Marx and Nietzsche

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that, from a Marxian perspective, the sales clerk position personifies issues surrounding control of the means of production such as the lack of incentive for the lowest level workers (the clerks) when contrasted with the benefits and bonuses available to those who controlled the means of production (the store owners). The author points out that Nietzsche would interpret the positions of the workers versus the owners as a moral "trickle-down" debate. The paper relates that similarities between the concepts of Marx and Nietzsche are their beliefs that men themselves formulate societal constructs and that these constructs are divided into classifications of master/slave (Nietzsche) or proletariat/bourgeoisie (Marx).

From the Paper:

"The proletarians of Marx must consent at some level to being ruled, and until they consciously and voluntarily "unite" and rise up against their oppressors, they continue to tacitly agree to being ruled. A parallel with this concept of agreeing to be ruled by the wealthier (or "master," to use Nietzsche's wording) is a realization of the power actually wielded by lower level workers when they choose to united against unfair treatment. Had the sales clerks formed a united front against the unfair pay scale for our labors and demanded a commission scale or similar compensation for our labor, management would have been hard pressed to replace twenty plus clerks overnight."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Baumgarten, Eduard, ed. Max Weber: Werk und Person. Tubingen: J. C. B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck) (1994).
• Nietzsche, Friedrich On the Genealogy of Morality Indianapolis: Hackett (1998)
• Simon, Lawrence. Karl Marx: Selected Writings Indianapolis: Hackett (1994).

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