Table of Contents
CHAPTER 2: THE OVERVIEW OF THE RELEVANCE OF MARXISM… 6
The concentration of capital 9
CHAPTER 3: THE RELEVANCE OF MARXISM IN THE MODERN ECONOMIC STRUCTURE OF THE WEST. 13
CHAPTER 4 MARXISM AND GLOBALIZATION.. 21
“The Industrial Reserve Army”. 23
The Relative Reduction in the Demand for Labor. 25
Internationalization Capitalism (Globalization). 25
The Drive of Capitalism to Expand. 27
CHAPTER 5: THE MARXIST VIEW ON CLIMATE CHANGE. 30
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Marxism is a system that evaluates class relations and the conflict in the society using materialist view of society transformation. In fact, the analysis begins with the investigation of material conditions and the economic activities needed to satisfy community’s material need. There is an assumption that the method of production has a significant influence on other social phenomena (Agarwal, 2016). Some of these social aspects include moral behaviors, society relations, political system and legal systems. Notably, improvement of methods of production makes other forms of social association inefficient. According to Karl Marx, there exist a conflict between material productive forces and already existing production relations.
In the last few years, there existed an exceptional offensive against the views of socialism in the world. The collapse of the economies of the East that were controlled bureaucratically was an indicator of the failure of Karl Marx ideas. Additionally, there was the fall of Stalinism, which was predicted. In fact, the analysis of bureaucratic government in Soviet Association showed the certainty of its collapse. Therefore, Stalinism and socialism are mutually exclusive and not identical (Anderson, 2016). Notably, movement of the capitalist market in the economy in the previous Eastern Europe has caused a complete social and economic disaster. Russia has recorded a decline in their industrial production for the last three years. However, the decline was far worse than the fall of the year 1929-1932 in the west. Additionally, there was a drop in the rate of investment in the year 1992 and an increased rate of inflation. Notably, the rate of exchange is still falling up to date. Such situation can be associated with the effect of defeat in a distressing war. Additionally, deterioration of life expectancy is one of the consequences of the situation on the population (Arato, 2016). Moreover, the planned economy allowed the Soviet people to enjoy the level of life expectancy, better health care, and better education. Capitalism was to enjoy a new period of capitalism in a few years ago. Capitalism suggests that market does not depend on the size of the population. Thus, the market depends on the rate of purchasing power of the population. The establishment of new markets for capitalism has increased the economy of the affected countries (Wood, 2016).
As predicted by Trotsky, the Second World War ended in a new revolutionary improvement (Woodcock, 2016). In the year 1943-1947, the working population moved time to transform society in various countries. For instance, they aimed to marked change to the society in Britain, Eastern Europe, and France. The Stalinism and Society Democracy betrayal of revolution provided a political foundation for a rescue of the stability of capitalism (Arthur, 2016). However, a previous condition led to the economic improvement that persisted from 1948-1974. Notably, there is no possibility of the occurrence of a final crisis of capitalism. The capitalists will always find a way if the working population does not solve the problem. The private ownership of the methods of production has being diminished by certain factors. For instance, the discovery of new firms during the war increased the involvement of the state and post-war reconstruction. Therefore, the war led to the improvement of the economy (Wilde, 2016). Notably, the initial condition that resulted in the improvement of the world economy was the unprecedented expansion of the world trade.
The volume of the total global exports increased twelve times while that the output produced improved by six times between 1950 -1991. Additionally, the number of the world exports of the producers increased by twenty-three times. Therefore, the growth of output was because of the rapid development of the global trade in the period of post-war (Beetz, 2016). The idea of capitalism was able to control the conflict among the restriction of the country market and the trend of means of production. As a result, the capitalism helped in the development of the global economic scale (Smart, 2013). Nevertheless, the tendency seems to have reached its bounds thus the world trade grew at a lower rate compared to the period of post-war improvement. Therefore, the development of the global trade has no same effect today as it had in the former period. There was an unusual increase in the productive forces encouraged by the individual growth of world trade during the capitalist period (Bidet, 2016). Some of the investors in the USA and Western Europe were ready to invest a huge amount in growing the productive forces in search of profit. Constant development of the means of production has increased the productivity of labor. Notably, developed methods of production led to the establishment of new branches of industries; examples include industries, which produce plastics, computers, robots and atomic energy (Smith, 2016). Therefore, Marxist views this as a historical progress that forms a material base for a socialist community.
Moreover, the period of capitalist growth ended with the collapse of 1973-1974. In fact, there was the emergency of unemployment, which was last experienced in the 1930s. The boom that took place in the year 1982-1990 was different from the economic development of 1948-1974. The dependent service has undergone a massive expansion, and the capitalists went on closing factories in all countries (Carver, 2016). The boom was motivated by the massive growth of credit. According to Marx, the boom can temporarily take capitalism beyond its bounds. Additionally, the increase in the public discrepancy of the capitalist countries motivated the boom for some time. However, this upward trajectory could not be sustained. Notably, these factors, which assisted in prolonging the boom of the 1980s has made it hard for the western world to, get itself out of the recession. In fact, they used the tactics that the capitalism uses to get out of the collapse (Chattopadhyay, 2016). However, the bourgeois economists failed to forecast this decline, which was most severe since the Second World War.
CHAPTER 2: THE OVERVIEW OF THE RELEVANCE OF MARXISM
Mass unemployment
The first malicious indications of state capitalism are the occurrence of increased gradual unemployment. However, during the capitalist development period, unemployment was said to be an issue of the past. The conditions of general improvement made declines shallow and were hardly noticed by people. In the 1960s, the rate of unemployment in capitalist economies covered a small percentage (Cole, 2017). The statistics that purposely underrate the specific levels of unemployment give a little record of people without jobs. The unemployment in Japan has increased compared to that of the Second World War. Thus, this kind of unemployment is referred to as structural according to bourgeois economists (Worley, 2016). Notably, the system is no longer in a position to engross the larger number of workers who enter labor market each year. Additionally, it lacks the ability to retain the working status of those already working. Seemingly, the period of booms where the capitalist destroyed methods of production and closing down the factories resulted in the unemployment (Comor, 2015). The situation gets worse during the period of slump in a manner that even when the economy grows, it cannot solve the problem. The budget deficit problem increases as the government tries to address the issue of unemployment. Indeed, the capitalists are forced to pay a large amount of money to those unemployed. It was to help them provide the needs for their dependents and themselves (De Brunhoff, 2016). Unemployment strikes everyone, and those who were employed and lose their jobs are more likely to stay unemployed for a long time. The capitalist has proved to have no solution for unemployment issue. According to John Maynard Keynes, to eliminate unemployment problem, there was a need to increase the demand by increasing the public spending and decreasing the taxes (Dennehy, 2016). Notably, the unemployment is not likely to reduce in most countries, and this reduces the strength of the society. Despite the expansion of industries, some companies eliminate the unskilled leaving those unemployed.
