The Relationship Between Worker and Employer

The relationship between worker and employer has created what is perhaps the most prominent disparity in the capitalist economy. Wage labor is controlled by private owners who manage trade, production, and industry with the goal of making profit. A worker’s labor becomes a marketable instrument used by a proprietor for capital accumulation. Since the laborer works in the service of his employer, the employer has ultimate control over both the wage and assignment of the worker. Karl Marx dubbed the result of this divide, alienation, or Entfremdung, which asserts the supremacy of prolificacy over the well-being of the worker. According to Marx’s theory of alienation, the worker becomes estranged from the object of production, from the product itself, from his autonomy in the workplace, and from fellow workers. In this excerpt from the New York Times, which discusses the distribution of capital among Google Venture employees, Bill Maris, managing partner of the company, addresses these ramifications. Maris believes that because “Google values openness over hierarchy (Miller)” and makes certain that its employees receive an equitable salary and fair say in deciding their task; the workers in Google Ventures may not be “alienated.” However, although his reasoning encompasses Marx’s theory, Marx would contend that capitalism inevitably alienates workers from their potential to realize their full humanity regardless of Google Ventures’ worker privileges and would thus, disagree with Bill Maris, which I will go on to discuss in greater detail.

The article declares that a primary issue in firms is an uneven distribution of wealth. The text explains that “profits from successful investments,” which are known as carry, in the “vast majorit...

... middle of paper ...

...ion making privileges, the worker is still alienated from the four aspects described in Marx's theory. I agree with Marx that workers are alienated in all four senses as long as they work for someone or something. When a human being becomes one's employee, he essentially becomes his employer's possession in the workplace. Even if he works in good conditions, he must adhere to the requests of whoever provides his salary. In a modern capitalist economy, and as long as wage labor exists, alienation is absolutely inevitable. Wage labor is defined as the socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer, where the worker sells his labor under a formal or informal employment contract. Regardless of how generous a worker's salary may be, he is still selling his labor to his employer, and is therefore a marketable commodity, even in a company like Google Ventures.