Capitalism to Communism

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Alienation
Social Class
Feudalism to Capitalism
Capitalism to Communism
Failure of Revolution
Politics / Capitalism
Distributive Justice
Control of Work
Politics Under Communism
Enlightment, Romanticism
Marxism and Leninism
Alive in Marx
Dead in Marx

The Transition from Capitalism to Communism

  1. The goal of revolution.
    1. The working class does not start out seeking revolution but immediate goals of shorter working hours, higher pay.
    2. Given their alienation from their species being, the proletariat cannot imagine doing unalienated labor
    3. Revolutionary aims develop because the workers cannot attain their immediate aims of improving their living conditions in any other way.
      1. Immiseration
        1. Marx holds that in capitalist society, worker’s are likely to become relatively poorer as their productive capacity increases.
        2. He makes this argument largely because he accepts the labor theory of value.
          1. That theory holds that the exchange-value of any good—roughly what we would call its price—is equivalent to the amount of labor needed to produce it.
          2. The "amount of labor" here means not the number of actual hours a worker needs to work to produce the means of subsistence, but the number of hours a worker with some basic skills and equipment would need.
            1. Thus, as workers become more skilled, or come to use more advanced tools or other equipment in production, the number of hours workers need to produce some goods will decline.
            2. But, in measuring the amount of labor needed to produce that good, we must take into account the additional skills of these workers and the equipment they use. Thus skilled labor, and labor using advanced tools or equipment would count as multiples of one unit of unskilled labor using basic tools.
            3. This seems a reasonable position, because it takes labor to make advanced tools and equipment, and also to train skilled workers. So Marx is more or less justified in called the advanced equipment—and also, the skills used by skilled workers— "the congealed labor."
        3. As capitalism develops, unskilled workers are able to produce more and more, because they work with a greater amount of capital, in the form of advanced tools and equipment.
          1. So the exchange-value or price of what they produce becomes greater.
          2. Yet the exchange-value or price of labor—or the wages of labor—do not change. For the amount of labor needed to produce workers—that is, to provide them the means of subsistence—does not change.
          3. The difference between what exchange-value or price of the goods produced by workers, and the exchange-value or wage of workers is the surplus value—roughly speaking the profit—received by capitalists.
          4. As this profit increases, the income of the worker—which stays the same—will decline relative to that of the capitalist.
          5. the wage re
        4. As his economic thought develops, Marx qualifies this bare analysis in a number of ways.
          1. He points out, for example, that the level of subsistence is not strictly set by need but, rather, varies from one time and place to another.
            1. So, as a capitalist society becomes richer, the expectations of the workers might increase and thus they might receive some higher wages.
          2. He also points out that supply and demand factors can temporarily make the price of goods depart from the exchange-value.
        5. But, Marx did not come to doubt that the income of the working class will decline relative to that of the capitalists.
          1. And, while it is difficult for us today to develop adequate measures of the economic life of 19th century Europe and America, at least in the political communities Marx knew best, he was not entirely wrong.
          2. For the material standard of living of workers in mid-19th century England was probably lower than a century before, at the same that great fortunes were being made by capitalists.
      2. Periodic crises of capitalism: another reason that the standards of living of workers would decline was the periodic crises of capitalism, what we today call recessions and depressions
        1. These are periods of time in which the total economic output of a political community stagnates or actually declines.
        2. These crises were much more frequent and serious in the 19th century then they are today.
        3. Marx blamed them, in part, on the relative decline of the income of workers. For, given their low income, worker’s could not buy all that was produced. The accumulation of unsold goods would lead to factory shutdowns. This, however would set of a vicious cycle.
          1. As more factories temporarily close and lay off their workers,
            1. These factories cease to buy raw materials from other business enterprises, leading them to close.
            2. Unemployed workers have even less money to buy goods.
    4. If Marx were right that seeking higher wages and shorter hours would eventually lead to a revolution that has the effect of reducing alienation, his theory would be quite powerful.
      1. Those who desire political and social change often must first convince people that they should aim at certain new aims, goals and ends, rather than continuing to pursue the aims, goals and ends they already have.
        1. It is very difficult to convince people to look at their lives in a new way.
      2. Marx’s theory does not require such a transformation before the revolution takes place.
        1. It is in the process of making a revolution that men and women come to recognize their power to change the political and social world as a whole and, eventually, their own workplace and workprocess
