How Do Marx's Criticisms Of Capitalism In The Communist Manifesto Relate To Life Today? (Essay Sample)

Name Course Lecturer Date How Marx's criticisms of capitalism in “The Communist Manifesto” relate to life today The “Manifesto of the Communist Party” is authored by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels; the document avails the history of the contemporary labor movements by revealing the various ills of capitalism and the oppression of workers. Marx criticized capitalism as a system that favored the owners of the capital while discriminating against the owners of labor; hence, the book can be envisioned as directed to workers since it reveals their suffering and provides the action plan on how workers should salvage themselves from the bondage of the bourgeoisie. The author will analyze how Marx's criticisms of capitalism in “The Communist Manifesto” relate to life today by comparing and contrasting the quality of life for the working classes, income inequality gap, the effects of global trade, the division of wealth and private properties between the economic classes and worker exploitation by those who own “means of production.” THE QUALITY OF LIFE FOR THE WORKING CLASSES Marx and Engels held that society was divided into two great classes: The bourgeoisie and the proletariats (15). The bourgeoisie has reduced the value of the relationship between man and his natural superiors; it has also reduced the connection between individuals to “cash payments” (15). The interactions in families have been reduced to money relationships while many professional that were honored, such as the priest and the physicians, have been reduced to paid laborers (16). According to Brown, Marx was right to claim that capitalism has reduced the value of relationships to “payments” since capital continues to be influential in the contemporary world (91). Brown posits that in the current world of “financialization,” the objective and the character of the states, universities, NGOs, and corporations, resembles the bourgeoisie in controlling the welfare of others. For example, the sovereign democracies such as Greece have been brought down on their credit ratings and forced to rely on other nations and the global financial institutions due to the effects of capitalism (Brown 91). Through monetization of everything, the finance capital has changed the measure and nature of value by reconfiguring nations, human conduct, firms, and human anxiety. THE INCOME INEQUALITY GAP The proletariats earn by selling their labor to the bourgeoisie; the “proletarian has lost all the individual character, and consequently, all the charm for the workman,” because the demand for labor low while the supply is high making the wages low (Marx and Engels 18). The increase in labor supply reduces the payable wages making the income gap between the bourgeoisie and the workers even larger. Unlike the bourgeoisie who own capital and the final product in the production process, the proletariats “live only so long as they find work and find work only so long as their labor increases capital” (Marx and Engels 18). The ratio of income for the wealthy and the poor, from the 1970s, has increased by a factor of five; showing that the bourgeoisie continues to be influential while the proletariats suffer under the capitalism (Percy 12). Again, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, in 1997, noted that the inequality in wage between the unskilled and skilled labor was becoming a global trend with income distribution “hollowing out” in the middle class. The global economy has been characterized by job and income insecurity, revealing the widening gap between the bourgeoisie and the proletariats of the 21st century (Percy 19). THE EFFECTS OF GLOBAL TRADE Marx and Engels believed that “The bourgeoisie has through its exploitation of the world market given a cosmopolitan character to production and consumption in every country” (16). Capitalism contributed to the destruction of the old industries and replaced by new industries that draw their raw materials from remote areas while the final products are consumed across the world. The global trade contributed to the inter-dependence of nations through material and intellectual production (Marx and Engels 16). According to Marx, the global trade led to improved means of communication and facilitated the civilization of even the most barbarian nations. Marx and Engels held that Bourgeoisie influenced many nations to embrace bourgeoisie as a means of production by making them bourgeois (16). Hence, bourgeoisie nations have emerged to control peasant nations in various aspects of the political and economic spheres. German notes that the contemporary capitalism has made it possible for people to buy exotic fruits that come across the world by going to Sainsbury’s or get clothes whose origin is Malaysia or Philippines (15). The enhanced communication makes it possible for people watch events that are happening across the world through television, internet or satellite. However, German believes that the current capitalism continues to discriminate against the poor since the industrial or agricultural products that are designed for the advanced capitalists’ nations have ruined the livelihoods of the poor nations, thereby increasing inequality (15). The spread of the “currency crisis” that started in Thailand spread to Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines and later the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was approached to rescue Indonesia by giving out $30 and $17 billion for Thailand, is considered to be the effect of the modern day financial capitalists (Percy 7). For instance, IMF will decide which country to assist and which one to leave out; this makes IMF a modern-day capitalist to other nations. Also, the contemporary capitalism has been associated with overproduction and under-consumption which has made it difficult to recognize the surplus value as profit. The overproduction of financial capital by various capitalists in the U.S and other nations has been associated with the liquidity crises, debt, bubbles, and depreciation of the currency value, market manipulation and excessive volatility (Brown 93). THE DIVISION OF WEALTH AND PRIVATE PROPERTY BETWEEN ECONOMIC CLASSES The economic class is determined by the private ownership of capital or labor. The bourgeoisie owns the means of production (capital) while the proletariats own labor (Marx and Engels 18, 23). However, labor is subject to manipulation making it difficult for the workers to accumulate wealth since they are not paid enough to settle their needs; hence, they do not have property. The bourgeoisie accumulates wealth by exploiting labor; therefore, the division of wealth between the owners of the capital and the workers is uneven; this leads to class struggles since workers contribute greatly to the creation of the capitalist’s wealth. Marx was opposed to private property because it contributed to the exploitation of others in the quest for “social status in production” (23). Marx felt that communism would replace capitalism in the near future because it does not advocate for the appropriation of the society’s products to a few individuals. Percy notes that since the 1970s, the inequality in wealth and income has been increasing in the United States (11). For instance, in 1997, 447 billionaires had accumulated wealth that was equivalent to 50 percent of the total assets of the world’s poor people. LABOR LAWS The bourgeoisie state did not envision the availability of labor laws; however, since the capitalist owned the means of production, the bourgeoisie dictated the terms of labor that favored their in...