Marx Analysis

Karl Marx lived in Germany and was born to a Jewish family in 1818. His dad was a lawyer, whom later on converted to Christianity. He wrote the book " The Communist Manifesto" urging other to join and read about his beliefs. Marx is most known for his ideas and theories of capitalism such as labor theory of value, the dialect as well as the theory of base and superstructure, etc.

The ideas of labor theory of value is basically the idea that labor is and important part in attaining wealth ( as well as nature as Marx would argue). Capitalists or the expropriators use and abuse the labor of the workers for their own benefit. The workers do all of the labor and don't reap the benefits, instead they are taken advantage of for low wages. The workers are in turn being exploited because they have no choice or other means of getting money except for seeing their labor for money so they are subject to this way of life without choice. Of course they can own their own factory but not everyone is going to be able to obtain the money to start their own factory or business so its difficult to get away from this. For example in a game of monopoly the capitalists would be the ones to own all the properties (symbolizing jobs) and the workers would be the ones rolling the dice and landing on properties. Since the capitalists run all of the properties they simply sit back as the workers pay the in money (by producing good being sold for capital).


The ideas of dialect thinking consist of questioning how things were, how they got there and how it will be in the future. Through development things change and the process that something goes through is very important to answering those questions about. The process described as the dialect includes a thesis which is the primary idea and an anti-thesis is an internal contradiction to the idea of the thesis. When the ideas of the thesis and the anti these clash, they form a synthesis which is a compromised thesis and anti thesis. Capitalism changes this way starting out one certain way and changing over time but how it will be in the future nobody knows for certain. Looking back at history and how capitalism is now the question of where will it be in the future is an interesting idea.

Marx's theory of base and superstructure is about the individual aspects that makes up capitalism. The base of capitalism is between the ruler and the ruled or basically the laborer and the person who expropriates the labor. The superstructure includes other aspects of capitalism such as profit, capital and wealth and how all these these aspects intertwine and affect social orders and conditions.

Inauguration Assignment

Today while watching Obamas inauguration speech I noticed a lot of key aspects of what we have been learning about in class. One of the things that was mentioned quite frequently was the Constitution of the United States. One thing Obama had said was "At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because we, the people, have remained faithful to the ideals of our for bearers, and true to our founding documents." Here he is saying that the fact that America has been able to live on and basically prosper is because of those who were in office as well as the founding documents ( Constitution) and the founding fathers (the men who wrote and signed those documents). But in my opinion I think that Is a bunch of B.S. I feel like Obama is simply sugar coating the real issues that have happened in America and is simply giving the " American answer" to these questions.

He says that America has stayed true to our founding documents yet, comparing the words of the Constitution to the actions of certain people who have run the government, or laws that have been passed, there are very few who actually followed it. For example, " no cruel and unusual punishment"? I would categorize slavery as cruel, whipping and beating and murdering men women and children for a simple crime of trying to read or refusing to provide labor as cruel. I think America has thrived because of those who have stayed true to themselves and what they think is right- people who helps others, and not only themselves, etc. I believe in Obama but, I found contradictions in his speech the same way I found them in the Constitution. So I have come to the conclusion that America has been built by contradictions.

Dominate Viewpoints Of Capitalism EDITED

Capitalism is a very complex Economic system that is based on many factors that fundamentally set Capitalism apart from other Economic systems. Some main factors include the Free Market, Land/Labor/Capital, the Invisible Hand, Social Mobility, etc, that all interconnect to form Capitalism. Capitalism could be defined as follows " An Economic system in which goods and services are produced, distributed and consumed through the mechanism of free markets and profit motive." With this definition we are introduced to the idea of capitalism. One very significant factor of capitalism being the Free Market, which is what this economic system thrives off of.

A Free Market consists of products being sold at a price that is agreed on by the seller as well as the buyer. Another word for the amount sound could be the Market Price, which is the lowest amount the seller is willing to sell for and the highest amount the buyer is willing to buy a product for. A product is also considered Capital, which is the combination of Land (natural resources) and Labor (actual work necessary or done) used together to create a product to be sold. The rules of Supply and Demand hold true in this system, but controlled market leading to fixed pricing of Capital goes against Capitalism.

The invisable hand is another important idea of capitalism and is believed to be almost a " magical" force. A force that organizes society without government intervention. The invisible hand is believed to guide and maintain order in the free market, which could be done by allowing all the factors involved to compete and strive to be on top. The fact that a Free Market gives everyone in the market the chance to compete, Capitalists believe that Social Mobility is an important idea. They think that because of the competition Free Market brings everyone strives because of the slightest chance that they could rise above the ranking they are already at, and gives them the incentive to work harder. They view incentive as freedom because of the choice to either strive to compete in the market or turn the other way and choose a different path. Overall Capitalism speaks to maintain the free Market and help better the Economy.

Wal-Mart incident (edited)

The night of black Friday I was watching the 10 o'clock news and I saw a story about a man that was KILLED in a Wal-Mart. The craziness of black Friday has become known to everyone around the world and if they didn't know they they know now after this story. What happened was a man who was simply working as security for black Friday was instructed to stand in front of an angry mob of people along with other employees to stop anyone from bum rushing into the store. This resulted in him being stepped on to death by a crowd motivated by cheap goods.
What i find rather disturbing is the fact that a man was killed because of a crowd of people trying to get things on sale but AFTER he was announced dead people CONTINUED to shop and go about their business. Comparing this incident to other sales it is by far the most dangerous day to go and shop because of the fact that Americans are so frantic. On a regular day at Wal-Mart there are already a lot of sales and the products are already under priced but its not dangerous to go shopping. The fact that black Friday is advertised and the idea of a day where goods are practically free has brainwashed Americans. They would do anything humanly possible to wake up at the crack of dawn and stand out in the cold or in line of hundreds of people to buy things. This simply proves how much Americans are consumed by shopping and saving money. And with this years recession people are more motivated to save money and will go to extremes ( like trampling a man) to get what it is they want.