Marxism by Richard Wolfe
- What motivated Marx to become a critic of capitalism?
He noticed that capitalism that had pushed feudalism and slavery resulted in inequality, lack of liberty, and real democracy. People were not able to collect collectively and equally what happens in their lives. Capitalism had betrayed its promise (Marxism vs communism (w/Richard Wolff), n.d.).
2. What led to capitalism “not keeping its promise” according to Marx?
This was because of internal contradictions and characteristics of capitalism that were not faced up to and that blocked the achievement. The sincere promise of capitalism to bring their promise was frustrated and betrayed. He argued that it was difficult for capitalism to bring liberty, democracy and promises if a tiny group of people and minorities in each capitalist enterprise to call over shots. If they allow the owner, board of directors and shareholders to have the power what the enterprise produces, how it goes about producing it and where production takes place and how to put into use the profit that everyone has worked to get would result in a society that serves the people at the top and a society where few people choose what works for them (Marxism vs communism (w/Richard Wolff), n.d.).
3. How was capitalism similar and different to slavery and feudalism?
Capitalism is similar to slavery in that it led to inequality where the able people took advantage of those who were not able and hence exploiting them. Capitalism differs from slavery in that it aimed at ensuring that there were free markets in goods and labor would help individuals invest money to make the world a better place while slavery was where a human was owned by another with a violation of his or her rights (Wolfe, n.d.).
The similarity between feudalism and capitalism is that in feudalism, the feudal lord would take one’s produced good at the end of the month and give an individual a place to sleep while in capitalism, the workers were given wages that helped cater for food and somewhere to live (Wolfe, n.d.).
The difference between feudalism and capitalism is that feudalism was that the obligations and relations between vassal, lord, and fief formed its basis while capitalism focused more on profits (Wolfe., n.d.).
4. What is surplus according to Marx? How is surplus obtained in capitalism?
According to Marx, a surplus is a value that is equal to the new value generated by the workers above the workers’ labor-cost. In capitalism, the surplus is obtained as profit when the products produced are sold (Wolfe, n.d.).
- What is the difference between an unproductive laborer and a productive laborer?
A productive laborer is that who helps in the production of surplus-value, whether or not he or she produces material products. Unproductive laborers on the other hand are workers who make their living there and their pay is subsidized from the surplus-value raised in the capitalist economy as a whole (Wolfe, n.d.).
- What is Marx’s conclusion about how to achieve liberty, equality, brotherhood, and democracy?
Marx’s conclusion about how to achieve liberty, equality, brotherhood and democracy is to go to a different kind of system that is different from capitalism (Wolfe, n.d.).
References
Marxism vs communism (w/Richard Wolff). (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4C5kj6bllY
Wolfe., R. (n.d.). Understanding Marxism