Karl Marx believed that work should be meaningful and allow people to express their creativity, but under capitalism, most workers are alienated. Workers must sell their ability to work for a wage rather than receiving a portion of the products they create. As a result, workers feel estranged from their human nature, their work, and their fellow humans. This alienation leaves workers feeling powerless and detached from their "species being," or natural state of being conscious and social beings.

1. Karl Marx on Work
(I have no idea where
I got this. Pretty good
though. I have added
a few things. es)
Karl Marx (1818-1883)
Communist Manifesto (1848) with F. Engels
Capital (4 vols 1867-1910)

2. Karl Marx on Work
What makes us distinctively human is our
capacity for intelligent and creative work –
ingenuity.
Marx: “…labour, is the worker’s own life-
activity, the manifestation of his own life”

3. Karl Marx on Work
Work should use our creative powers and
develop all sides of our potential.
Each one of us has the potential to develop
a wide variety of skills and capacities.
We are most human:
-- when we work because we want to, and
because we like our work
-- when work is self-rewarding -- our life finds
meaning in our work

4. Karl Marx and Capitalism
A relatively small elite owns and controls
society’s means of production
Most people sell their ability to work to
these owners and in return, they receive
a wage, not a
“portion” of the resulting product.
In return, they receive a wage, not a “portion”
of the resulting product.
Under competitive market pressure to reduce
costs, owners take control of the process of work
and transform it

5. Marx, Capitalism and Alienation
ALIENATION:
To cause (someone) to feel
isolated or estranged: an urban
environment that would alienate
its inhabitants (as adj. alienated)

6. Marx, Capitalism and Alienation
Marx Wrote: “the alienation of
the worker is expressed thus:
the more he produces, the
less he can consume; the
more value he creates, the
less value he has… Labour
produces fabulous things for
the rich, but misery for the
poor. Machines replace
labour, and jobs diminish,
while other workers turn into
machines…”

7. Marx, Capitalism and Alienation
To survive, workers must sell the
one thing that makes them
distinctively human: the capacity for
inventive and creative work
Workers as a social class therefore
become alienated from their human
nature, what makes them essentially
human
 Workers become alienated from
their fellow human beings

8. The Psychological Effects of
Alienation:
Alienation is a sense of
powerlessness.
It is an objective feature in
capitalism as we are no longer in
touch with our species being.

9. Species being is the “natural”
state of humans. It means a
“being that is both conscious of
itself and as a conscious
member of society.”

10. Marx wrote in 1845 ”…communist society
... makes it possible for me to do one
thing today and another tomorrow, to
hunt in the morning, fish in the
afternoon, rear cattle in the evening,
criticize after dinner, just as I have a
mind, without ever becoming hunter,
fisherman, herdsman or critic.”

11. Alienation is estrangement. It is
the “modern” world that
estranges all of us.
The capitalist is alienated from
himself because he is obsessed
with money; because all things
are commodities he no longer
values things per se, but only
their capital worth.

12. States Simon (1995) Alienation is
“dehumanization.”
“This is because of the impersonality of
bureaucratic structures the high
valuation of material goods and status,
and the decline of community.”

13. “Dehumanization is object-directed
when people are regarded as less than
human for purposes of profit,
exploitation, and manipulation.”
(Simon, 1995)

14. MODERN AND POST
MODERN:
Before Henry Ford created the first
assembly line, it took several men to
build a car one at a time.
After the assembly line was created, the
worker lost his personal connection with
the product. He was “alienated” from his
work now.
(ES-2015)

15. MODERN AND POST
MODERN:
Conditions are worse now for many
people in assembly jobs. Foxconn
makes Apple products as well as for
other electronic companies. The
workers rarely see the finished product.
They are “alienated” from their job.
(ES-2015)

16. Foxconn Apple assembly
The factory was, and employ stated, "a massive
place of strangers."
Margaret HeffernanMoneyWatchAugust 7, 2013

17. The alienation of ourselves:
Alienation is not just disliking what you
are doing. Who likes to change diapers
or carry out the trash? Alienation is
isolation, social disconnection,
unrewarding efforts and conformity.
(ES-2015)

18. Herbert Marcusa, in
1964 recognized
the reduction of
the loss of agency
of “modern” man
labeling the
concept as one-
dimensionality.
(ES-2015)

19. (ES-2015)

20. (ES-2015)

21. (ES-2015)