Machinery and working day
The experts had promised a great future with the use of applied science and technology. Therefore, hoping to reduce the burden of work and reduce the working hours. However, the primary problem of the community will be caused by what people do with their leisure time. In the society today, millions of people are forced to have leisure time (Dimitrakaki, 2016). On the other hand, those with the opportunity to remain at work are subjected to increased pressure of working long hours. Additionally, the working population is subjected to lower payment and worse working conditions. They also spend many efforts of their nervous system and muscle-power to ensure greater productivity and profit. Instead, the companies should employ the unemployed group to help minimize the struggles of the already employed (Feldman, 2016). The improvement of technology contributed to reducing the working hours thereby increasing the unemployment ratio.
The increase in the number of robots implies that the number of workers in a company can be extremely reduced in the USA. On the other hand, the productivity and profit of factories increase substantially. For example, two primary producers in France reduced their workforce. In the process, these firms increased their productivity (Forbes, 2015). Additionally, the technology of robots has helped in the packaging of cheese and the textile industries. This has been crucial in protecting human beings from working in dangerous occupations. Robots help in producing more quality products and make the production more flexible (Fuchs, 2015). The same technology has increased the speed of the production. The use of technology in production and the full participation of workers imply a complete revolution of the life of society. As a result, the working hours would be reduced, and the production increases both in quantity and quality. Consequently, this has enhanced the creation of the conditions for a healthy democracy, science, and culture in the world (Fuchs, 2014). It created a material base for socialism, which is a higher quality form of human society.
The Marx’s Capital
According to Marx, the introduction of machinery under capitalism lengthens the working hours. Therefore, the primary reason of using machines is to make the products cheap by economizing on labor. However, the profits of the capitalists are taken from the unpaid labor of working population (Hamza, 2016). Additionally, the introduction of machines increased the productivity of labor. However, the machinery creates no new value but exports its value to the product that it produces. The companies can ensure a huge return on the cost by allowing the machines to work with no interruptions. As a result, pressing every bit of the surplus value from the employer by lengthening the working day through overtime. Marx says that machinery expands the human material and at the same time increases the degree of exploitation (Hansen, 2017). The capitalists use the introduced machines thereby increasing the exploitation. However, use of new technology in an individual branch increases the profits of that branch. The amount the additional value acquired by a capitalist depends on two conditions. Firstly, the rate of the amount added in a factory is crucial in this aspect (Hoff, 2016). Secondly, the number of the labor employed in a certain industry has an extensive impact on the performance of the business. Nevertheless, the use of machinery reduces the number of workers thus changing the ratio of variable to constant capital.
The concentration of capital
Despite the fact that huge multinationals take the economy, supporters of capital still, believe that the future depends on the small enterprises. Marx tries to show how free competition indeed causes monopoly (Jonna, 2016). In fact, the hard work between the big and small capital has the same results. The vast power of the monopolies and multinationals exercises a total stronghold on the world. In fact, access to their economies of scale and their ability to control the prices of the commodity has made them the global masters. Additionally, the monopolies and the multinationals have the capacity to monitor the government policy. The historical tendency on the concentration of capital is unquestionable (Kirkpatrick, 2016). For instance, a great proportion of US economy is controlled by top 500 industries. However, the companies seem to be controlled by each other in their activities. In Japan, a huge number of the small manufacturers largely depend on the monopolies.
Currently, there is the collapse of many firms as the economies deteriorate. Moreover, the share prices of the small businesses have less well than the large enterprises. Additionally, the banks have reduced their lending ability to the small firms (Lafferty, 2016). However, big monopolies were making massive profits out of fraud and corrupt activities during the boom period. As a result, the tendency of the concentration of capital has extremely increased notably during the 1980s boom. Despite the advertisement on free enterprise, the process of concentration of capital continues. For instance, in Britain, the international trade is controlled by the fifty big businesses. Additionally, a great proportion about one-third of the global trade is under the supervision of large multinationals with a large sum of capital at their disposal (Leka, 2016). However, the general movement of this capital around the world can support or discourage the governments. Bourgeois helped in the development of productive forces and investing in industries in the period of the rise of the capitalist. On the other hand, a decline of capitalist allowed the process of shifting investment in industrious activity to obtain profit. Corporations used to borrow without making any investments but financing transactions (Mattick Jr, 2016). Therefore, the total net worth decreased with a greater percentage compared to the size of the economy. According to Marx, bourgeois is engaging in interests and speculative activities that reduce the total production of the world. Seemingly, the life of human beings is controlled by illegal monopolies that main aim is to use non-productive means to make a profit. The world capital flows are some of the primary reasons to bring fear that financial distress may lead to a broad global economic decline (McIlroy, 2014).
Overproduction and slumps
The occurrence of excessive capacity affects all the great capitalist economies. According to Marx’s, the problem of capitalism established itself in periodic calamities of over-production. However, large modern monopolies have the necessary technology to account for the available market of their products (Mosco, 2015). Thus, reducing production before it reaches a point of real over-production. However, some areas in present days have shown the re-appearance of actual over-production. For instance, overproduction in commodities like computers, cars and agricultural products is indicative a boom. The real goods and the former established productive forces at times destroyed. These forces did not tend to favor the improvement of the conditions of bourgeois (Musto, 2013). Instead, they tend to be stronger than the standard conditions thus, risking their properties. In fact, the conditions are too thin to contain the wealth they created. However, bourgeois overcome these crises by trying to destroy the mass of productive forces. By invading new markets through the exploitation of the old markets, they stand a good chance of capturing an expanding market share. The Japanese monopolies were ready to cope with the low rate of return on investment created by a significant amount of sales through exports (Papaioannou, 2016). However, expanding markets through credit has limits causing a problem of debt.
Living standards
There was an increased life for a large number of people in the developed capitalist countries. The rate through which wages rose increased during the capitalist development but fall in other periods (Postone, 2015). However, the improvement of living standards cannot change the working condition of the worker. The rise in wages has helped to reduce the number of unpaid workers. However, it cannot end the manipulation of the employees by the employers. In fact, increase in wages is followed by an increase in the rate of exploitation. Workers are more interested in the money they can get in wages and what it can purchase. Indeed, they are not worried about the amount of labor they provide in return in their overtime and the productivity activities (Pröbsting, 2016). Workers work with alarming pace, which affects their family, health and their socialization. As the rate of wages increases, the profits of the industries are increasing even more.
