Nishad Patnaik's Theory Of Materialization

Nishad Patnaik explains Marx’s concept of alienation in the capitalist economic system. Patnaik contends that peoples’ criticisms do not go far enough to see that there is a conflicting relation between commodity and alienation.
Alienation results from the capitalist system that commodifies social relations. Although money represents both product and labor, people attach the monetary meaning to the value of the material product because both are tangible. Money wrongly sets a fixed value to labor only based poor variable of the length of labor, not taking the productivity and quality into account. The exchange value form objectifies labor with the resulting products, tying its value to the product. Thus, people do not see the character, skill and effort value humans put into the production. Patnaik and Marx explain that commodification of labor is also commodification of the relationship between people. The workers themselves commodify their skills and production for money. Here, social relationships depend on exchange interactions, making them less meaningful and more materialistic. Thus, people become alienated from their knowing the character

Patnaik’s technology example proves that describing value based on time of labor is not accurate and fair because it does not account for the productivity. Commodification of self and of social relations appears in the fact that most interactions are based on exchange. Individuals trade their labor for money, which they later trade for products. It is also evident in the little consideration of workers’ character. Different attitudes toward different classes and the socioeconomic inequality among classes support that commodification of social relations results in a hierarchy. The very low possibility and reality that all people work for character, social interests, and fulfillment proves that alienation