Ethical Treatment of Shareholders and Workers in a Traditional, Capitalist Corporation; the Ford Motor Company and Compare and Contrast the Findings with the Treatment of These Stakeholders in the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation.

The theory of Marxism generates a method for the analysis of society, which focuses on class relations and conflict amongst humanity. Inspired by Karl Marx (a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian and journalist), the theory influences contemporary understanding of labour and its connection to capital. Marx’s most notable publications ‘The Communist Manifesto’ and ‘Das Kapital’ showcase his analytical work and well-know themes related to Marxism.

In his discussions of capitalism in The German Ideology he frequently accuses existing social structures for alienating man from his production. “Each man has a particular, exclusive sphere of activity, which is forced upon him and from which he cannot escape” (Marx, Page 160) as a result of the division of labour in capitalist societies. This division of labour exists because there is higher priority placed in communal interest than individual interest. As such, there is an inequality here – communal interest is taken to be of greater importance than individual

This essay will take a look at two different types of business structures; the capitalist corporation and the workers cooperative, and review how the differing approach to business and the fundamental ideologies of each, impacts ethical practises.

Marx begins his assertions by noting the commodities produced by a worker. A commodity is simply anything used for exchange value. He argues that a worker’s labor is a commodity, and that it is the ugliest commodity available to the capitalist property owners. On page 323, Marx states, “The worker becomes an even cheaper commodity the more commodities he produces.” This leads into how capitalism alienates a worker from his own labor. There are essentially two commodities at work; the workman’s labor and the product. Marx denotes this as objectification of labor. It is when someone puts hard work into something and that manifests itself in a material good. Under the efficiency of capitalism, that worker takes little pride in the production of that commodity because he has no connection to it. For example, under capitalism a man no longer puts his labor into making a chair and then can see the product of his hands. Instead, the man now operates a machine that carves four holes in the chair. He does this thousands of times a week. He can no longer manifest this objectification or satisfaction of labor. The more commodities a man produces, the less he will be able to afford himself. The surplus value of his labor is only a benefit to the capitalists. The product has complete control over the individual. This is how a worker becomes alienated from his labor. He no longer has this attachment and sense of purpose from the object he has created. If the more objects he creates in the assembly line only causes the bourgeois to get richer and in turn causes him to lose commodities, he becomes estranged. Marx breaks down even further the estrangement that occurs. He dives deeper into objectification by saying that the alienation occurs in two-fold. First, a worker accesses the natural material world and makes something. This gives him what Marx calls “the means of life.” The means of life has two deviations. There is the means of life that is more spiritual. It gives a worker a sense of purpose and pride in their work. This has already been discussed, and how a worker loses this passion when they become a cog in a machine. Secondly, Marx says

Corporations can be large or small but they all have some sort of ethical impact on their employees, shareholders, customers, community, and surrounding environments. Richard DeGeorge writes, “We can speak of corporations having moral responsibilities to act in certain ways, and they are morally responsible for the consequences of their actions on people.” (p. 200). Large corporations are comprised of the board of directors, management, and their workers. They also deal with suppliers, customers, and have competitors. This essay will examine the moral responsibilities within a corporation.

As human beings, one of the most fundamental aspects of our existence, according to philosopher Karl Marx, is the act of work. More specifically, it is the idea that work fulfills human being’s essence. Work, for Marx, is a great source of joy, but only when the worker can see themselves in the work they do, and when said worker wants to partake in the work they are performing. In the capitalist identity, workers are “a class of labourers, who live only so long as they find work, and who find work only so long as their labour increases capital” (Marx and Engel, 1946, pg. 116). Labourers were simply described as “a commodity” (Marx and Engel, 1946, pg. 117) by the ruling class; they are but pieces of a large, intricate gear system, all for the profit of those above them. In this, the worker loses touch with their essence. This concept is referred to, more or less, as alienation. Alienation is a form of separation of how one sees themselves, and how one sees themselves in what they do. Alienation, in many ways, relates to the idea of false consciousness. False consciousness, for Marx, revolves around the idea of misleading society; It is an ideological way of thinking in which no true perception of the world can be achieved. Both alienation and false consciousness delve into the notion of what constitutes true reality. Alienation describes how those that are controlled by the ruling class are subject to a form of disconnect, and false consciousness is a hierarchal idea in

The first component to Marx’s theory indicates that the worker is alienated from the product they produce. This essentially means that the worker is a slave to their job and also to the many products they produce, therefore

Among four types of alienation that Marx provides; alienation from the product, alienation from labour process, alienation from one another, and alienation from species-being, the first one explains that what the workers made does not actually belong to them but capitalists (Marx, 1932, p. 325, 326). Furthermore, the process of activities of workers are also estranged from them because workers externalize their ability to work, labour power, to the object, but that labour power is controlled by capitalist and exists outside of workers (Marx, 1932, p. 324). As we saw in the movie, those are workers that who spend 10 hours a day at the workplace and devote themselves producing productions; however, those productions end up belonging to capitalists. For example, trains cars, clothes, and those other commodities are made by hands but it is head that who actually uses them. Consequently, in the capitalist society,

