Karl Marx Arranged Labour

In ‘Estranged Labour’ from Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts (1844) Marx argues that the condition of the worker in the capitalist world arises from his relationship with the product he produces and his wage. I will be close reading extract A ‘Let us now take a closer look at objectification…’ to ‘he becomes a slave of nature’ in regard to ‘Estranged Labour’ overall and demonstrating these relationships and their effect on the worker.
In extract A, Marx implores us to ‘take a closer look at the objectification, at the production of the worker, and the estrangement…’ Objectification, according to Marx, is a process through which human activity is transferred and embodied in a materially existing object. This object thus becomes a ‘human’ …show more content…
An artist in comparison is still a worker but works under his own direction, controls his work and the product he creates. In contrast, the modern, industrial worker is under the direction of superiors who forcibly undertake his thinking for him and set him to a repetitive rhythm of work as required by regulated assembly lines or production systems in an industrial factory. Whereas handmade craftsmanship requires more thought and input into the final product on the part of the worker, the modern factory worker is a passive, extension of his allocated machine. The worker here can be easily replaced, unlike the machine because its assembly requires multiple workers and a larger amount of labour. The machine’s value is greater than that of its delegated …show more content…
Ultimately, the estranged worker’s authentic being belongs to the employers, and by extension the capitalist system, as they own the commodities produced by the worker; they own parts of the worker implanted within the product. Hence, through the amount of wage and working hours, the capitalist system directs and limits the cultivation of a worker’s species-being; of a worker’s