Karl Marx
A critique of the results of capitalism was formulated by Karl Marx. According to Marx, the treatment of labor as a commodity led to people valuing things more in terms of their price rather than their usefulness (see commodity fetishism), and hence to an expansion of the system of commodities. Marx observed that some people bought commodities in order to use them, while others bought them in order to sell them on at a profit. Much of the history of late capitalism involves what David Harvey called the "system of flexible accumulation" in which more and more things become commodities, the value of which is determined through the process of exchange rather than their use. For example, not only pins are commodities; shares in the ownership of a factory that manufactures pins become commodities; then options on the stock issued in the company that operates the factory become commodities; then portions of the interest rate attached to bonds issued by the company become commodities, and so on. The prevalence of commodity speculation in modern capitalism significantly shapes its outcomes.
Marx defines "capital" as money and "capitalist production" as the use of money to denominate wealth; these labels refer to John Stuart Mill's definition of value in a market economy as being the going price for a good or service.
Marx believed that the extension of the Labor Theory of Value (the theory of value used by Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Adam Smith, David Ricardo, etc.) indicated capitalists (owners of the means of production) would exploit workers by depriving them of value that workers themselves create. According to Marx, surplus value is the difference between the value that the worker has created and the wage that the worker receives from his employer.
Read more about this topic: History Of Capitalist Theory
Famous quotes by karl marx:
“On a level plain, simple mounds look like hills; and the insipid flatness of our present bourgeoisie is to be measured by the altitude of its ‘great intellects.’”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“The Tories in England had long imagined that they were enthusiastic about the monarchy, the church and beauties of the old English Constitution, until the day of danger wrung from them the confession that they are enthusiastic only about rent.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“In communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticize after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, shepherd or critic.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“The production of too many useful things results in too many useless people.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“The theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)