Question

Marx has been a very influential thinker in Economics and other social sciences. Many schools of thought or branches of Marxism have emerged as a result of his writings.  

One of these branches is Marxist Humanism. ​ It is a Marxism that primarily focuses on the early writings of Marx, especially the​ ​Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844​ in which Marx espoused his theory of alienation, as opposed to his later works, which are considered to be concerned more with his structural conception of capitalist society.

Alienation

a) Explain in your own words what Marx means by Alienation.

b) How this concept can help you to explain a local/global problem or something that you have experienced in your life?

Answer 1

A.

Marx with the use of alienation, tried to say that workers are considered as foreign to the products or goods that are manufactured by themselves. It means that workers are unable to buy or use the products sue to the lack of accessibility. It is the concept of alienation put forward by Marx as an outcome of capitalism where all profits go to the owners and workers only get a meager wages that is very less. With these wages, they cannot buy goods for themselves, what they have produced with their own efforts, time and sacrifices. It is considered as injustice to the labors and it is also the basis of creation of different classes in the society and class conflict to take place in society as explained by Marx.

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B.

At local level, this problem of alienation and creation of different social classes are present in local level as well as global level in different countries and societies due to globalization drive, opening of economy and more freedom given to firms and their owners. For example, a worker works in the factory of cellphones and produce mobile phones and earned a living wage. Once the product comes out in the market and prices on its value, then it becomes very expensive. In this case, worker is unable to buy the phone that he has manufactured himself and find foreign to this product. It brings alienation to the worker as he or she is paid very less, though all profits are gained by the owners. It is present at local level as the economy now professes capitalism.