Third Manuscript

The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 is Marx’s conscientious critique of political economy that examines the afflictions of capitalism on the human condition. The proletariat are the class that is most exploited by this system that disenfranchises and depoliticizes the entire working class whose labour is conducive to their economic progress. The burdens of the political economy Marx was describing 170 years ago still exists in our current system characterized by the inexorable economic disparity, leaving the working class disillusioned and despondent. The worker is trapped in this relationship of dependence and falls into this tacit compliance of their own oppression that stalls the prospect of any impending revolution. Over time

Marx argues that political economy is determined through social relations between the worker and capitalist; alienation is characterized by workers losing both control of their craft and becoming expendable in the eyes of capitalism. It can be argued that Marx’s vision of a proletarian revolution did not foresee how capitalism would adapt to the requirements of the proletariat through measures such as worker’s compensation, the managerial revolution, and the way workers are compelled to become consumers. Marx’s vision of the revolution that would end workers’ alienation, free the proletariat of their exploitation, and abolish class societies has yet to come into fruition in any capitalist state. However, his critique of political economy and its detrimental effects on the human condition are the pillars towards social change and the prospect of the utopian

Marx’s theory rests on critiquing alienation as the most obtrusive consequence of capitalism. Essentially, all sectors of bourgeois political economy are adopted from the concept of alienation. While capitalism benefits from having a predominantly democratic system, it only functions when the ruling minority make the bulk of decisions, which leave the masses disenfranchised and subjugated to oligarchy. Marx classifies alienation as the estrangement of the worker from the product of labour (“Manuscripts” 30), subsequently, he describes the alienation of the worker from the activity of their own work it is instead an activity of “self estrangement”(“Manuscripts” 31), the third form of alienation is the workers alienation from their “species-being”(“Manuscripts” 31) and the final “estrangement from man to man” where the relationship between the worker and the capitalist is one of hostility (“Manuscripts” 31). Essentially “the worker becomes all the poorer the more wealth he produces”(“Manuscripts” 28) and grows inherently dependent on this alienating system of exploitation because a worker cannot survive without the capitalist. Today, we are living in the apex of monopoly capitalism, and while wealth is increasing, it is controlled heavily by fewer elite. While economic impoverishment is steadily increasing and Third-World countries are being exploited for their