In the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, Karl Marx identifies a dichotomy that is created and bolstered by the capitalist mode of production. In this mode of production, the dichotomy presents itself in a division of labor that forms of two kinds of people: capitalists, the owners of the means of production, and laborers, those who work under the domain of the capitalist. Marx harshly criticizes this mode of production, arguing that it exploits the laborer and estranges him from himself and his fellow man. According to Marx, this large-scale estrangement is achieved through a causal chain of effects that results in multiple types of alienation, each contingent upon the other. First, Marx asserts that under capitalism, the laborer is alienated from his product of labor. Second, because of this alienation from his product, man is also alienated then from the act of production. Third, man, in being alienated both from his product and act of production, is alienated from his species essence, which Marx believes to be the ability to create and build up an objective world. Finally, after this series of alienations, Marx arrives at his grand conclusion that capitalist labor causes man to be alienated from his fellow man. In this paper, I will argue in support of Marx’s chain of alienations, arriving at the conclusion that laborers, under the capitalist mode of production, cannot retain their species essence and thus cannot connect with one another, and exist in a world

Not only is the worker alienated from his labour, but he is also separated from the result of his labour - the product. This is the most obvious manifestation of the alienation of the worker; he has no power over what he produces. The wage contract ensures that the products of labour are surrendered to the capitalist, who then sells them on the market, and pays the worker a wage. Marx points out that the alienation of the product is double - not only is the worker separate from his own product, but that product, as increasing the power of capital, actually weakens the worker's position. (4) Marx refers to the product of labour as 'the objectification of labour'. The worker's labour objectified is used against him in a capitalist

Capitalism is an economic system in which the investment and distribution of wealth is maintained by individuals and businesses under little governmental regulation. It protects individual rights, allowing one to hold private property and investments in their own name. That being said, some, such as Karl Marx, find the capitalist system dehumanizing and see a dire need for its abolition. In this paper, I will present an argument against Karl Marx’s theory of human exploitation and alienation under capitalism. I will begin by discussing Marx’s basic beliefs on human nature. I will then use this foundation to present Marx’s argument against capitalism and how he believes it leads to human alienation. Lastly, I will refute Marx’s argument against capitalism and provide a compelling argument in defense of capitalism.

When we read Capital Volume I by Karl Marx, it can certainly seem as though Marx was promoting an individuality in the worker and claiming the way people in a capitalist society behave is unnatural due to being constricted to the system of capitalism. This unnatural system then leads the worker and the capitalist to act in certain ways contrary to what is natural, this leading to an exploitative relationship between the two. However, this view of Marx’s belief neglects the fact that Marx himself equated the worker with economic categories, which are owned and controlled by industrialists and business owners. By exploring how Marx made it abundantly clear that “(The capitalist) proceeds to consume the commodity, the labour-power he has

The very idea of capitalism is that trade and production is controlled through free enterprise. It is this system that allows items to become commodities. But this capitalistically inherent view of crafted goods, takes away from value of labor and instead, hands the value to the item itself. This in the broadest sense is the fetishism of commodities. Marx’s ideology regarding commodities exposes just how exploitive the nature of capitalism is when it comes to laborers, especially when looking at modern procedures such as outsourcing.

Marx has a firm belief that capitalism is the biggest enemy for any society trying to achieve liberty from the economic system. According to Marx, the Alienation of Labor comes from the root of capitalism which he already thinks is the worst enemy and is a very bad idea for any countries economic structure. “Appropriation appears as estrangement, as alienation; and alienation appears as appropriation, estrangement as truly becoming a citizen” (Estranged Labor, 34). Marx states that the Alienation of Labor resolves itself once the general nature of private property and its relation to truly human property are combined. Marx believes that there is not enough freedom between the public and the private realm of property, which is another reason why capitalism

Division of labour is also credited with the rise of trade between different areas, the rise of capitalism, and increasingly complex manufacturing and industrialization. For Karl Marx, the production portion of Capitalism signalled great trouble. He believed production in Capitalist society worked in a way that the rich factory owner benefited and the poor factory workers lost. In his manner of reasoning, the Capitalist system was inherently meant to benefit the rich and exploit the poor: “All the bourgeois economists are aware of is that production can be carried on better under the modern police than on the principle of might makes right. They forget only that this principle is also a legal relation, and that the right of the stronger prevails in their ‘constitutional republics’ as well, only in another form.”[ii] Marx’s view of society and the world lead him to believe that humans create change in their lives and in their environment through practical activity in the practical world.