current society, such as why isn’t wealth, food and clothing shared?, why are there homeless people living on the street while there are empty houses with no residents?, and why are there people starving while others have food going to waste? Marx thought these problems were created and maintained by capitalism, but he also thought the days of capitalism were numbered, and that ultimately that capitalism would collapse.
A key component of Marx’s basis was the contradictions within capitalism. This includes elements such as the tendency for the rate of profit to fall and competition within consumer markets. Marx articulated these ideas in Das Kapital. He argued that due to the competitive nature of capitalism markets are compelled to cut costs in manufacturing, which leads to a decrease in profit. Marx stated that new technologies come with the rapid development of capitalism, which in time would depreciate the rate of profit, as it would weaken the surplus value (Marx, 2001). This observation has been criticized however, with Russian economist Bortkiewicz stating Marx “disregarded the mathematical relationship between the productivity of labour and the rate of surplus value."(Bortkiewicz, in Robinson, 1952), his notion being that the rate if profit can actually increase with technological advancements. Marx also commented on overproduction, which in his view is a contributing factor to the destruction of capitalism. The competitive nature of capitalism leads to rapid change and fragmentation (Craib, 1997), a contemporary example to help illustrate this is the production of mobile phones. There is competition within the market to produce the best equipped device, manufacturing giants such as Apple, Samsung and Nokia produce their take on smartphones, often competing to have the latest technology and have components not available from the other. This leads to the development of new models, leaving the old models that were previously produced redundant, as they were mass–produced when they were the latest model, and were then left unsold. Marx suggested that the constant competition within capitalism would eventually drive down the rate of profit to unsustainable levels, thus leading to the collapse of capitalism.
A concept Marx utilised to argue capitalism would be subject to destruction was Historical Marxism, which was an analysis of how history develops relative to the productivity of society. Marx found himself in a capitalist mode of production, which he perceived as entirely based on commodification of almost everything, including labour. This labour was key to the exploitative nature of relations of production, which were between the lower, working class (Proletariat) and the higher, ruling class (Bourgeoisie). Marx viewed capitalism as based upon domination and exploitation, which correlates well with the concept of 2 classes. The definition given to these classes is contain within the Communist manifesto, with the Bourgeoisie being described as a “class of modern capitalists, owners of the means of production and employers of wage labour” and the Proletariats described as “the class of modern wage labourers (who), are reduced to selling their labour power in order to live” (Marx and Engles, in Appelrouth and Edles, 2011) This links to the commodification of labour, which Marx alluded was unnatural and therefore unsustainable, and through being unsustainable, was destined to collapse. Heywood refers to the proletariats as the “grave-diggers of capitalism” (Heywood and Gamble, 1992), the notion being that the lower class would eventually overthrow the higher class, as they would be disillusioned with the current system they worked within. This would be done with relative ease given that there are a far higher number of those within the proletariat bracket, the inequality between the 2 classes would eventually spark a revolt. Referring back to historical Marxism, the pattern of previous modes of production would confirm Heywood’s statement. To summarise this argument, the dominant and exploitive relations between the 2 classes would ultimately lead to a capitalist overthrow, led by the discontented Proletariat, who due to the exploitative nature of capitalism would be living in squalid conditions compared to the Bourgeoisie.
Another fundamental notion raised by Marx was the theory of alienation, which Marx used to display the devastating effect of capitalist production on human beings, on their physical and mental states and on the social processes of which they are a part of (Ollman, 1976). Workers lose individual control over their labour, which in time develops into alienation within work as the worker feels insignificant in what he produces in comparison to the rest of world, which leads to a condition that thwarts the realisation of human nature (Sayers, 2011) . This would result in the consensus of public being negative towards capitalism, as workers feel isolated from larger goings on in society, which leads to inherent frustration against capitalism and the system of private property. (Karl Marx (1818–1883), in Sparknotes 1984).
To conclude, Marx raises a number of thought provoking ideas through his analysis and critique of capitalism. The basis of his argument of capitalism ‘sowing the seeds of its own destruction’ can be neatly summarised by three concepts, contradictions, exploitation and alienation. However each element of his basis for the inevitable destruction of capitalism is weakened by the benefit of hindsight available to us today, as we can see the way society has been sculpted and developed through capitalism. The overthrow Marx hoped for never happened on a global scale, certain countries adopted communism that followed, like China, Vietnam and Cuba and most notably the United States of Soviet Russia (which collapsed in 1991, following strong public resentment against communism). Today we can see that although there is competition between companies, it does not mean that they are certain to drive each other into the ground, this is shown by the vast profits and huge annual turnovers of the world’s largest companies that have thrived from capitalism. Society and consumers enjoy having choice when it comes to products, and the opportunity of choice capitalism provides means corporations can work in harmony and still be locked in inherent competition. With regard to the conflicting class issue (namely the Proletariat and Bourgeoisie) raised by Marx, it appears in present day society has accepted a hierarchal nature. The reason this hierarchy is not overthrown is down to the desire of the lower classes to work their way up into the ruling class, illustrated by people’s desire to be successful, get promotions and be recognised for their working efforts. It is naïve however to assume that as capitalism has not collapsed yet, that it is everlasting, and Marx may still be proved to be right that one day the capitalist mode of production will become obsolete. History suggests that capitalisms destruction is an inevitability, and going by Marx’s basis although the destruction didn’t happen in Marx’s lifetime, it is highly likely it will occur one day, however far into the future that may be.