        2. And, at the same time, the presumably learn the joy of taking part in the relatively unalienating process of exercising political power.
        3. In these ways, workers come to recognize the possibility of non-alienating work.
  2. Organization of working class. In order to raise their wages, workers begin to organize.
    1. First they create labor unions, and strike for higher wages.
      1. This is only temporarily successful.
        1. If workers strike one business in an industry and raise their wages successfully, that business is likely to be undercut by the other business in the industry.
          1. Workers in this business may then lose their jobs.
        2. If workers strike an entire industry, then the price of goods in this industry will rise, and consumers will buy fewer goods from this industry. The consequences will not be good for the workers.
          1. Consumers will buy fewer goods from this industry, reducing the number of jobs.
            1. This is less likely to happen when consumers have few alternatives to the goods from this industry, e.g. the automobile industry (In technical economic terms, the goods produce by this industry are price-inelastic.)
            2. The workers who have jobs in organized industries will do well, but there will be fewer jobs and more unemployment.
          2. Businesses, in less competitive (that is, more oligopolistic industries) can pass their higher labor costs onto consumers.
            1. But since workers are consumers, they will pay higher prices as well.
            2. The workers in the less organized industries then will suffer the most, because they cannot raise their wages by union organizing.
      2. The main success of the labor organizing is that it unifies the working class.
    2. Labor unions come together to form labor, socialist and communist political parties.
  3. Increase in size and unity of working class
    1. Size working class increases
      1. Intermediate classes—the old middle class—disappears as capitalist business enterprises come to provide the same goods more cheaply.
        1. supermarkets replace small grocery stores.
    2. Small businesses are replaced by large businesses, for the same reason
    3. So the working class or proletariat comes to be by far the largest class, consisting of a large majority of the population.
  4. Increase in unity of position of the working class.
    1. For reasons we saw in the notes on the transition from Feudalism to Capitalism, skilled workers are replaced by unskilled workers.
    2. Sociologist’s calls this de-skilling.
  5. Capitalism helps dig its own grave. The development of capitalism furthers the organization of workers in many ways.
    1. The working class grows larger.
    2. Work comes to be evidently social in character. Many workers work together in large factories. Thus workers come to think their problems as similar to that of other workers. And then the workers come to think of themselves as members of a class of people who are oppressed by their position in the class structure.
    3. The proletariat is brought into political life with the help of the bourgeoisie.
      1. "Altogether, collisions between the classes of the old society further in many ways the course of development of the proletariat. The bourgeoisie finds itself involved in a constant battle. At first with the aristocracy; later on, with those portions of the bourgeoisie itself, whose interests have become antagonistic to the progress of industry; at all time with the bourgeoisie of foreign countries. In all these battles, it sees itself compelled to appeal to the proletariat, to ask for help, and thus to drag it into the political arena. The bourgeoisie itself, therefore, supplies the proletariat with its own elements of political and general education, in other words, it furnishes the proletariat with weapons for fighting the bourgeoisie. (The Communist Manifesto, p. 18)"
  6. Ultimately the proletariat gains political power (See the notes on Politics under Communism for more about how this happens.)
  7. The Role of Marx’s political philosophy
    1. Marx talks of himself when he points to sectors of the lower bourgeoisie, and especially ideologists, who break off and help the proletariat.
      1. They do so because they understand the course of history.
      2. And they help "ease the birth pangs" of the creation of communism.
        1. The more people—among both proletariat and bourgeosie— who are convinced by Marx and his followers, the sooner the revolution will be accomplished.
      3. Communism does not require Marx’s work and genius. Sooner of later, someone will, according to Marx, recognize the course of history.
  8. . The achievements of capitalism.
    1. Despite his criticism of capitalism, Marx is, in many ways, the greatest booster of capitalism
    2. For capitalism makes the ultimate end of alienation possible.
      1. It creates an enormous increase in the productive capacity of humankind.
        1. This reduces necessity and brings us close to the end of scarcity.
        2. The conquest of nature enables human beings to do jobs that are less alienating than those required to eke out a bare survival.
      2. It reveals the true nature of class conflict.
        1. The religious justifications of class rule—as found in the divine right of kings—is undermined.
        2. Rational calculation takes the place of religious fervor and sentiment.
          1. Capitalists have no reason to be good to their workers, as landlords were good to their serfs.
          2. Static relationships guided by law are replaced by ever-changing market relationships.
        3. Thus the nature of the oppression of the working class becomes more evident as does the selfishness of the ruling class.