In a period of monopoly capitalism, the idea of working hard to improve one’s life was not considered. On the contrary, the population today believes that working hard is what brings about progress (Rojek, 2013). According to Marx, capitalism depended on the labor provided by children and women. On the contrary, developed capitalist countries are trying to abolish child labor. However, the manipulation of women and young population is significant in the development of economic life in the improved capitalist nations. Women participate in the productive process because of their condition in their homes (Schmidt, 2014). In fact, it adds a new source of strength for the working population and the labor movement. The increase in the female employment today is accepted for the new workers and the whole economy. Nevertheless, declined demand for unskilled labor and the entry of women have united to lower pay for unskilled and part-time jobs. Notably, men do not agree to work in places where the payment is small (Sim, 2013). Increased living standards of people are followed by the manipulation of young people and women to work on the less paying jobs. The condition and wages of the workers have improved considerably in developed capitalist countries. As a result, the living standard of people in such countries increased.
CHAPTER 3: THE RELEVANCE OF MARXISM IN THE MODERN ECONOMIC STRUCTURE OF THE WEST
To evaluate the influence of Marxism in today’s world, there is a massive need to analyze the global economic structure, its importance to the society, the crises it is facing, and the impact of liberalization, globalization, protectionism, and even nativism in shaping economic policies adopted by many countries around the world (Marx, 2015a). The economy has become one of the primary issues affecting many of the major societies in the world. In 2016, the Western world faced two massive political shocks that studies indicate had a direct link to the economic status of many of the citizens in these countries (Fuchs, 2014; Wolf, 2014). Firstly, the Brexit vote in the UK to leave the EU was a seismic event that sent shockwaves throughout Europe and North America as well. The vote’s implications to the long-term status of the EU, the single market, and the free movement are not yet determined. However, the vote underscored the pivotal role that the issue of the economy is playing in shaping people’s opinions of leadership, the government, and even foreign policies. Extensive studies have been done of the areas that led the Brexit vote such as Stoke; the primary message obtained is that people are scared of the changing economic landscape because of the increasing globalization, automation, and the spread of ubiquitous technology that is putting people like coal miners out of business (Veblen, 2015). Secondly, the victory of Donald Trump in the US represented the second shocker of the conventional Western politics and conventions. This is primarily the case because of President Trump’s views on trade and international relations. For example, he confesses unconventional views of the role of NATO, trade deals such s NAFTA, and international bodies such as the UN and even the WTO. The postmortem of the 2016 election in the US indicates that many of the supporters of Trump have been edged out of the economy because of trade liberalization, automation, and the increasing emergence of technology (Berlin, 2013). Many of them are blue-collar workers that do not have any sophisticated skills to be reabsorbed to compete for the emerging technology-based jobs in the market.
Overall, the situation of the economy today in the Western world as well as the rest of the world has been shaped and influenced over the years by the decisions and policies enacted by subsequent governments throughout the boom, recession, and even depression years (Sperber, 2013). Therefore, there is a need to evaluate the role of Marxism in making such decisions or the decisions that have been applied to fix some of the challenges facing the economy such as the 2008 Great Recession. Most economists argue that they can dissect most of the issues and machinations of the economy to make nuanced arguments and submissions regarding the determinants of wages in the market, prices, profits, market demand, foreign exchange, as well as unemployment (Fuchs, 2014). They also suppose that they can explain government involvement in economic policy formulations and actions aimed at enhancing the performance of the economy through crucial fields such as taxation, regulation, price and wage controls, currency, and foreign trade policies (Smith, 2014). However, the evaluation of any economic theoretical framework remains to be its practicality in the market or the society.
In the field of economics, competing theories have been advanced to explain the dynamism of economics and its relationship with the community, the government, and projections for the future as well (Fuchs & Dyer-Witherford, 2013). For example, Marx indicated that the increase in wages of workers is massively irrelevant because it eventually led to an increase in the prices of commodities. The issue of wages has been one of the biggest economic challenges facing many countries throughout the world (Marx, 2015b). In fact, the issue has been instrumental in shaping economic policies of governments as well as individual multinational companies as well as small business enterprises. For example, the issue of establishing national minimum wage nationally has dominated many socioeconomic and political discourses throughout the US. Marx’s theory indicates that the value of labor is determined by the market (Kuhne, 2015; Mises, 2016). In this case, the wages that an individual receives for a particular service should be determined by market forces. However, the argument for the minimum wage focuses on the need to protect many workers that might fall prey to the major companies and businesses that are focused on their bottom lines and expanding their profitability margins (Hodgson, 2014). It seeks to establish a social aspect to the issue of wages in the country. This is crucial because minimum wage laws set the threshold of the amount of money or the value of labor in the market. This disrupts the demand and supply dimension that Marxism advocates for in the theory.
The issue of the minimum wage also ignores the obvious player in determining the value of labor and the wages, which is the cost of production (Miliband, 2015; Beer, 2013)). In this case, the capitalist system adopted by many countries in the West and around the world indicates that the cost of production should be within the affordability of the business or the employer. In this case, the wages paid to the workers contribute massively to the calculus of the cost of production (Mehring, 2013). At the end of the day, companies need to balance their books or break even after all business is done (Jackson, 2014). Therefore, imposing a wage on the business does not follow the market rules of competition, demand, and supply, as well as the cost of production-based analysis. It forces many businesses to reconsider their strategies. Many of them might decide to get rid of some of their employers to afford the new wages. Most importantly, with globalization, many of these firms might choose to seek different countries with low-wages to outsource some crucial activities (Marx, 2015c). The moving of many manufacturing plants and companies from the US and the West to China, Mexico, Malaysia, India, and Southeast Asia has been one of the prominent patterns of the economy in recent years. This happened as the labor unions and other sections of the public discourse started demanding for better and improved wages (Marx, 2015c). They increased the cost of production and businesses reacted by seeking an effective and enabling external environment elsewhere (Nicolaievsky & Maenchen-Helfen, 2015).
The issue of outsourcing has also become one of the major economic concepts in recent years. Its impact has been increasing unemployment among the blue-collar workers in the US, UK, and the West because the manual manufacturing jobs either have been shipped to China and Southeast Asia or have been eliminated due to automation and technology that have sought to make production efficient (Marx, 2015c). This has established a massive quandary for these governments regarding how to bring these jobs back or restructure the economy to ensure that the blue-collar population can earn a decent living in the market.
