Karl Marx
Toniann German
Assignment #4
SOC
In Karl Marx “Wage labour and capital” he opens by defining what are wages and how these wages connect to labor. Marx discusses that wages are particular amounts of money that one receives from capitalist for the amount of work they do or the amount of time they spend doing work. He states we have allowed our labor to be bought from capitalist by placing a price tag on ourselves, therefore it appears that we sell our labor for money. However, this is not the case, in actuality what is being sold “to the capitalist for money is their labour-power” Marx explains that for wage workers labour power is a commodity that they sell in order to stay alive.
When Marx discusses the weaver he explains that the weaver is getting paid because of the amount of time it has taken to make the cloth. However, in order for the weaver to create this cloth the capitalist had to offer the commodities necessary in order to create the cloth such as the yarn and loom. However, the weaver now gets paid for his work but not from the profit that was made from the selling of the cloth. The profit made from the creation of the weaver’s cloth goes strictly to the capitalist. However now the weaver can take his earnings to buy commodities necessary for survival such as shelter and food. Therefor the weaver’s work is seen more as a trade.
What I took away from this reading is that unless you love your work, your work will be seen as a sacrifice you make in your life not actually apart of your life. I also feel that he was saying that we don’t get paid what we should, we are not getting paid for what we are creating or producing or how much money we are making our bosses. We are being payed wages based off of time and what the capitalist deem as appropriate.
