The worker is getting paid for their work and the capitalist is getting the product he needs however, Marx would argue that the worker is only being paid enough to live on and that they were being paid less than the worth of what they were producing. The capitalist offers to pay the worker a certain amount of money in exchange for their work.

As mentioned earlier, to survive, a worker requires basic necessities such as food, housing, and clothing. The relationship between the capitalist and the worker theoretically should be equal. The two shillings with which he bought 12 hours’ use of labour-power, is the price of 12 hours’ labour.” (CIT) The wage the capitalists give to the worker could have been spent on any other commodity such as machinery to do the work, so the worker's labor is viewed as a commodity measured by money and a clock, rather than a scale. He states, “The two shillings with which he bought 20 pounds of sugar is the price of the 20 pounds of sugar. Marx explains how labour is a commodity that can be bought and sold just like any other commodity. Workers would sell their labour to a capitalist for a fixed wage that they both agreed on. If a worker lacked the means to produce his own goods, there is only one thing of value that he holds, his labour. Marx believed that the difference in who controlled the means of production lead to exploitation in capitalism, in the form of wage labour.

The workers on the other hand only had their labour.

The capitalists owned most of the factors of production, which were lands, factories, and the capital to invest. one of these works being a pamphlet called “Wage Labour and Capital,” which was written and published in 1847 in response to the exploitation wage workers experienced, and the class struggle capitalism produced.Īccording to Marx, two main classes contributed to Industrial Capitalism, the capitalists and the workers. This led Marx to publish different works in hopes of pointing out his criticisms.

Capitalism during the Industrial Revolution is commonly associated with long hours, low wages, dangerous working conditions, child labor, and high unemployment. Marx’s ideologies are heavily influenced by growing up in Britain during the Industrial Revolution Due to increased agricultural productivity, fewer people needed to work in agriculture to feed the population causing them to pursue jobs in other avenues. Marx held a widespread appeal when it came to his moral approach to social-economic problems and his insights into the relationships between different institutions. Karl Marx was a German philosopher, political economist, and revolutionary socialist popular in the late nineteenth century for developing Marxism, a socialist movement that was a response to the criticisms he had with Capitalism.

Marx wage labor and capital