Although we live in the Twenty-First Century, not much has changed between the age of the
proletariat and bourgeoisie that Karl Marx discussed in his social theories and
the capitalist hierarchy we live, work in, and breathe in every day. People are
still treated like pawns in the never-ending work day cycle where the worker is
bound to a company as their property of which they can use as they see fit.
This of course is until the company decides to fire the worker, the worker
retires, or until the individual dies. Yet sometimes we fail to realize that
truth and that each day someone works somewhere, doing some type of service for
a paycheck or hourly wage. A paycheck/wage regulated by the owner of the
business who decides a fair value or price tag for the hours worked and a price
tag/ value of the employee.
Karl Marx touched quite a bit on the topic of the intangible value
businesses the world over for centuries and have applied to justify workers’
payment. Marx described this institutionalized norm as wage-labor which implied
that an individual’s time and brawn were for sale to business willing to offer
the highest paying wage. Karl Marx definitely had an issue with that injustice
because wage-labor stripped the laborers of their power and turned it into
another commodity the business could purchase, sell, or trade as they saw fit.
Laborer alienation soon followed the
After covering all the issues I have mentioned thus far and with the more and more
about Marx I learn, I can’t help but think that if Karl Marx was alive today he
would most likely wonder why a proletariat revolution has yet to occur. If Karl
Marx was alive today he might find it within himself to be the match needed to
ignite the fires of labor revolution. It is very possible that Marx hypothetical
stand for today’s capitalist world would sound something like this, “Throughout
the ages common folk have worked with all their might, with every ounce of blood
sweat and tears there could spare to produce someone else’s commodity. And in
turn their services just like the products the worker created in his or her
labor power has become something that can be used, abused, and exchanged by
richer men. You, out there who work on your hands and knees for pennies that
eventually add to a dollar of your time, have been subject the alienation and
exploitation for far too long. Laborers we must unite and tear down the
buildings that house our corrupt modern-day burgeoisie and their pro-capitalist
economic system where the rich stay rich and the working class can only make
enough of a wage to buy bread crumbs.”
Unfortunately Karl Marx is not alive and well in today’s world to lead
the charge for the working class revolution, he is dead and gone. But his life
lives on with the socio-economic theories he left behind as his eternal legacy
to the world. The theories Marx proposed, he believed would lead to a more
egalitarian society which every country could follow. In a way his vision of an
egalitarian society was brought to fruition with the Communist movement in
Russia during the early Twentieth Century.
In the egalitarian society Karl Marx prophesied about, an object would be
traded freely amongst common folk and services were to be exchanged in the same
way. The product, service, or exchange would be done without any fabricated
value institutionally charged upon the recipient. Despite Karl Marx’s great
theories and his egalitarian intentions, due to the Communist Russian leader
Joseph Stalin, Marx’s work would be forever tarnish and associated with the
Soviet Union, Stalinism, the Cold War, and radical dictatorship.
proletariat and bourgeoisie that Karl Marx discussed in his social theories and
the capitalist hierarchy we live, work in, and breathe in every day. People are
still treated like pawns in the never-ending work day cycle where the worker is
bound to a company as their property of which they can use as they see fit.
This of course is until the company decides to fire the worker, the worker
retires, or until the individual dies. Yet sometimes we fail to realize that
truth and that each day someone works somewhere, doing some type of service for
a paycheck or hourly wage. A paycheck/wage regulated by the owner of the
business who decides a fair value or price tag for the hours worked and a price
tag/ value of the employee.
Karl Marx touched quite a bit on the topic of the intangible value
businesses the world over for centuries and have applied to justify workers’
payment. Marx described this institutionalized norm as wage-labor which implied
that an individual’s time and brawn were for sale to business willing to offer
the highest paying wage. Karl Marx definitely had an issue with that injustice
because wage-labor stripped the laborers of their power and turned it into
another commodity the business could purchase, sell, or trade as they saw fit.
Laborer alienation soon followed the
After covering all the issues I have mentioned thus far and with the more and more
about Marx I learn, I can’t help but think that if Karl Marx was alive today he
would most likely wonder why a proletariat revolution has yet to occur. If Karl
Marx was alive today he might find it within himself to be the match needed to
ignite the fires of labor revolution. It is very possible that Marx hypothetical
stand for today’s capitalist world would sound something like this, “Throughout
the ages common folk have worked with all their might, with every ounce of blood
sweat and tears there could spare to produce someone else’s commodity. And in
turn their services just like the products the worker created in his or her
labor power has become something that can be used, abused, and exchanged by
richer men. You, out there who work on your hands and knees for pennies that
eventually add to a dollar of your time, have been subject the alienation and
exploitation for far too long. Laborers we must unite and tear down the
buildings that house our corrupt modern-day burgeoisie and their pro-capitalist
economic system where the rich stay rich and the working class can only make
enough of a wage to buy bread crumbs.”
Unfortunately Karl Marx is not alive and well in today’s world to lead
the charge for the working class revolution, he is dead and gone. But his life
lives on with the socio-economic theories he left behind as his eternal legacy
to the world. The theories Marx proposed, he believed would lead to a more
egalitarian society which every country could follow. In a way his vision of an
egalitarian society was brought to fruition with the Communist movement in
Russia during the early Twentieth Century.
In the egalitarian society Karl Marx prophesied about, an object would be
traded freely amongst common folk and services were to be exchanged in the same
way. The product, service, or exchange would be done without any fabricated
value institutionally charged upon the recipient. Despite Karl Marx’s great
theories and his egalitarian intentions, due to the Communist Russian leader
Joseph Stalin, Marx’s work would be forever tarnish and associated with the
Soviet Union, Stalinism, the Cold War, and radical dictatorship.