im_1 karl marx in the shoes of obama

8/13/2019 IM_1 Karl marx in the shoes of obama

1/14


2/14

KARL MARX

(German) (1818-1883)

The worker becomes all the poorer the more wealth he produces the morehis production increases in power and range.Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts(1844)


3/14

INTRODUCTION

Karl Heinrich Marx was born into a comfortable

middle-class home in Trier on the river Moselle in

Germany on May 5, 1818.

Founder of political / economic theory of socialism

(communism) Considered the founder of the conflict

perspective

Wrote the Commun ist Mani festoand co wrote Das

Kapital (with Friedrich Engels)


4/14

INTRODUCTION

Society, according to Marx, comprised a moving

balance of antithetical forces that generate social

change by their tension and struggle.

Capitalism creates an economic system that results

in people becoming members of one of two classes:

proletariat (labourers/workers) and bourgeoisie

(capitalists/owners of means of production).

Key concepts: capitalists, social class, dialectics

(thesis, antithesis, synthesis)


5/14


6/14

CAPITALISM AND LABOR THEORY

Marx argued that the only source of a firms

pro f i t is the labo r i t employs.

Machines without workers are useless.

Workers without machines, on the other hand, arenot useless because the workers can make the

machines that they need to do their work.

Therefore, in a sense, all production is done by

labor. Income of capital is purely exploitation

Advent of Human Resource


7/14

EXPLOITATION

When big firms become bigger and even

more powerful, they try to boost their profits

by increasing the pressure on workers to, for

example, work longer hours, work for lowerwages, etc.

Inapplicable in 21stcentury due to the advent of

human rights association

Example of Nike ( Child labor Example in India)


8/14

WEALTH AND RECESSION

Marxs explanation of recession:

Continual expansion of accumulation

Capitalists seek for profit With increasing competition, profits fall

down

Unemployment increases, leading to a fallin national income


9/14

RECESSION

Causes of the recent recession:

Credit crunch

Defaults in subprime mortgages Poor financial confidence

Low house prices


10/14

MARX ON GLOBALIZATION- THE

COMMUNIST MANIFESTO (1848)

The basic Globalization Problem -There is immense

pressure on ordinary people, who find it difficult to

resist the tendency of capital to migrate towards the

lowest wages. Factories are being closed wherelabor is expensive and reopened where it is cheap.

Compete or die, workers are told, global capital

has won.


11/14

You have destroyed the small monopolies so that the one great

monopoly, property, may function the more freely and

unrestrictedly (The Communist Manifesto)

glob al izat ion const i tu tes nig htmarish society, manipulated by a

t iny number of m ega-corporat ions in c luding Coke, Peps i ,

McDonalds and Nike. KICK THEM OUT.

You have civilized the ends of the earth to win new terrain for

the development of your vile avarice. You have brought about

the fraternization of the peoplesbut your fraternity is the

fraternity of thieves (Marxs Capital, Volume 1,1867)

Put an end to trade agreements; nothing comes here,

nothing goes there.




12/14

It is not a question of the higher or lower degree of

development of the social antagonisms that result from the

natural laws of capitalist production. It is a question of these

laws themselves, of these tendencies working with iron

necessity towards inevitable results. The country that is more

developed industrially only shows, to the less developed, the

image of its own future (letter to Vera Zasulich,1881)

Preserve your culture, respect you norms, say no to

multicultural societiesthat the United States has

become.




13/14

The new world of debt, is emerging in which the

majority of states find their policies decided by

international bodies, the regional development

banks, the World Bank and the IMF.

Let the state government do that, please?

Wake your central bank UP!




14/14

Thanks

im_1 karl marx in the shoes of obama

Documents