Marx

Paper Summary:

This paper offers a study on materialism and addresses the intrinsic exploitation of capitalism. It discusses Marx's main critique of capitalism based on the idea that capitalism would lead to decreased living standards and the exploitation of the proletariat.

From the Paper:

"Marx's philosophy of materialism may be said to lead to the conclusion that capitalism inevitably exploits the workers. This contention is still widely debated today; the increase in living standards for the proletariat in Western capitalist nations such as America and England has led many to argue that such exploitation in Marx's day was more incidental than inevitable, and that communism has been discredited by the passage of time which has not seen comprehensive proletariat revolutions. It is indeed true that Marx's historical predictions have been thwarted (partly by the actions of proletariat/union driven governments and partly by capitalists who appear to be aware of the need to placate their workers to avoid revolt) -- however, this is only significant as long as one understands Marx's claims only as saying that capitalism inevitably leads to exploitation of the workers, when it also says that capitalism is intrinsically exploitative to the workers. Capitalism may not always lead to further exploitation in the sense of reduced living standards (in fact, it now seems likely that --at least in the immediate sense-- advanced capitalism will encourage a great deal of consumerism that would easily pass for increased living standards), but Marx's critique of its exploitative nature is still legitimate because the state of capitalism is inherently exploitative regardless of whether it is immediately experienced as a harm."

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• Comparison Essay # 96495 : "Marx and Engels Today"
• Comparison Essay # 90747 : "Emile Durkheim's and Karl Marx's Views of Religion "
• Analytical Essay # 135315 : "Marx and Weber on Social Orders"

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