Explain social class using marxist theory?
Answers:
the ruling class is the wealthy, formerly royals, but recently the new rich. most get rich from capitalism but many still do from feudalism (real estate) both are forms of ownership of wealth. The capitalist has money and the feudalist has land. both translate to power. so the ruling class is the powerful rich.
Marx left out most thought about feudalism because he was not as smart as me.
anyhoo.
he focused on the capitalist as the ruling class and the exploiters because the industrial revolution was in full swing in England at the time and many workers were oppressed. the oppressed workers were what he identified as the exploited class.
His theory was that economically there is no free lunch, so all profit ultimately derived form the labor that was injected into materials. the capitalist controlled the system so that this added value was kept by the capitalist and not shared properly with the workers who were predominantly responsible for the creation of the profit by their added value. The only way to retain a profit is to pay the workers less than this added value so they are basically cheated out of their fair share. This is done by controlling wages in a market where no job equals starvation.
if the government helped the starving masses with subsidies or benefits to tide them over, this was called socialism and the capitalists hated it because it prevented their exploitation of the labor class. Starvation is the best lash to workers. if they ( labor) can survive without high production and hard work, they will do it. SO..they must be forced with a whip of some kind to work hard to maximize profits for the owners (capitalists)
Formerly slavery was the answer but it cost too much to maintain slaves. it is cheaper to pay the workers less than living wage and then replace them as they die off with new workers.
slaves had to be paid a living wage ( by feeding them and sheltering them and basic medical) because they were expensive to replace being valuable capital assets. so wages were invented to replace slaves. it is cheaper to RENT people than to buy them and maintain them.
The middle class emerged as merchants that buy the goods from capitalist factories and sell them at retail markup to public masses. At first they were skilled craftsmen that made their own goods and then sold them and kept profits. this was fair, but later the factories divided the labor from the owner and so the goods got cheaper and forced the small craftsmen to become mere brokers who bought and sold. Small business today is often just middlemen who work for themselves to help capital exploit labor.
some service industries are exceptions, such as carpet cleaners, painters ect. they are usually small business middle class maybe but not merchants. so maybe they get a moral pass. they basically sell their labor to highest bidders, many time these bidders are wealthy capitalists so maybe they are part of the problem too.
in any event there is the lower class of exploited workers, the middle class of merchants and businessmen and the upper class of wealthy capitalists and also leftover RE barons who exploit masses their own special way with rents. lenders are servants of the capitalists. they may be upper class or middle class.
( the queen of England and donald trump are two fine examples of wealthy upper class powerful people from the hangover method from the feudal eras that predated capitalism)
Marx wanted to help the lower classes with the government rules being changed to discourage capitalism and favor sharing of resources with the masses who are predominantly labor classes. his system nver got truly tried out as Stalin took over Russia and bent it to a dictatorship.
the theory is that the government should own and control all property of any kind and dole it out as needed. each person would be expected to contribute what he could in labor and management etc. this is a flawed theory because it depends upon altruism in humans and that is a rare trait. so people tend to do as little as possible if they do not get extra reward for more effort and so little gets done AND all suffer until it collapses. profit is a pretty good human motive because it harnesses natural greed and selfishness. those are NOT rare traits.
Here's a "Reader's Digest" version: First, Marx believed that capitalist societies would eventually lose the current class designations such as upper, middle and poor and be reduced effectively to haves and have nots, groups he called the bourgeoisie (those who own the means of production) and the proletariat (the working class that do not own the means of production).
Here are my rough notes on Marx's theory of class. Hope I don't confuse you!
Marx worked closely with Friedrich Engels to produce his theory on class.
His theory was highly influenced by the transformation 19th Century British society was going through in terms of the Industrial Revolution, eg. cities and towns expanding, new industries being formed, and the worsening conditions that the working class were iving in.
Marx saw the defining feature of society as being the way in which goods and wealth are produced.
Factories were the main means of production of the industrial capitalist sysem.
The people who had their money invested in this manufacturing process the owners of capital, were labelled by Marx as the ruling class.
This Capitalist society produced 2 main classes.
The Capital owning class - the ruling class or the Bourgeoisie
and
The propertyless class - the working class or the Proletariat.
Marx saw that there was a definate link between a persons economic position and their class position. Class is therefore a result of the economic organization of production.
He feared the idea of Social Polarization, that is, that big business would push smaller businesses out, resulting in an even wider class division.
Marx placed an emphasis on Class Conciousness. He believed that in order for any sort of class conflict to arise individuals must be able to identify with their peers - there must be a definate feeling of "them" and "us."
It can be argued that Marx's theory is very much essentialist. That is, people fit into either one category or another - bourgeoisie or proletariat.
sorry i cant
write yer own university essays!
From what I can remember.
Ruling class opressed the Working class.
Apparently Religion such a christianity or whatever were made to keep the working class man down.
there's a famous hymn that says something about god making you rich or poor. so if you're poor, you stay poor, there's no way out, you have to learn to accept it. you are there to serve the ruling class.
quote something like 'religion is the opium of the masses' might of gotten that wrong.
very simply put, one's class is a function of your relationship to the means of product. those who own the means of production are the ruling class. those who dont, are the ruled class.
means of production = that devices, machines, tools, whatever that serve to produce the goods and products of a society.
so, in an industrialized society, the owners of factories rule, workers (who dont own them) work for the owners.
similar with fuedal society. lords/aristocracy own the land, peasants often did not. so peasants served the landed class.
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