Das Kapital By Karl Marx (1818 - 1883) Essays - Marxian Economics

Das Kapital by Karl Marx (1818 - 1883) Das Kapital by Karl Marx (1818 - 1883) Commentary In the mid-nineteenth century, when Karl Marx wrote Das Kapital - an exhaustive work of more than one thousand pages - factory conditions were often intolerable, wages were at best barely adequate, and there were few groups or governments who advocated reform. Therefore, Marx took it upon himself to define "Capitalism,,, explain and condemn Capitalist methods, predict the inevitable doom of the system, and issue the rallying cry, "Workers of the world, unite!" When Marx simply describes what he sees, his analyses and criticisms appear most lucid. In contrast, his theories become confusing as he attempts to prove even the vaguest point using mathematics. He felt that these elaborate equations and proofs were necessary because his book does not purport to be merely a moral prescription for society's ills, but a scientific description of the unavoidable course of history. It is, of course, actually not only a "prescription" but a passionate exhortation. In any case, some of Marx's words still ring true,- as a framework for analyzing the historical transformation of human society, Das Kapital succeeds quite well. Marx's work draws heavily on the dialectical theories of Georg Hegel, an earlier 19th-century German idealist-philosopher. Hegel had posited that the world was in a constant process of transformation from lower to higher orders of existence. Each new order, he thought, emerged as an embodied idea, or "thesis"; and each thesis carried within itself the seeds of its own destruction its own opposing force or "antithesis" (a "we-have-met-the-enemy-and-he-is-us" concept). But out of the inevitable clash between thesis and antithesis, a new and more perfect order - the synthesis was destined to emerge (as Christianity, for example, had risen triumphant from the struggle between Greek and Hebrew thought). In its turn, then, this synthesis would now function as a new thesis, engendering another antithesis and advancing the conflict-resolution cycle, until finally history fought its way forward to the ultimate synthesis - the "total realization of the world spirit.,, For religious disciples of Hegel, all this was tantamount to the coming of God's kingdom on earth; but for Marx (who admired Hegel's thought but despised religion as a tool of oppression and dismissed idealism as "unscientific") it was a challenge to ground Hegelian dialectic in the down-to-earth materialism of economics - which Marx saw as the engine of history. The inherent tension between social classes under different economic orders has created both conflict and progress through the ages, he pronounces. Most recently, the emerging merchant-capitalist class that arose to service feudalism was broken down, as merchants overwhelmed their masters; it is this merchant class that rules today. But now, says Marx, is the hour for the "ultimate synthesis" - the Proletariat revolution and the final achievement of a classless and stateless society. Book Overview To understand Marx, we must first establish some basic definitions: commodities - Things to be bought or sold. use value - Capacity to satisfy wants (to be used" or "useful"). exchange value - Price. (Distinguished from "use value" in that a society may value an article, yet not be accustomed to exchanging it.) value - The "socially necessary" time needed to produce a commodity. surplus value - Profit or land-rent; the sine qua non of Capitalism, created when the value of a day's labor exceeds the exchange value of "labour-power." capital - The surplus value that is invested in labor power and means of production (machines, plants, raw materials, etc.). labor power - The capacity or opportunity to work. labor power (in Capitalism) - A human corn modify; work sold by a laborer to his "owner"-boss at less than the exchange value of labor produced. money - A valuable, produced commodity (gold, silver, etc.) employed as a universal equivalent for values of other commodities. Proletariat - Working class; propertyless wage-earners (who must remain propertyless for Capitalism to work, says Marx). Bourgeoisie - The Capitalist class, who - not acting with intentional evil, but as "capital personified" - serve as puppets of the system, exploiting the Proletariat. Marx points out that "the circulation or exchange of commodities in itself creates no value." So, the trick the Capitalist must perform, in order to exact his profit, is "[to obtain] from his commodities a greater value than that invested by him in them... Capitalist-Laborer Relationship Capitalistic society provides three main sources of "income": (1) Capital (which "profits" the Capitalist); (2) Land (which provides landowners with rent); and (3) "Labour-power,, (which earns the worker his wage). A laborer is, in a sense, a merchant, who sells his "labour-power" as a commodity. And "the value of labour-power is the value of the necessaries required to sustain its proprietor." Thus, the Capitalist