Capitalism In The Communist Manifesto By Karl Marx

As an economic system, capitalism has been credited in the creation of enormous prosperity. However, it has also been criticized for its impact upon working people, or those who do not own the means of production. The writings of Marx, Engels and Weber describe the effects of capitalism upon a laborer as being characterized by dehumanizing treatment, the commodification of both labor and self, and exploitation. Labor unions offer the possibility of meaningful resistance to these effects, through the creation of solidarity and the enforcement of legal protections against employer abuses. Capitalism dehumanizes those who labor under it. Marx says of the worker, that “He has become an appendage of the machine, and it is only the most simple,

“These laborers, who must sell themselves piecemeal, are a commodity, like every other article of commerce, and are subsequently exposed to all the vicissitudes of competition, to all the fluctuations of the market.” (The Communist Manifesto, p.5) This sense of oneself as a commodity leads to competition and divisiveness among workers, as each is forced to promote themselves as more efficient, and more cost effective than their fellow workers. “The workers do not only compete by one selling himself cheaper than another; they compete by one doing the work of five, ten, twenty; and the division of labor, introduced by capital and continually increased, compels the workers to compete among themselves in this way.” (Wage Labor and Capital, p.214) The sense of competition that capitalism encourages among the proletariat may also prevent them from recognizing their shared struggle and organizing to fight back. “This organization of the proletarians into a class, and, consequently, into a political party, is continually being upset again by the competition between the workers themselves.” (The Communist Manifesto,

The justification for the exploitation of workers can be found in this idea of a calling. “Of course,” Weber argues,”the entire corpus of literature on asceticism, which is drawn from almost all religions [East and West], is permeated with the point of view that loyal work is highly pleasing to God, even if performed for low wages by people at a great disadvantage in life and without other opportunities” (The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, p.175) but under capitalism, it became a justification for the exploitation of workers. By depicting work as a sacred obligation and discouraging people from seeking a better life in the name of obedience to God, “…Protestant asceticism provided a formal validation to the exploitation of this particular willingness to work.” (The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, p.175) Even in today’s secular society, the effect remains, wherein “work in a calling becomes endowed with a peculiarly objective impersonal character, one in the service of a rational formation of the societal cosmos surrounding us.” (The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of