In his works The Communist Manifesto, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 and Das Kapital, German philosopher Karl Marx pointed out multiple flaws concerning capitalism and personally felt that its demise would come as a result of a revolution of the working class. Marx, a loyal advocate of communism, theorized that a revolution would result in a socialist society, which would serve as an eventual transition into a communist society. Marx criticized many aspects of capitalism in his works, including overproduction, agglomeration, commodity fetishism and alienation. His critiques of capitalism are true but, by pointing out the flaws, allows for the possibility to repair them and improve the system. Although Marx’s major critiques of capitalism are in fact accurate, a communist society would not be the right direction to steer the nation into. Instead, regulating certain aspects of these critiques could result in a potentially better way of life.
One of Marx’s major critiques of capitalism was that he felt the free market was exploitative. In Marx’s critique, he explains how large production companies can and will end up taking advantage of their employees by making them work longer hours for little pay. The employees are incapable of fighting back due to their financial situation in life. While the exploited employees struggle through the work day, making product for the company and receiving low wages for their work, the bourgeoisie is able to collect the sizable profits from said product. Due to this, the exploited employee, who typically receives less than the average cost of the product they produce, are left unable to purchase the necessities that they need to survive. This lack of money signals to the worker that if they want to buy these items, they have to work longer to get the pay necessary for the purchase, starting the cycle over again. This critique is true, especially in today’s modern society, with companies like Nike who have set up sweatshops and utilize child labour in underdeveloped nations, with working conditions that both unhealthy and unsafe. A company like Nike takes advantage of their workers by paying them wages that are far lower than wages earned in a more developed society, which saves them money. They are able to make even more money by selling their products at higher prices than the materials and labor used to make them. A solution that can be used to combat the exploitation created by these companies would be for individuals to take their business elsewhere and shop at local businesses with ethical practices.
Another critique Marx had about capitalism was on Modern Industry. Marx saw that big businesses would, in its quest for power, would either buy out or run much smaller shops out of businesses, creating a monopoly when they are the last business standing. While these smaller businesses could try to put up a fight against the big business by lowering the prices of their goods, the big business is fully capable of matching the price or undercutting them. In today’s society, the most obvious example of this scenario involves big-box chains like Walmart putting small mom-and-pop type stores out of business. When a Walmart is built in an town, multiple different small businesses are trampled by the low prices made possible by the massive economies of scale of the giant retailer and it endless variety of goods. It is impossible for individual small businesses to compete when consumers are now able to purchase tires, groceries, furniture and clothing all under one roof as opposed to spending hours out shopping at multiple stores to acquire these goods. When the smaller store decides to cut their prices, Walmart matches it or flatout undercuts them to ensure their own stability. Unfortunately, in the end, these small shops are forced to succumb to the inevitable and either shut themselves down or, if Walmart sees it as being beneficial to them, allow themselves to be bought out. The solution to Marx’s critique would be to support and shop at these smaller stores, in order to keep them in business.
Marx’s critique of capitalism also included issues with overproduction. In the Age of Enlightenment, it was argued that the government should not be able to interfere in the free operation of the economy. Adam Smith, who wrote The Wealth of Nations, was an large advocate of laissez-faire economics. Smith argued that a free market, where the exchange of goods would go unregulated, would help all members of society, not just the rich ones. Smith felt the free market would be capable of producing larger quantities of goods at lower prices. This would make these goods more affordable for every member of society. However, if the mass production of goods and services go unregulated for too long during a period where there is below average demand for the product, it could result in overproduction. When factories are producing more product than there is demand for and have more workers than they need, in order to save themselves, they will close down as many plants as they need to, fire as many employees as they need to and, if that fails, will resort to closing down the entire business. An abundance of these situations will lead the nation into either recessions and depressions. A modern example of overproduction would be 2008’s Great Recession. During this time, banks created an overabundance of money and used this money to push up house prices. The banks created huge sums of new money by making loans and in 7 years time, they doubled the amount of money and debt in the economy. Eventually, the debts became so difficult to pay that individuals who had taken out the loan simply stopped repaying them. As a result of this, banks found themselves in danger of going bankrupt, causing a financial crisis. To prevent overproduction, the economy should be regulated to a degree, allowing it to have a fair share of freedom with the government only stepping in when it bites off more than it can chew.
In “Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844”, Marx touches on alienation and the four forms of estranged labor, including commodification, objectification, devaluation and estrangement. Marx's theory of alienation is the belief that, in a modern industrial production under capitalist conditions, workers will inescapably lose control of their lives by losing control over their work. The production workers eventually cease to be individual beings and are reduced to nothing more than a replaceable cog in giant machine. In order to be exploited for profit, the workers must be alienated from one another. Each worker is assigned to a very small, monotonous part of production so they have as little contact will the other workers. The worker’s production of labor has become more valuable than the worker. They can be easily replaced by anyone looking for a job. These workers do not at all benefit from the products they make. They have been devalued by allowing themselves to be made into a mindless drone as opposed to an individual with creativity and freedom. Before capitalism, an individual would be able to choose how to run their own business. They could set their own hours, determine the type of product they wanted to produce and decide for what price said product would be sold for. This is no longer the case in today’s society, where more people seem to gravitate towards careers as surgeons and lawyers that pay much more than creative occupations as artists or poets. Workers are not fully liberated until they begin to work by their own rules, not in the way of a trained animal or programed robot. To address the flaw Marx points out, certain individuals would have to start by owning their own businesses and playing by their own honest rules. By engaging themselves in their work, they would not mind working long hours as they are doing things on their terms. They would be able to interact with whomever they pleased and not only would their work or services have considerable value, they would feel valued themselves.
In “Das Kapital”, Marx points out the double character of commodities along with the theory of commodity fetishism. The double character of commodities are use-value, which measures the need for the commodity in society, and exchange-value, which measures the commodity’s worth in the market. Marx suggests that, in a capitalist society, a product is twice as valuable than its source material due to the social labor time used to create it. The use-value of every commodity is produced by human labor. Marx then leads into commodity fetishism, where the exchange-value of a commodity appears as if it was a natural element as opposed to the measurement of the human labor provided to create the commodity. This can be represented in today’s society with the Nike corporation and the consumer fetishism of their sneakers. These sneakers, depending on the style, can go for a couple hundred dollars per pair and were made in a sweatshop overseas, where the workers’ labor is exploited. In today’s society, especially in the sneaker community, the labor the workers put into the production of the sneaker does not matter at all, it’s only the tangible shoe bearing the name of the brand that matters to them. A possible solution to this would be to bring even more attention to the fact that companies like Nike are exploiting their workers for absurd profits. This attention might be able to dissuade society from buying from them until they initiate some sort of positive change.
In his works “The Communist Manifesto”, “Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844” and “Das Kapital”, Marx pointed out several flaws relating to capitalism and theorized that a revolution of the working class would result in a socialist society, which would then transition into a communist society. Some aspects of capitalism that Marx criticized in his works included employee exploitation, commodity fetishism and overproduction. These critiques of capitalism are true but, by pointing out the flaws, allows for the possibility to repair them and improve the system. A solution that can be used to combat employee exploitation created companies would be for individuals to take their business elsewhere and shop at local businesses with ethical practices. To prevent overproduction, the economy should be regulated to some degree, allowing it to have its fair share of freedom with the government only stepping in when deemed necessary. By modifying certain characteristics of Marx’s critiques, these changes could develop a potentially better capitalist society.