In the West, the interest in the philosophical frameworks advanced by Karl Marx has surged in recent years (Adams, 2015). In the aftermath of the 2008 Great Recession, the subsequent surge in unemployment, low wages, lethargic recovery, gaping inequality between the rich (elites) and the low-wage majorities in the societies have led to an increasing appetite to re-evaluate the policies, principles, and central dogmas that have influenced decision-making and governance up until now (Hahnel, 2015). The evaluation of Marxism and its relevance in today’s economic sphere is primarily determined by the relevance, applicability, or failure of Keynesian views and theories. The primary divided in this argument regards the role of government in the economy. This has been expanded in present-day politics into the argument of whether socialism has a role to play in capitalist countries (Piketty & Ganser, 2014). The argument for increased government involvement in the free industry through regulation was enhanced in the aftermath of the 2008 Great Recession. Inequality between the poor and the wealthy in the US has been expanding significantly in recent years. The argument against unchecked capitalism has gained momentum in the US and most of the Western countries. In fact, during the Great Recession, advocacy for increased regulation to rein in some of the major multinational corporations increased significantly (Thomas, 2013).
According to figure 1 below, the spread of incomes in the UK indicates that the richest tenth has a gaping distance from the poorest tenth. It also indicates that much of the wealth in the country is massively concentrated among the richest 1 percent.
Figure 1: The Spread of Income in the UK
Source: (Thomas, 2013)
Globally, the rate of inequality has increased massively. In fact, inequality is increasing at a fast rate in Western economies. Figure 2 below demonstrates that the wealth held by 5 percent of households in the US control more than 90 times the wealth held by the median US family. This is a demonstration of an increasing gap between the wealthiest families in the US and the median-wage and the low-wage Americans (Thomas, 2013). This challenge is compounded by the fact that most of these wealthy families have a massive influence on policies and decisions made by the government as well as the legislative process.
Figure 2: Global Inequality
Source: (Thomas, 2013)
The overall argument advanced by Karl Marx is that capitalism has outlived its usefulness. One of Marxism’s arguments against capitalism focuses on the possibility of increase inequality significantly through such an approach to the economy (Prasch, 2013). Therefore, Marxism advocates for the introduction of socialism or a socialist concept to the capitalist approach to rein in the runaway opulence of many of the major corporations and the wealthy families. As a result, in the wake of the 2008 Great Recession, laws such as the Dodd-Frank was passed and signed into law by President Obama in 2010 to step up the regulation of Wall Street, which was primarily blamed for its recklessness and greed in the lead-up to 2008 and the Great Recession. The law aims to instill a sense of responsibility to these companies. This is aimed at controlling many of these companies from spiraling out of control and causing another bubble, which might burst into a recession or a depression (Kaldor, 2015). The views expressed by Karl Marx regarding the role of socialism and the failures of capitalism have become increasingly relevant in today’s economic turmoil and the increasing inequality, which means that the wealthy are growing richer and the poor are getting even more impoverished in the current economic system.
Karl Marx’s theory of value has found its footing in today’s economic crises, uncertainty, crises, and challenges of growth and renaissance of the West (Mannheim, 2013). The challenge of the Washington elite and the Brussels decision makers indicates that the role of “political economy” is increasingly important. This means that the government and authorities have to transform their roles and influence to ensure that the value of labor, wages, employment, and prices are stabilized to favor the community (Thomas, 2013). This means that the economics of a country can only be successfully employed by incorporating it into the political fabric of the country. Therefore, the sentiment and opinions expressed by the people should be incorporated into the policies adopted by the government. This means that the leaders of these Western countries should be in touch with the conditions and challenges facing the common workers and the small businesses as well (Thomas, 2013).
The concept of political economy is comprised of interdisciplinary aspects such as economics, political science, and sociology that focus on evaluating the influence of institutions, economics, political environment and the economic systems applied by the governments. This approach also analyzes the impact of the economic system adopted by the governments (Arthur & Reuten, 2016). For example, the application of capitalism, communist, socialist, or mixed approaches has a broad impact on the broad economic status of the country. In recent years, the capitalist approach has led to increasing inequality in many Western societies, unemployment, increasing costs of living, and thus spiraling poverty (Kaldor, 2015). This has led to increased clamor for democratic socialist policies such as the provision of healthcare, education, and other social welfare programs. Political economy approaches are instrumental in the determination of crucial aspects of the economy such as taxation and the regulation of companies as well as the financial environment. The government can regulate currency rates, exchange rates, inflation, and commodity prices. The core question here is what is the role (Skousen, 2016). The capitalist approach that insists on limited government involvement is increasingly being dismissed for an increased role for the government as proposed by the socialist views that are gaining traction in the society alongside protectionism, populism, and nativism throughout the Western world.
CHAPTER 4 MARXISM AND GLOBALIZATION
Over eight years ago, the banking system in the UK and the US almost collapsed. The subsequent carried out to save the system was engineered and mainly driven by the government. The monetary policy adopted by the Federal Reserve and the bail-out measures taken to save the auto industry and other sectors that were facing downright collapse was orchestrated by the government (Beer, 2013). The concept of government intervention in the free markets and the economy in a profound manner as it did in the aftermath of the Great Recession marked a massive shift from the pure capitalist philosophy that hitherto had been predominantly applied and unchallenged. Therefore, capitalism almost collapsed before the government saved it. The actions of the governments in the US, as well as the UK, signaled the failure of the markets. This was an indication that free markets and the forces of demand and supply could not function properly under the legal framework at the time (Bromley, 1999; Renton & Amin, 2002). As a result, their decisions and approaches in the lead-up to 2008 have since been broadly questioned and slammed from different quarters. This is especially the case among the people that were most affected by the recession. For example, the individuals that lost their jobs, had wage cuts, lost their homes, and had to deal with a spiraling cost of life and increased commodity prices. The intervention from the government was aimed at “stopping the bleeding” and ensuring that the suffering of the larger economy and the broader society was stopped.
