Marx's Theory of Alienation

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Marx's theory of alienation has to do with the separation of things that logically belong together. According to Marx, alienation is a universal result of capitalism. Marx's theory of alienation is based upon his observation that, within the capitalist mode of production, workers consistently lose determination of their lives and fates by being deprived of the right to envision themselves as the administrator of their actions. Workers become autonomous, self-realized people, but are lead and diverted into goals and activities set down by those who have power. Alienation in capitalist societies takes place because the worker can only express this basic social aspect of individuality through a production system that is not communally, but privately owned (Marx, 2007).

When applying Marx’s theory of alienation to the current issue of income inequality in the global world one can see how it is possible that capitalism has led to the issues at hand. Although not a new phenomenon, globalization is on the rise, and with that, the concentration of authority among few multinationals. By the early 1990’s, the world market share of the top five companies in each industry amounted to almost seventy percent for consumer durables and fifty percent for automotive, airline, aerospace, electrical, electronic and steel industries. During this time world economic output traded between countries rose from around nine percent in 1965 to nineteen percent in 1992. Nevertheless, seventy percent of world trade is controlled by around five hundred corporations. A major concern when dealing with globalization in general, is the pressure that this phenomenon puts on nations to alter their customs, norms, and social values (Liard-Muriente, 2005).

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...at relationship. It is this imbalance of both power and wealth that creates the alienation that exists in this business relationship.

One of Marx’s basic foundations of his theory was that there is alienation of the worker from the work he produces, from the product of his labor the greater the power gap there is. In the business world the more alienated that an employee feels from those who are in charge the less that worker cares about the product that they produce. If workers are alienated from those who are in charge the works that they produce on a daily basis will be inferior to their capabilities. Employees need to feel that they have a vested interest in the company that they work for in order for them to have pride in the work that they produce and one way to do this is to reduce the gap that exists between those who have and those who don’t have.

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