Manuel A. Beltran
Blog 2
Marx’s concepts of alienation and exploitation of the working class
continue to exist in the twenty first century. This can be observed in many
types of businesses from carwashes, shoe factories, to fast food restaurants.
Marx argued that in order for the bourgeoisie to maintain and increase their
profit, the worker must be alienated and exploited. They are alienated from
themselves, their families, each other, and even the products or services they
make or provide.
The working class is exploited by the bourgeoisie in various ways. Not
only are workers paid very low wages, but are indirectly forced to work long
hours in order to make more money; they might not be forced to do so, but if say
they need $200 a week to survive and working their regular shift would only make
$150, that is not much of a choice. As mentioned above, they are alienated
while being exploited since they make such low wages, and therefore cannot
afford to purchase any of the services or products they produce themselves. The
example of the Nike worker getting paid say $5 an hour to make shoes is one
example, the worker could potentially produce hundreds of dollars for the
company in an hour and still only make five dollars in that same hour.
Another form of exploitation and alienation of the worker from themselves
or from each other, because they spend so much time at work and many times might
be exhausted the little time they have free, it is unrealistic that they might
unite or meet with one another so as to perhaps fight for their rights or better
working conditions. They are also alienated from their families. This situation
only keeps the worker in the same position with almost no possibility of
improving their situation.
A personal example of this would be my old job at a carwash. No one there
made more than six dollars an hour. On average we all worked at least 65 hours a
week, on a slow week and then would not get paid on time all the time. Now this
is slightly different since we were not being forced to work there but given
the economy at the time, whenever we complained to the owner, he would remind
us that we were more than welcome to leave if we felt we were treated unfairly.
The only incentive was that we were allowed to keep whatever tips were made and
we all shared them. However, at six dollars and hour, the owner collected
anywhere from fifteen to twenty dollars every couple minutes from each car. We
as employees would together make the exchange value of a few hours of labor.
This system of letting us make tips, also encouraged some of the employees to
pocket the tips they received instead of sharing them with everyone else, this
also caused problems between workers and further alienates them from one
another by creating situations where one or two would make around one hundred
dollars in tips and the rest would get stuck with one or two dollars if that.
Blog 2
Marx’s concepts of alienation and exploitation of the working class
continue to exist in the twenty first century. This can be observed in many
types of businesses from carwashes, shoe factories, to fast food restaurants.
Marx argued that in order for the bourgeoisie to maintain and increase their
profit, the worker must be alienated and exploited. They are alienated from
themselves, their families, each other, and even the products or services they
make or provide.
The working class is exploited by the bourgeoisie in various ways. Not
only are workers paid very low wages, but are indirectly forced to work long
hours in order to make more money; they might not be forced to do so, but if say
they need $200 a week to survive and working their regular shift would only make
$150, that is not much of a choice. As mentioned above, they are alienated
while being exploited since they make such low wages, and therefore cannot
afford to purchase any of the services or products they produce themselves. The
example of the Nike worker getting paid say $5 an hour to make shoes is one
example, the worker could potentially produce hundreds of dollars for the
company in an hour and still only make five dollars in that same hour.
Another form of exploitation and alienation of the worker from themselves
or from each other, because they spend so much time at work and many times might
be exhausted the little time they have free, it is unrealistic that they might
unite or meet with one another so as to perhaps fight for their rights or better
working conditions. They are also alienated from their families. This situation
only keeps the worker in the same position with almost no possibility of
improving their situation.
A personal example of this would be my old job at a carwash. No one there
made more than six dollars an hour. On average we all worked at least 65 hours a
week, on a slow week and then would not get paid on time all the time. Now this
is slightly different since we were not being forced to work there but given
the economy at the time, whenever we complained to the owner, he would remind
us that we were more than welcome to leave if we felt we were treated unfairly.
The only incentive was that we were allowed to keep whatever tips were made and
we all shared them. However, at six dollars and hour, the owner collected
anywhere from fifteen to twenty dollars every couple minutes from each car. We
as employees would together make the exchange value of a few hours of labor.
This system of letting us make tips, also encouraged some of the employees to
pocket the tips they received instead of sharing them with everyone else, this
also caused problems between workers and further alienates them from one
another by creating situations where one or two would make around one hundred
dollars in tips and the rest would get stuck with one or two dollars if that.