Capitalism - A Marxist Perspective.

I re-submit an improved version. What I think is interesting is that some of my points, rather than being refuted, are greeted with "so what?"; powerful evidence that I've hit the nail on the head in ways that the pro-capitalist struggled to deny!

Where did you do your economics degree, Bismarck?

"Make use of and derive benefit from (a resource)."

Especially important in this is the way the capitalist economy, having removed the means of production from workers, requires that in order to survive workers must sell their work to the owners.As well as this relationship taking control of production out of the hands of the workers, capitalism also directs work to one specific end; profit. The goal of capitalists is to make profit for themselves. You might come across someone telling you that the purpose of capitalists is productivity, but this is only a means to an end. Indeed it’s possible for capitalists to pursue their profits on the basis of scarcity; it is profit and the accumulation of capital that is the actual goal of capitalist behaviour.

Within the capitalist system the capitalist purchases the right to exploit the work potential of those who have been alienated from the means of production and who must labour for capitalists in order to receive wages. The capitalist, generally, pays wages which meet customary needs though sometimes competition with other forces in capitalism require him to offer higher wages. Nevertheless, the incentive of the capitalist is always to pay as little as is possible taking all other factors into account – profit is for the capitalist remember, not the wage-labourer. In some circumstances the capitalist is able to keep (or even push) wages down, or require harder work and longer hours; if profit would benefit from these things, as can be the case, and there are no legal obstacles, this is what the capitalist is driven to do. Pay and conditions for wage-labourers are only the capitalist’s concern if they affect profit and the capitalist will use carrot or stick to suit this end. In other words, the capitalist’s interest in the wage-labourer is as a tool for profit, all other considerations are motivated by this end. Ideally, from the capitalist’s perspective, the wage-labourer works and produces as much capital as possible for that capitalist. This accumulated capital can then contribute to the investment in further means of production, through the purchase of more machinery, property, wage-labourers and so on.

When we look at what capital is today we are seeing what a long history of wage-labour exploitation has accumulated. None of the wealth (or poverty) you see around you has come out of thin air, it has come from a widespread (and admittedly complex) action in which workers, alienated from their means of production, have been forced to work for wages so that the greater benefit of that relationship can enrich the capitalist.

This, as I understand it, leads to the central critique of capitalism by Marx; Capital is the result of exploitation in which the workers’ own productive potentials are alienated from them for someone else’s benefit, the capitalist. The workers’ own energies and skills are turned into a tool for others in a relationship they have no choice but to participate in.

What techniques might benefit the capitalist in the accumulation of capital? I’ve already mentioned how capitalists seek to keep wages as low as is beneficial for profit, or make their wage-labourers work harder or do more hours. Capitalism’s longstanding hostility to attempted collective bargaining by workers (no matter how weak) is evidence of its priorities. More subtlety there is capital's extension into political and social life so as to benefit profit-making and normativise the relationship of exploitation. The almost complete commercialisation of leisure and modern ‘fashion’ culture are good examples of how capitalism promotes and reproduces internalised values conducive to profit making - in the process making capitalist values our values. But we shouldn’t lose sight of what the underlying purpose of Formula One Racing or Big Brother is, it is (in the last instance) to encourage us to help make profits for capitalists and, more insidiously, see society and culture as naturalistically capitalist.

The logic of capitalism is not to make the world a better place (even if you believe that it is doing this). The logic of capitalism is about exploitation for profit, as already identified. The processes of capitalism involve paying as little as can be got away with (especially in the third-world where regulations are lax) and the general avoidance of any costs which interfere with profit.

Widespread pollution of, and damage to, the environment has taken place through capitalist processes simply because capitalism is not motivated by anything other than profit making. Where, for example, capitalism has shown interest in environmentalism we should note that this is only because it is deemed strategically useful for image and profits.

<ranting about how people are duped into accepting capitalism>

Another element in obscuring the exploitative nature of capitalism is the way wage-labourers are encouraged to see their benefits (wages) as representing the &#8216;real&#8217; value of their time and skill even though they have no choice but to wage-labour.

For most of us our choices as to what wage-labour we can do are very limited (I&#8217;m speaking globally here &#8211; capitalism is a global system remember). It depends on where we live,

what class we are part of,

what our gender or ethnicity is,

There&#8217;s also the sense in which the origins of things like technology, skyscrapers, production systems, medicine and science generally are not often understood as a product of wage-labour exploitation, but as the fruits of capitalism.

Finally, and possible most pernicious of all, is that the system of capitalism is so pervasive that the wage-labourer really does need the capitalist in order to meet their needs. The system has made those alienated from the means of production utterly dependent upon those who have capital. As it is only the capitalist hand that feeds the wage-labourer it is often difficult to see that hand as exploitative let alone see that there might be another way to live.