Long long ago, there lived a legend who vociferously argued against capitalism, exploitation and rent seeking behavior. He was instrumental in a path breaking thought called Communism. For some days I have been wondering if the old man is right after all. For the benefit of some of my friends who are not too aware of his ideas, I want to break the article into Three parts. In the first two articles, I wish to explain in what is Marx ideology. In the third part, we can talk about his relevance.
Marx stated that there are only two classes of people. An individual's relationship with the means of production will determine which side of the game he belongs to. By means of production we refer to are land, capital, machinery, tools, skill and expertise and human effort. So, if own Land/ Capital/ Machinery, you belong to ownership class or capital class or bourgeoisie. Else, if you own only Tools/Skills or Labor, you belong to the working class or the proletariat. In a given mode of production - there are 3 modes so far, the bourgeoisie will exploit the proletariat to maximize production capacity till it is no longer possible to increase further. Once the threshold limit is reached, the mode of production changes and the dominant class changes the rules of the game in their favor. He calls this the theory of Dialectic materialism and quotes history as an testament to it.
Historically, Marx says world history is the history of modes of production. That is, how people produced goods for consumption. In mode one, man was nomadic and primitive and did not have a lot of sophisticated tools and machinery to produce. So he produced little by hunting and gathering.
The dominant class were the most skilled at organizing and commandeering the hunt. The prize was the animal hunted and they appropriated maximum because of their superior skills. They distributed as little as possible to keep the herd motivated to participate in the hunt. Nothing more.
Gradually he settled down and started to produce more.The dominant people appropriated land and made others work on them as slaves. he no longer needed the cooperation of the individuals, just their labor. So they switched to master slave mode. The master fed the slave and his family in return for their work on the fields. He exploited the slave and his family to increase the output. When it is no longer possible toincrease the output, improvements in farm implements and tools took place. Since the slave had no incentive to efficiently to use these tools and increase production, he became indifferent to these developments and the master realized that he had to change the mode to produce more. Then came the feudal lord and the serf concept, the second mode.
In mode two, the serf paid rent to the lord for working his fields and any surplus after paying the agreed rent was his. So the serf is motivated to produce as much as possible in the hope that anything remaining is his. The feudal lord pushed the serfs to pay exorbitant rents till the point where the serf could pay no more without compromising on his sustenance. At the same time industrialization started and the relationship with respect to land vanished. The bourgeoisie owned capital and set up industries.Others would sell their labour and earn livelihood. Once industrialization began, the rent paying mode with serf was no longer profitable. He just needs workers to work his machines. Then came the third mode of production where Marx said the capitalist exploited the workers by paying low wages and extracted maximum work till their human energies permitted.
These are three modes of production as defined by Marx. I will describe more on Class and Class solidarity in another essay.
Marx stated that there are only two classes of people. An individual's relationship with the means of production will determine which side of the game he belongs to. By means of production we refer to are land, capital, machinery, tools, skill and expertise and human effort. So, if own Land/ Capital/ Machinery, you belong to ownership class or capital class or bourgeoisie. Else, if you own only Tools/Skills or Labor, you belong to the working class or the proletariat. In a given mode of production - there are 3 modes so far, the bourgeoisie will exploit the proletariat to maximize production capacity till it is no longer possible to increase further. Once the threshold limit is reached, the mode of production changes and the dominant class changes the rules of the game in their favor. He calls this the theory of Dialectic materialism and quotes history as an testament to it.
Historically, Marx says world history is the history of modes of production. That is, how people produced goods for consumption. In mode one, man was nomadic and primitive and did not have a lot of sophisticated tools and machinery to produce. So he produced little by hunting and gathering.
The dominant class were the most skilled at organizing and commandeering the hunt. The prize was the animal hunted and they appropriated maximum because of their superior skills. They distributed as little as possible to keep the herd motivated to participate in the hunt. Nothing more.
Gradually he settled down and started to produce more.The dominant people appropriated land and made others work on them as slaves. he no longer needed the cooperation of the individuals, just their labor. So they switched to master slave mode. The master fed the slave and his family in return for their work on the fields. He exploited the slave and his family to increase the output. When it is no longer possible to
These are three modes of production as defined by Marx. I will describe more on Class and Class solidarity in another essay.
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