In such a situation, the critique of Karl Marx on the utility of capitalism, its effectiveness, and relevance in the modern economy would be relevant and effective. However, many people have been advancing thoughts that Marxism does not have a place in the dynamic and modern economic structure (Suciu, 2008). Many of the criticisms directed at the philosophical works advanced by Karl Marx argue that these ideologies belong in the past. For example, they posit that Marxism captured crises and ways of life of the past historical epoch including the French Revolution, the English industrialization, Hegel’s philosophy, and the political economic structure stemming from these historical eras. Further, they argue that Marxism does not capture the ethos of modern-day capitalism. In this case, Karl Marx had a mastery of certain aspects of capitalism at the time (Yu, 2002; Bieler & Morton, 2003). However, the evolution of the world and the advancing of the core aspects of economics and the structural application of the political economy in the world mean that Marxism does not apply in the modern-day discourses of capitalism and globalization. Analysis indicates that the aspect of capitalism has changed significantly. During Marx’s time, the typical business was owned by the family and managed by the members of the family. In this case, the failure of such businesses did not have impacts on the entire economy. However, in the modern economy, the world is filled with massive enterprises and corporations that have their reach and influence across the world. For example, the massive oil companies and banks that have a crucial influence on the global economy’s well-being (Gibson-Graham, 1997; Burnham, 2001). Additionally, the likes of Apple, Google, Microsoft, and other auto industry companies have a significant stake in the global economy. Moreover, major banks and insurance companies also have a deep connection to the operations of the company. In this case, the failure of one bank, corporation, or insurance firm might bring down the entire economy of the US, Britain, and set in motion a series of activities that might cause a global economic crisis (Baylis, Smith & Owens, 2013). This was witnessed in 2008 with the crash of the subprime mortgages in the US that kick started the Great Recession.
However, although the argument about the expansion and evolution of capitalism is true, Marx also made pertinent views regarding contemporary capitalism during his time that can be applied to the capitalist structures and conduct of markets at any point in recent years. This is because these Marxist views were targeted at explaining the fundamental ethos of capitalism and its application in the society (Rupert & Smith, 2016). In this case, the aspects covered by Karl Marx have not markedly changed during the evolution of capitalism into the system broadly applied today in the US, the West and other countries globally. Some of these aspects are covered below:
“The Industrial Reserve Army”
This phrase was coined by Karl Marx to explain the basic requirements to functionalize and operationalize capitalism in the society. In this case, Marxism indicates that the expansion of capitalism requires a massive supply of cheap labor. Consequently, the concepts of underemployed or unemployed labor provide the perfect solution to this requirement for capitalism. The constant supply of unemployed labor ensures that the businesses and the employers have the bargaining power over the workers (Baylis, Smith & Owens, 2013). This ensures that the wages are maintained low and within the preferences of these businesses in the market. It also ensures that profits are maintained high and the process of accumulating capital can continue without a hitch. Therefore, the growth and success of capitalism is massively dependent on maintain the bargaining power of the labor as low as possible. Karl Marx argues that if all the labor was fully employed. The business will no longer have the bargaining power over the employees (Pieterse, 2015). Consequently, the businesses will have to depend on the growth of population to satisfy its need for labor and balance out the bargaining power of these employees. Without this population growth, the companies will suffer labor shortages, which lead to a surge of wages and a decline in profits for these enterprises (LeBlanc, 2014; Benaria, Berik & Floro, 2015). Therefore, capitalist economies, if they have to continue to expand, need a continuous supply of “surplus” labor in the market to ensure that the bargaining influence of the labor force is kept in check, maintain the wages in a manageable level, and ensure the profitability of the business is are established and the accumulation of capital continues. Therefore, this is the description of Marx’s “reserve army of labor.”
Marx’s analysis of the development and expansion of Europe initially had the advantage of massive pools of unemployed and under-employed labor throughout the society. This was before the onset of widespread production in factories (Lechner & Boli, 2014). Therefore, the expansion of capitalism in the West radiated from the surplus labor found in traditional activities and agriculture as well. This underscores the essence of many business-thinking conventions in the market. Many of these enterprises are preoccupied with the strategies approaches to hand them the biggest profits via the lowest cost of production (Lechner & Boli, 2014). This is why many businesses seek to ensure that the wages are frozen, profits expanded, and the accumulation of capital enhanced.
However, with the advent of the technological revolution, the capitalist economy developed responses to ensure that the “status quo” conditions were maintained. This led to the advent of mechanization. This was a necessity for the constantly increasing cost of labor. Naturally, enterprises in the market sought to invent a solution to this challenge. mechanization was designed to “save on labor” and at the same time, enhancing the efficiency and reliability of production (Jones, 2013; Pradella, 2014). This is referred to as the “capital-labor substitution.” According to Marx, through mechanization and this “substitution” of labor or workers in the market, the capitalist economy created the under-employed or the unemployed pool that it started with, it re-created the reserve army of labor.
The Relative Reduction in the Demand for Labor
Capitalism operates in a manner that offers internal checks and balances. This is designed to ensure that the balance of wages, profits, and capital in the market or the economy is established. Conventional analysis of capitalist systems indicates that periods that experience massive and rapid growth and expansion of the economy are often followed by a setback (Buzdar, Abbasi, Sargana & Ahmed, 2016). This leads to a decline of profits for companies, which leads to a plunge of investments. Consequently, this leads to a plummeting of the demand for labor in the market. In this case, Marx is explaining the phenomenon of economic booms, slumps, recessions and even depressions as well (Jones, 2013; Pradella, 2014). For example, during a recession, the level of unemployment is massively increased, which means that their bargaining power is massively reduced. Therefore, many businesses can lay-off workers. Alternatively, they can negotiate their wages downwards as well. This insight into capitalism by Karl Marx has proven to be timeless (Buzdar, Abbasi, Sargana & Ahmed, 2016). This is because the nature capitalism has proven repeatedly to fall into this pattern of boom then a slump or recession.
Internationalization Capitalism (Globalization)
According to the Marxist view of the capital-labor substitution concept, Europe in the post-WWII could not supply sufficient labor to its industries and businesses. These countries could not create the labor reservoir using the native populations. This meant that many of these nations opted to import this labor from other countries (Buzdar, Abbasi, Sargana & Ahmed, 2016). For example, Germany imported labor from Britain, Turkey, Pakistan, and other nations. In the US, the development and economic expansion of the nation led to a massive of immigration into the country. As long as the country was growing, it was presenting massive opportunities for these immigrants to grow economically and socially in the country. In fact, labor reserve was massively small (Hay & Mash, 2016). This meant that many of the American citizens could not take-up the blue-collar and manual jobs. Many of the immigrants took the low-wage jobs that were ignored by the natives. According to Marx, this wave of immigrants was crucial to maintaining the structure and stability of American capitalism. These immigrants and their willingness to provide labor at a smaller cost helped to give businesses bargaining power. It also helped to keep ages down, grow the profits, and enhance their continued accumulation of capital. This also ensured that the pricing policies of these companies’ products are competitive in the market (Arthur & Reuten, 2016). The immigration helped to keep the balance in the US and maintain the fundamentals of capitalism intact.
