Essay about Exploitation The Foundation of Capitalism

Exploitation: The Foundation of Capitalism When people complain that they are being exploited at work, they usually mean that they are being treated unfairly or being ripped off. For instance, Burger King used to make workers clock off when it wasnt busy, though they had to stay at work. One young worker made less than the price of a burger in an 8 hour shift. Pizza Hut offered a young Spanish woman a job - but the first 2 weeks would be without pay, to help her improve her English! Some places make staff work unpaid overtime. Nike pays Chinese workers just 16 cents an hour for a back-breaking 70 hour week while its president Phil Knight is worth $6 billion. People hear about things like this and they say Thats exploitative†¦show more content†¦To do this he looked at the basic unit of all things produced - the commodity. Capitalism is a system where almost everything we produce and use - from a Big Mac to a pair of Nike trainers - take the form of commodities. Commodities are produced to be bought and sold before they are used. Every commodity has two essential aspects to it. On the one hand, it must be useful - it must satisfy a need. Here its physical qualities are what is important. Does it taste good, look good, sound good, keep you warm, keep you clean? This is what Marx calls its use value. It is a necessary element of a commodity, since without it the final buyer, the consumer, wont need it and wont buy it. But having a use value is not sufficient to make something into a commodity. For this it must possess another kind of value - one which can be compared with all the many and varied kinds of commodities. Only in this way can it be exchanged, through the medium of money, with other goods on the market. This value which enables us to compare is what Marx calls exchange value. It is what lies behind the commoditys price. But the money value given to differing commodities is not arbitrary. A Big Mac is not worth as much as a pair of Nike trainers. But each commoditys value rests on something that is common to them all. So what do a hamburger and a pair of trainers - and the vast range of goods and services on sale - have in common which allows them be compared with eachShow MoreRelatedMarx s Theory On Class Conflict And Society Essay1453 Words   |  6 PagesSince the french and industrial revolution in 18 century, the world had come to a new era: capitalist society. Capitalism represents a big step forward in human productive abilities compared with previous forms of society. Along with the social development, there was a new group of people who was called the sociologist who analyze and try to understand how this society works. Marx was one of them and his ideas were influential. 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