Karl Marx on social inequality
...re not at all concerned with the workers. The proletariat themselves are also working for their own goals and advancement and not toward a common goal. The fact that there was an overabundance of workers and not enough places for them to work was in the favor of the bourgeoisie. It kept the workers from forming together to rebel against the owners for higher wages and better working conditions because there was always a ready supply of workers to replace them. This kept the workers constantly competing against each other instead of working together. This created for the owners, though perhaps unhappy, a cheap group of laborers. Another factor that distorts the natural work process is expropriation of surplus wealth. The workers are primarily responsible for creating this surplus wealth and yet they do not benefit from it. When large surpluses of wealth are created it does not go to the workers, it goes directly to the owners, which they use to but new machinery and so on, which in the end is bad for the workers because it begins to slowly replace them. They are creating this surplus wealth which may eventually lead to their labor being worth less to the owners. The division of labor is also a problem. The division of labor begins when property owners emerge and they are separated from the workers. It is obvious that goods can more quickly be created with the division of labor. If each individual is given a specific and specialized job to do, the rate of production increases. This also affects the worker’s, they become less content with their job because they are repeating the exact same thing over day after day. This causes them to no longer be able to identify with the product that they had such a small part in creating. Human beings are meant to create and this sense is lost when the ability to create is removed. Alienated labor is also an issue with capitalism. The existence of private property, the expropriation of surplus wealth, and the division of labor all contribute to alienation. The workers have virtually no control over the products they create, which means that labor itself has been turned into a commodity, just the same as the commodities or goods that they are creating. The workers lose interest in their work and no longer are able to find it enjoyable or rewarding, which causes them to be alienated. Capitalism was capable of taking over Feudalism for many reasons. The voyages of discovery opened up international trade and expanded markets beyond local communities or feudal estates. This created demands for new goods, which stimulated the development of new technology and more efficient production. Large-scale manufacturing was thus beginning to grow and the demand for workers grew with it. The old feudal economy could not compete with the new mode of production. They were also losing many resources through wars and civil strife. This caused them to throw serfs off their land or free serfs that they could no longer afford to keep on their land. Many of the freed serfs found employment as workers in the emerging manufacturing interests. They migrated to the urban centers where these manufacturing centers were located. The workers then became the base for the capitalist proletariat and the merchants, traders, and financiers were the emerging capitalist bourgeoisie. Capitalism therefore emerged within the feudal society that it was replacing. Marx has the belief that it is the destiny of the workers to take ascendancy and change the entire social structure of society. This would signal the beginning of a socialist or communist society. Marx brings forward seven factors in capitalist transformation. The key factor toward the development in working-class awareness is the growing concentration of urban laborers. Many workers are housed in the same neighborhoods and are experiencing similar living conditions. A second, related process is the expansion of production into large-scale factories that employ many workers. With them working in such close proximity of each other they will further become aware of their comm...