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Karl Marx and Political Economy

Uploaded by spootyhead on Feb 19, 2007

Karl Marx and Political Economy

Marx’s thoughts on political economy and his critiques on capitalism stem from the question that all human society must face; what must we do to survive? Mainstream economics questions how we organize ourselves to meet the unlimited wants of people by allocating scarce resources. Political economy focuses on social institutions and implications that the economy creates. Marx saw economics as the key to any society. Through the modes of production, classes form and changes occur. He saw capitalism as, “simply the latest in a series of modes of production and that it, too, will yield to some other mode of production in the future” (Sackrey, 27). Capitalism is rooted in historic change. His ideas of surplus value from private property, systems of command from class separation and a general commodifaction of man and labor through estrangement tarnish the idea of work itself. Private property, systems leading to class separation and labor estrangement that inequality and ownership create are the fundamentals.

Most important to Marx’s theoretical argument against capitalism is the idea of private property and personal ownership. By owning large portions of land, firms and corporations will control and own all that is produced. As in agriculture the farmer takes the crop of his land, ownership of the plant and capital and labor ensure control of whatever is produced to the capitalist. This principle is the basis of many other arguments of Marx. By owning the property you own both the means of production whatever is produced. In his Communist Manifesto, Marx saw ownership as the inevitable lead to profit maximization. Since capitalist own the property, they, in effect, own the labor time that is put into producing something. This creates class distinction and wealth. “Property in its present form, is based on the antagonism of capital and wage labor,” (Communist Manifesto, 8). Ownership provides the luxury of doing what you please with what you produce. This is the notion of the surplus value, the extra amount that is created by a worker per day. For the most part, this is directly turned into profits.

Bowles expands on many of Marx’s political economy ideas with parallel examples and more importantly, explains how Marx’s ideas have extended into other institutions we see today. For example, he describes how capitalists have taken the notion of ownership and surplus value to create relationships of command and power. By having ownership...

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Uploaded by:   spootyhead

Date:   02/19/2007

Category:   Economics

Length:   11 pages (2,386 words)

Views:   3998

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