Capitalism is where the means of production are privately owned and are operated for maximum profit for the capitalist. Capitalists have labor power and control over the working class. The working class become estranged and loses the determination in their lives under the Capitalist mode of production. The product of labor does not belong to the worker, but to the capitalists. The more the worker produces the richer the capitalist gets, also the capitalist gains more power over the worker. Income comes in two forms in a capitalist society, profit and wages. Alienation occurs to the working class, as working becomes a means of survival and not a pleasure. (SparkNotes Editors, 2005).
Feuerbach and Hegel influenced Marx’s ideas about alienation. Feuerbach and Hegel both focused on the spiritual world, where as Marx translates into the material world. In Feuerbach’s writing The Essence of Christianity (1841) Feuerbach argues alienation of god. Marx argues the alienation between the worker and the product, production, human identity and from other workers. All these four relations can be seen as aspects of the worker being separated from ones self. (Morrison, 1995).
The first type of alienation is alienation from the product, the worker has no power of what is being produced, and the capitalist owns the production. The worker puts his life and labor into producing the product but does not own the product so somewhat becomes alien and astringed from the product that is being produced. This happens in two ways, first since the worker is forced to sell their labor to the capitalists in exchange for a wage the worker loses the control of their own labor power. Second, in the system of exchange the product no longer has any use value to the worker. (Morrison, 1995). Commodities produced by the process of labor are taken away from the worker and sold, and labor becomes a commodity. This process of commodity then produces power and wealth for the capitalist, but alienation and poverty for the worker. The capitalist pays the worker the lowest rate possible to gain a maximum rate of return. (Parijs, 1993).
The worker experiences alienation from the production this happens because, capitalism removes the workers rights. The worker has no control of what job can be done or how this job can be done. Working is a means of survival for a small wage. The small wage is needed for the worker to survive; working is seen as forced over being voluntary. The division of labor determines which one job the worker will carry out. The workers being is satisfied when it has control over the labor being produced and how it will be used or exchanged for something else. Under capitalism this right is removed, the worker is robed the right of receiving the product he has produced, or receiving the full amount of the product. The control and exchange of the workers labor power is lost. ( Ollman, 1971). Since the labor production no longer belongs to the worker, their qualities on life are reversed. Workers become weak and in this state the worker can no longer depend on their own activity in their life. (Morrison, 1995)
Marx sees that human identity is another way that labor alienation occurs in capitalism. Workers under capitalism lose their humanity. Work is seen as unpleasant and not part of human nature. Workers feel like they are living a part of a machine. When the desire to work is gone, work is avoided at all costs. Labor is external to the worker, workers do not conform in their work but deny and feels un-happy. (Kanungo, 1982). Alienation of the workers humanity leaves the worker with only animal like functions, and so the only area where workers can be human, is in those functions common with animals such as eating and drinking to satisfy the humanity. Even though eating and drinking are part of human- being, take away all other aspects of human humanity they become animal pursuits. (Morrison, 1995).
Alienation from other workers occurs as; the worker’s are alienated from other humans and also from the social community. Capitalism makes workers feel isolated and separated from each other, to pursue their private interests for economic gain. The capitalist is alien and hostile as they have power and are of a separate and higher class. The worker feels alienated towards the entire system of private property. Workers feel in competition with each other due to the labor market, and are detached individuals who work separately and live privately. ( Ollman, 1971).
Marx also explores the idea of how the division of labor is a factor in labor alienation. In the division of labor each worker has a specific job that must be carried out. The worker loses his identity to fit the specific job, becoming a part of a large machine. Loss of imagination and self-being occurs, as the capitalists make the workers machine like. The division of labor is essential in a capitalist society as it provides maximum value at the workers expense. Jobs are standard making it easy for workers to be replaced like parts of a machine. When the economic system is good wages will increase. The down side of this is, the profit margin on labor will decrease leading to the unemployment rate increasing. This causes small businesses to collapse and wages to once again decrease. However, at this point, consumption will have fallen because there is less disposable income. Capitalist will then again hire more workers and pay at a lower rate as the workers are unemployed and are in desperate need of a job. (SparkNotes Editors, 2005).