However, after the 2008 Great Recession, the country has experienced high levels of unemployment and underemployment. This has shift eth bargaining power firmly to the businesses that are causing the shots. During such times, the level of unemployment might lead to social and political upheaval in many of these communities. It also means that there is a need to restructure the labor constituency to ensure that they can increase wages (Jackson, 2014; Kuhne, 2015). This can only be done of the number of underemployed and unemployed can be reduced. In this case, the available labor force can be reduced the market created many jobs to reduce the unemployed significantly. However, this is demonstrably difficult to achieve in the modern economic status. As a result, many members of the community have turned their wrath on immigration (Fuchs & Dyer-Witherford, 2013; Adams, 2015). The Marxist view of the increasing anti-immigration sentiment is that immigration is seen as a tool to increase the unemployed and underemployed in the country. In this case, it will expand the labor reservoir, and thus, it will further shift the bargaining power to the businesses and employers. As a result, to have chance of improving wages, immigration has to be stopped.
This concept is massively applicable in today’s globalized economic system. Many of the businesses in the developed countries in the West face massive competition for the market share. They also face extremely saturated markets where red-ocean approaches cannot result in profits. Consequently, many of these enterprises have opted to apply the blue-ocean approaches and carve out new frontiers and market segments in the ultra-competitive global markets (Mises, 2016; Nicolaiesvsky & Maenchen-Helfen, 2015). This has been the primary drive of the fast expanding globalization. In this case, the capitalist system seeks to reduce wages and increase profits and the accumulation of capital. The saturation of markets in the West and the levels of wages demanded by Westerners have forced many companies to seek alternative labor sources within the US market or elsewhere. With the US, many companies have opted for automation and the use of robots to “replace labor.” Although many arguments have rightly been made about improving efficiency of production, the concept of reducing cost is the primary driver of automation. Many enterprises such as the automakers, apparel companies, smartphone makers, and businesses in other sectors have moved their production activities to Mexico, China, or Southeast Asia to leverage the low-cost labor in these nations. This has helped them to cut their costs of production dramatically (Berlin, 2013; Veblen, 2015). This also means that thy can compete well in the global market with Chinese companies such as Huawei and other automakers when it comes to the pricing policies.
The Drive of Capitalism to Expand
Karl Marx provided a crucial insight into the working of capitalism by explaining that capitalism displays a massive need to expand continuously. This is highlighted today as globalization or the expansion of capitalism globally. In this case, Marx argues that the dynamism of capitalism cannot be conceptualized without capturing its need and ability to expand internationally (Fuchs, 2015; Worley, 2016). Marx explains that the relationship with the international was the historical foundation of the growth and expansion of manufacturers and the movement of goods across borders. At the same time, internationalization offered these businesses a massive chance to expand their accumulation of capital because the profits will be increased as well. Many of these companies seek to grow and expand because there is an advantage in being big. As a result, many of the firms seek to expand and grow. After a while, these companies become too big for the country (Smith, 2016; Woodcock, 2016). Consequently, they start exploring for businesses, markets, opportunities outside the country and, thus, enhancing globalization. According to Marx, capitalism could not be contained within single countries, its inherent nature to expand meant that expansion and globalization was massively inevitable.
The merits and demerits of globalization have come into sharp focus after the events of 2016. Many of the sentiments expressed across the West indicate that there is a need for protection from trade deals, trade liberalization, and the shipping of jobs to low-wage countries such as Mexico and China. As a result, the prevailing sentiment is calling for intervention of the capitalist system to enact and implement protectionist and anti-free trade policies to protect local industries (Lafferty, 2016; Musto, 2013; Kirkpatrick, 2016). This will be going against the capitalist ethos and introducing a social concept into socialism. The overgrowing of many of these companies means that they might hold too much influence and control over the economy of certain countries or even the global economic wellbeing. In such cases, these businesses become “too big to fail.” This was the case in 2008 where major companies such as the auto industry and AIG could not be allowed to fail (Lafferty, 2016; Musto, 2013; Kirkpatrick, 2016). This is the danger of uncontrolled and free market capitalism.
CHAPTER 5: THE MARXIST VIEW ON CLIMATE CHANGE
According to Engel, Karl Marx emphasized that the existence of humans is driven by their ability to eat, drink, clothe, and shelter before they can pursue science, politics, religion, and art in the community. At the same time, Marx posited that “the changes caused by human labor are instrumental in the creation of value in the economy.” In the past, Marxism has primarily focused on labor and its variants in the community (Novy-Marx, 2014; Manganello et al., 2014; Bornmann, Haunschild & Marx, 2016). In this case, it has emphasized on the organization of labor and production as the fundamental influencing factors of the type of society human beings live throughout the world. However, across the world, many societies are differentiated through culture, language, laws, governance, control of the means of production, and the level of technology that is used in production. This means that many countries have established different approaches to production and labor because of the difference in culture, religion, and laws as well. However, the view advanced by Karl Marx acknowledges that the ultimate source of value is nature (Haunschild, Bornmann &Marx, 2016). As a result, the emergence of the issue of climate change and the existential threat it poses to the planet and its life forms has forced many people to think differently regarding production and labor as well.
A majority of the companies and businesses around the world are massively reliant on natural resources. Ranging from the fossil fuel industry to other industries, these businesses have a massive relationship with the environment. It puts the issue of climate change at the front and center of their core competencies and strategic approaches adopted in the market. Therefore, the democratic socialist agenda in the 21st has massively focused on enhancing, advancing, and securing climatic concessions to safeguard the planet and its biodiversity as well (Phalkey et al., 2015). The argument here is that the quality of life is crucial in developing the economic policy that subsequently determines the structure of the means of production and the value of labor. However, if the world is inhospitable to human life, then the philosophical views and approaches do not matter. According to Marx, for capitalism to exploit labor, there is a need to establish and safeguard the integrity and balance of nature (Bornmann, Haunschild & Marx, 2016). This is primarily because capitalism also exploits nature during production and value creation. In many instances, the need for capitalism to expand and grow is causing changes to nature that hare proving to be detrimental to the future of the society and the planet as well. The focus of capitalistic approaches adopted by businesses and industries is on the short-term profits, expansion, and growth. Many of these businesses do not establish plans or models that focus on enhancing the long-term survival needs of the planet and its biodiversity (Mearns, Easterling, Hays & Marx, 2001; Schenk et al., 2008). Consequently, one of the primary components of Marxist economics is the limitations of the finite world. Many arguments have been advanced to indicate that many of the Marxist economic views focus solely on labor, growth, development and, thus, excluding the core needs of nature.
