Did Marx think that capitalism is unjust Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Did Marx think that capitalism is unjust - Essay Example The theory of Base and the Superstructure is also a part of this theory. The capitalist society made of human beings form the base over which the Superstructure of the social, political, legal or religious institutions of the state is built (Friedman & Friedman, 1962, p. 42). The ownership class dominates this superstructure but the economic base will have its effect on the operation of the Superstructure. When a conflict between the social relations of the base and the owners of the forces of production takes place, it leads to a change in the superstructure (Lukes, 1987, p.47). The distinctiveness of a social class will depend on the relationship it has with the forces of production. This particular theory of Marx led to various controversies in the modern times. Discussion Capitalism theory discusses about an economic structure in which there is private ownership of means of production and the owners have the sole motive of profit maximisation (David, 1987, p.72). The main compone nts of capitalist society are accumulation of capital, competition in markets and labour who would be paid wages. At the end of feudalism, capitalism has evolved in the Western countries. Marx explains that a Capitalist Society can be classified into two classes such as the Bourgeois and the Proletariat (Dahrendorf, 1959, p.21). The Bourgeois or the Capitalist class are the ones who owned the means of production, which include the land, raw materials, machinery which are required to produce the final product. The Proletariat on the other hand are those who do not have possession of these means and hence trades of their labour in return of wages. According to his theory the ownership class and the working class are dependent on each other in a view for exchanging mutually while the production process would go on (Brass, 2004, p.23). The ownership class would need the labour class for the production with the use of their physical labour. The working class would get the opportunity to work and earn wages which is necessary for their survival (Schumpeter, 2013, P.36). This relation is however governed by exploitation and conflict of interest. Karl Marx claimed that the so called capitalists would be able to earn profits by exploitation of their workers. Profits are accumulated by the capitalist's requisition of surplus value formed by unstinted labour of the workers (Carver, 1982, p.43). Put in a different way, the wages that the labourers were paid were way less than the value that they contributed to their employers. The theory states that the workers work for a period of necessary labour and they return back the same worth of production as the wages they are paid. The concept of surplus labour comes here. The period of time when the workers produce in excess of the necessary labour is the capital gain for the employers. They make no equivalent outlay in return of this. Thus the rate of surplus value would be the degree of exploitation the employers impose on th eir labourers (Bengo, n.d., p.9). Marx regarded this phenomenon as a system where there was exploitation of labourers systematically. Marxism incorporated the concept of non reciprocal benefit where one party benefits the other but the other does not reciprocate in the same way. Thus one party remain wrongly exploited by the unjust. This according to Marx is exploitation and Capitalism is unjust. Marx held that a worker was ethically entitled to the product of his own labour with certain deductions like the