Marx defined capitalism as the production of all commodities or goods for sale on the market, this includes labor power. Workers have to sell their labor on the open market to employers, who pay a wage for the use of the workers labor power. Commodity’s become a mysterious thing to workers, as the social character of labor appears as an objective character stamped upon the product of labor. The relation of the producers to the total of their own labor is presented as a social relation, not between themselves, but between the products of their labor. This is why the products of labor become commodities. ( Geyer & Heinz, 1992).Marx believed that commodities and money are fetishes that prevent people from seeing the truth about society; one class is exploiting another class. In capitalism, the production of commodities is based on an exploitative relationship between owners of factories and the workers who produce the commodities. (SparkNotes Editors, 2005).
Society today has passed the stage of capitalism and industrial production, which Marx discusses in his theory of labor alienation in a number of ways. With the changing of the social world into modernity in late eighteenth and early nineteenth century and post modernity in the late twentieth century. The englightment revolution (1730-1800) was seen as a social movement. In this period learning, discussion and applied thinking began to take shape. (Mclennan, McManus & Spoonley). New technology has arisen in the form of, mass communications media, computers, information processing, knowledge and entertainment industries. People in society are more focused on culture and leisure activity over estranged labor. “Everyday life appears to be increasingly determined by advanced technology and the manipulation of commodities and messages in a brave new world of consumer goods and services. Politics and culture are shaped and influenced largely on behalf of dominant interests through television and the media, advertising, design, architecture, urbanization and an increasing bureaucratization of daily life in all spheres of society”. ( Geyer & Heinz, 1992, p.45-46). Single capitalists no longer own the means of productions, today they are owned by several different groups and a number of stockholders. Workers today have better standards of living and have gained more working rights. ( Kendall, 2007).
In the theory of alienation Marx talks about in a capitalist society, work is seen as a loss of identity and essential nature. The lower class who do not own property must hand over their labor power and their essence as human beings, to the wealthy capitalists. This is not only frustrating and unsatisfying to the workers but also turns workers against the capitalists and the whole system of private property. The more the worker produces the more the capitalist gains. Marx connects his theory of alienation with the division of labor, and commodity exchange. Labor alienation to Marx is centered on the product, the production, human identity and other workers. These four aspects of alienation inter-link. The alienation of labor implies the alienation of other workers through class conflict and competition. This is also strengthened by the alienation of the products of labour. The alienation of workers from species being is contributed to by all the other three aspects. All four are related aspects of alienation of workers in a capitalist society. The theory of alienation shows the devastating effect of capitalist production on human beings, on their physical and mental states and on the social process of which they are a part. Since Marx wrote his theory on alienation, society has changed vastly with the social change into modernity and post modernity. People do no longer focus on the alienation of labor but more on culture and leisure.
Reference list
SparkNotes Editors. (2005). SparkNote on Karl Marx (1818–1883). Retrieved April 2, 2011, from http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/marx/
Kendall, D. (2007). Sociology in our Times: The Essentials. United States, Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Morrison, K. (2006). Marx, Durkheim, Weber: Formations of Modern Social Thought. London, Sage Publications Ltd.
Geyer, F., & Heinz, W.R. (1992). Alienation, Society, and the Individual: Continuity and Change in Theory and Research. New Jersey, United States, Transaction Publishers.
Ollman,B.(1971). Alienation: Marx’s Conception of Man in Capitalist Society. London, Cambridge University Press.
Parijs, P.V. (1993). Marxism Recycled. New York, United States, Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge.
Kanungo, N.K. (1982).Work Alienation an Integrative Approach. United States, Praeger Publishers.
McLennan, G., McManus, R, & Spoonley, P. (2010). Exploring Society: Sociology for New Zealand Students (3rd ed). New Zealand, Pearson.