Marx’s view of “an advanced socialism” cannot be achieved if the utilization of capitalism leads to the destruction of the world’s ability to produce the essentials of life. In this case, infinite growth that is demanded by capitalism is not possible in finite world. The growth and expansion has to be done within the proportions that can be sustainably supported by nature. Capitalism’s dependence on endless growth of the markets, profits, commodities, and the exploitation of nature and labor puts at a diametrically opposite position to the need to establish sustainable growth and proportional use of nature and labor in the world (Marx et al., 2007). The structure of capitalism indicates that it exploits the nature-produced resources at the beginning of the production process. In the process, it exhausts the waste-absorbing ability of the world during production. Additionally, capitalism also exhausts the waste-absorbing capabilities of the world after the consumption of the produced goods. Nature places massive limitations to the prospects of growth and expansion (Jung et al., 2012). The finite resources and the world’s capacity to absorb the wastes emitted from the capitalism-driven production processes mean that a socialism that seeks infinite growth and expansion is naturally incompatible.
These limitations of nature have led scientists and other innovators to seek technological approaches to overcome these constraints. For example, the use of nanotechnology presents massive potential for creation and production in ways that are not heavily dependent on nature. These technologies are designed to reduce the pressure placed on nature and the endless exploitation and plunder of finite resources (Easterling, 2001; Suan et al., 2010). Additionally, there have been efforts to expand the resource pool that humanity utilizes. For example, studies have focused on the use of resources in space and the oceans that hitherto are massively under-explored and unexploited. The thinking here is that if the resource pool is expanded, the pressure place don earth for these natural resources due to the massive growth appetite expressed by capitalism will be reduced significantly (Manganello et al., 2012). This will establish a balance that will maintain the biodiversity, safety, and integrity of the planet Earth.
Many of the solutions to these nature limitations require massive shifts in class power as well as changes in the economic planning used throughout the world. Economic planning should take into consideration some of the core pressures on nature. Without such planning and inculcation of nature into the labor/production equation, it will result in a disaster. For example, the Soviet Union planned to use the Aral Sea tributaries for irrigation in the cotton-growing project (Zapp et al., 2012; Davis et al., 2012). This led to massive destruction of the sea. Additionally, the productive land surrounding the sea was also destroyed along with the fishing, many towns, and small-scale agriculture in the area. The struggle between human interests and the sustainability of nature has is increasingly defining the present day economic and social thinking and discourses across the world.
The issue of climate change is increasingly becoming more and more pertinent as the levels of awareness increases significantly throughout the world. The scientific studies on climate change have grown increasingly certain regarding the impact of human activities. This is especially the case with activities contributing to the emission of carbon and other greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere (Field et al., 2015; Kinter et al., 2013). Studies indicate that the public support for sustainability and measures to curb the emissions of GHGs like carbon into the atmosphere has growth tremendously in recent years. However, such popular support has not translated to crucial actions to curb emissions and address the issue of global warming. This is primarily because of the conflict between capitalism and the need for regulation, moderation, and sustainability. Marxism indicates that capitalism is fueled by the insatiable need to continue growing and expanding. In this case, the measures that need to be taken to combat climate change go against the core approaches of capitalism in the world (Bornmann, Haunschild & Marx, 2015; Bornmann & Marx, 2014). Capitalism primarily seeks to get the lowest cost of production and the biggest possible profits from the market. At the moment, aspects such as renewable energy sources and other sustainable business models are seen to be expensive to the business and less profitable in the short-term.
The short-termism of capitalist approaches in the world does not recognize that the world might cease to support such growth and expansion in the future. This is because so long as it is profitable, then it makes sense to the business and markets as well. Around 10 years ago, the issue of climate change had gained massive prominence in the society (Cash et al., 2015; Marx-Pienaar & Erasmus, 2014). The media, political class, and the academicians throughout the developed world were devoting much of their time and energy discussing climate change, its potential impact on the planet, and the actions needed to reverse the impacts of global warming. For example, Al Gore’s focus on climate change was especially prominent with hundreds of thousands around the world viewing his documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.” At the time, even the right-wing politicians were forced to acknowledge the urgency and impact of climate change (Calderon et al., 2016). However, this has changed dramatically in recent years.
In the aftermath of the 2008 Great Recession, many of the headline sin the media and other avenues of societal discourse have been dominated by the gloomy financial projections, revolutions and civil wars in the Middle East, the Arab Spring, and Westminster scandals. The issue of climate change has taken a massive backseat. The urgency and focus that the issues of global warming received 10 years ago have died down markedly (Waage et al., 2015). This has coincided with the surge in climate-change skepticism throughout the world, which has focused on denying the existence or reality of climate change and dismissing it as part of conspiracies and based on poor science. Additionally, these arguments against climate change science have also included stances that it is being used as an excuse to increase taxes and negatively affect the standards of living. For example, in the US, arguments have been made that climate change is “a Chinese hoax” designed to weaken the US and Western economies (St John, Marx & Markowitz, 2014). Leading the denials are major corporations that will fall foul of many of the regulatory laws and policies aimed at curbing carbon emissions. In this case, the fossil fuel industry, coal industry, and other heavy pollution industries have been especially critical of climate change studies and their projected implications.
At the same time, studies reveal that many of the effects of climate change disproportionately fall on the poor people in the society. These effects are manifested in many aspects of the society. For example, the increase in consumables such as foods, water shortages, extreme weather conditions, and less fertile soil for agriculture are some of the negative effects of this phenomenon (Kaijser & Kronsell, 2014; Huang et al., 2015). The ordinary middle class and low-income workers and the peasant farmers throughout the world are the most affected. Currently, studies indicate that the third world countries are the most affected. This is especially because many of the rich families can afford to move from the regions most affected to areas that do not experience adverse weather and other negative effects. Despite this confinement, the impact of global warming has started to reach the richer nations in the world (Kaijser & Kronsell, 2014; Huang et al., 2015). This indicates that climate change is not just a scientific issue but it reflects the class divisions in the society. For example, the massive famines and devastating famines that ravage parts of Asia and Africa have been attributed to climate changes. Projections indicate that these famines and droughts are expected to get worse in the future; additionally, extreme weather conditions such as hurricanes are also expected to increase in severity and frequency in the future (Huang et al., 2015).
