Perhaps the closest relation which I can draw from the topic of capitalism is the nature of my father’s job as an auto-technician mechanic. Being a member of the working class, I grew up witnessing how his struggles and the fruition of his labor became an advantage to the car-owners, whom I preferably refer to the “economically privileged”. As my inherent social reality, I am not estranged to the basic principles and evils of the free market.
For Karl Marx, there is an immanent relation between man’s labor and human nature, that is man’s species-being — his sense to work beyond his needs which separates him from other living things. In the prevalence of the bourgeois society, however, his work simply loses its character and becomes subsistence, therefore only exemplifying the exploitations and alienation from his own labor. As presented in Ritzer and Stepnisky (2018), this alienation of the working class, is identified from either their productive activity, product, fellow workers, and human potential. To elaborate, first, man is alienated from his productive activity when he toils for the capitalist and in the end receives wage for the labor he did not decide himself. For my father whose job is basically repairing cars under the direction of a company he works for, the fulfilling end is earning money for survival not by owning his work. Second, the working class is alienated from their own creation as in the case of NutriAsia factory workers who are not only working for capitalist Joselito Campos, but are reportedly exploited (Rey & Bautista, 2018). Third, capitalism promotes isolation and interpersonal hostility with other fellow workers which is observable with call-center agents. Lastly, man is alienated from his human potential as in the case of the sales lady whose smiles and greetings are scripted in a controlled environment.
Marx presupposes capitalism as structurally unequal — the capitalist benefit more at workers disadvantage. This creates arbitrary distinctions on the part of the workers, setting them up to compete against one another (class conflict). In a capitalist society, profit generation rests on the exploitation of proletariat who inevitably will increase and be soon capable of revolution that necessitates political action, birthing a communist society. The evils of capitalism are hence, can only be resolved through social change. Participating in the free market while fighting for the rights of those victims of it, is therefore a disguised privilege.
References:
Rey, A., & Bautista, J. (2018). LOOK: Why NutriAsia workers are on strike. Retrieved from https://www.rappler.com/nation/reason-nutriasia-workers-on-strike
Ritzer , G., and Stepnisky, J.,(2018) Sociological Theories. 10th Edition . Sage Publishing, 80–116.
