The Joy of Working

Karl Marx believes that capitalism ultimately falls into two categories: the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The proletarians are the ones that labor to produce the product and the bourgeoisie are the ones that control production. The proletarian’s salary is set so low that they are not able to afford the things they produced thus making the poor poorer and more numerous and the wealthy wealthier and fewer. Marx says these are the reasons that capitalism becomes violent. It is clear how capitalism becomes violent. Because the poor lives a life where they merely survive and it becomes so many of them, eventually they will get tired of the mere survival lifestyle and revolt. In history, we have seen people revolt and demand for better pay and more benefits. However, in modern society, you do not see as many revolts and I believe it is because we have become complacent. I agree with Marx when he said that the worker has become alienated from his or herself. According to Marx, work and labor is free, conscious activity and when that work is no longer free, it causes us to have a feeling of misery. We no longer find happiness in the one distinctly human characteristic. Now because labor becomes a necessity, we find happiness in the animalistic characteristics such as sleeping, eating, and satisfying pleasures and labor leaves us physically and mentally drained. Workers are alienated from themselves because they no longer own their work. Before they even complete the production of a product, the final product is already sold to someone else. The worker is no longer able to pride themselves in their work because their work is not theirs. The workers began to become robotic. The worker began to work solely for wages that will help them survive.