Division Of Labor And The Industrial Revolution, By Karl Marx

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Currently, we live in a diverse and complex society with many components all working together like a machine. Our society is composed of dominant individuals who control the means of production and make profit off of the labor from subsidiary or working class individuals. Participation in this economic structure is not voluntary and our society is set up so that everyone works or they are looked down on as being a deadbeat and often criminalized. Every task in our society has a group of individuals who are influenced to do that job in return for a wage. Without individuals who are willing to do “dirty” jobs, our society would quickly fall apart. Tensions between these two social classes have been prevalent for the majority of human history …show more content…

This is the underlying premise behind Marx’s theory of historical materialism, where he claims the material conditions in a society influence the modes of production, which determines its organization and development. According to this theory, the industrial revolution changed the division of labor, which was an economic catalyst that influenced social change and class conflicts through various forms of alienation and commodification of the worker and their labor (Marx, et al., 1848, p.20). Even though industrial occupations are on the decline in our society, this same theory can be applied to the unskilled, repetitive labor that is prevalent within today’s retail …show more content…

The division of labor consists of the means of production and the relations of production (Marx, 1932. P. 87). Marx states that individuals are defined by their labor in their sense of self and their place in society. He described means of production, such as working on an assembly line, as being unskilled and repetitive (Marx, 1932. P. 87). During Marx’s time, he claimed the rise of machinery caused workers to become mere extensions of the machines and this type of labor created a sense of alienation from the individual and their position in society. Importance in the production of goods switched from the laborer to the machine, because the machine became the main creators of products instead of the individual. At this point, the person became irrelevant and disposable in the production of goods(Marx, 1932. P. 92). This change in the means production altered the division of labor creating social change in every aspect of the super structure. According to Marx, capitalism is set up so that the fewer amount of benefits given to an employee results in the business owner increasing their surplus value (Marx, 1932. P. 88). This results in poor working conditions for the working class and the exploitation of the workers’ rights (Marx, 1932. P. 86). This commodification of labor becomes problematic to the working class who end up becoming dehumanized and their well-being is

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