Climate change falls into the typical patterns of many natural phenomena. In this case, it does not occur in isolation. Therefore, it occurs as part of a broad and global phenomenon. Unlike the manner in which it is characterized by its skeptics, climate change and its occurrence are not linear (Hubbard, 2017). Instead, it development occurs in stages. For example, conditions build up in the environment until they reach a certain stage where the climate of the earth changes fundamentally. Therefore, the quantity of such changes is translated to quality, these are called tipping points. In this case, long periods of time where greenhouse gasses such as carbon are allowed or facilitated to build up through human activities in the atmosphere. These processes result in subsequent periods that experience massive and rapid changes in the earth’s climate (Arbuckle, Morton & Hobbs, 2015). At a certain point, this results in a steady increase in the global temperatures. This is because the heat-trapping carbon’s levels in the atmosphere increases significantly to cause the greenhouse effect.
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels advanced the philosophy of dialectical materialism where they argued for the transformation of quantity into quality. In this case, the discovery of tipping points by the science of climate change indicates that the thinking of Karl Marx is massively relevant in the analysis of this concept facing the world today. However, the focus on Marxism of climate change has disappeared from the conversation and discourse of the modern society because it is not profitable (Salas et al., 2016). The capitalism machine employed in the West does not see the benefits of focusing on climate change. This is especially the case because such a focus would lead to a massive negative impact on the balance between labor/production and nature.
The bourgeois politicians have decided to leave the issue of climate change to the businesses and the free market. This is a massive misstep because capitalism does not inculcate the long-term wellbeing of the planet into its production and expansion-oriented approaches in the market. Many of the solutions proposed such as the use of “carbon-trading” where each company is given voluntary pollution quotas are not effective because they will allow such industries to continue emitting GHGs into the atmosphere (Davis et al., 2012). Additionally, the replacement of the fossil fuel industry products such as gas, oil and coal would place massive pressure on the world poor because of the increase in the cost of food and other consumables.
However, addressing the issues of climate change requires the society to plan its development. There is a need to ensure that the expansion and growth of businesses and productivity in the society must be sustainable and reflect the ability of the planet to support such endeavors (Marx, 2015a). This falls within the Marxist view of building a “sustainable community.” It also indicates that capitalism cannot help the world to fight climate change because of its inherent need to expand and grow infinitely.
CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION
The system of Marxism fundamentally evaluates class relations and the conflict in the society using materialist view of ssocialtransformation. It focuses on the economic dynamic and structure involving labor, production, unemployment, and the creation of value in the market. In fact, the analysis begins with the investigation of material conditions and the economic activities needed to satisfy community’s material need. According to Agarwal (2016), there is an assumption that the method of production has a significant influence on other social phenomena. Some of these social aspects include moral behavior, society relations, political system and legal systems. According to Karl Marx, there exist a conflict between material productive forces and already existing production relations.
The relevance of Marxism in the current world’s economic and social status can be summed up by analyzing the failures of capitalism. Marxism is massively critical of the ability of capitalism to establish the balance required between production, sustainability, and the need to safeguard the environment. The economic crises that the current world are facing sever to underscore the point of Marxism regarding production and the management of the means of production. For example, the unemployment rates in Spain and Greece are around 25 percent. This is a massive number of people that are out of a job. Additionally, over 50 percent of young potential workers do not have employment. These figures are not going down. This is because every report coming out is showing an upward trajectory of many of these unemployment figures. This is a reflection of a massive challenge facing Europe with Greece and Spain indicative of the overall trend among the European Union.
Many studies have argued that the high levels of unemployment are part of the slump of capitalism. They express optimism that capitalism always finds a solution to the problems it faces. Additionally, others argue that this is Karl Marx’s reserve of unemployed or under-employed. They argue that the unemployment is crucial for the business sector and for the recovery of the economy eventually. However, the rate of unemployment and the massive deterioration of the global economies indicates that it is a massive challenge facing humanity. The current rate of unemployment does not reflect the Marxist reserve army of unemployment; instead, it is a permanent organic unemployment affecting Europe, the US and the rest of the world. The natives or failures of capitalism can be demonstrated by the massive uprisings throughout the world. For example, the 2011 Arab Spring was primarily driven by the massive number of educated youths in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Many of these young people want employment, a source of livelihoods. However, the capitalist system in these countries has morphed into an authoritarian system that is preoccupied with cronyism, nepotism, and suppression of any dissent of the people facing unemployment, poverty, and lacking the means of production. These challenges of unemployment and increasing costs of living have been exacerbated by the 2008 Great Recession that has affected many of the economies across the world.
Although Marx warned of the excesses of capitalism and the possibility of overproduction, many proponents of the capitalist system argued that it created a balance that even out the forces of demand, supply, prices, and cost of labor, employment and unemployment. This is called the efficient market hypothesis. The argument presented by this hypothesis indicates that a crisis of the proportions of the 2008 Great Recession was not supposed to happen. The fact that it happened in the proportion it did indicates that capitalism is taking a turn that Marx warned and many of its proponents have not expected. Additionally, the theory of self-correction of capitalism has already been disproven because the US and the UK governments were forced to intervene in their respective economies to prevent many of the major companies in the market from failing. The concept of government intervention in the free markets and the economy in a profound manner as it did in the aftermath of the Great Recession marked a massive shift from the pure capitalist philosophy that hitherto had been predominantly applied and unchallenged. Therefore, capitalism almost collapsed before the government saved it. The actions of the governments in the US as well as the UK signaled the failure of the markets. This was an indication that free markets and the forces of demand and supply could not function properly under the legal framework at the time (Bromley, 1999; Renton & Amin, 2002). As a result, their decisions and approaches in the lead-up to 2008 have since been broadly questioned and slammed from different quarters.
The challenges of the structure and wellbeing of the European economy has recently been rocked by the Brexit vote in the UK to leave the EU was a seismic event that sent shockwaves throughout Europe and North America as well. The vote’s implications to the long-term status of the EU, the single market, and the free movement are not yet determined. However, the vote underscored the pivotal role that the issue of the economy is playing in shaping people’s opinions of leadership, the government, and even foreign policies. Extensive studies have been done of the areas that led the Brexit vote such as Stoke; the primary message obtained is that people are scared of the changing economic landscape because of the increasing globalization, automation, and the spread of ubiquitous technology that is putting people like coal miners out of business (Veblen, 2015).
Across the Atlantic, the victory of Donald Trump in the US represented a massive shocker of the conventional Western politics and conventions. This is primarily the case because of President Trump’s views on trade and international relations. For example, he confesses unconventional views of the role of NATO, trade deals such s NAFTA, and international bodies such as the UN and even the WTO.
Situation of the economy today in the Western world as well as the rest of the world has been shaped and influenced over the years by the decisions and policies enacted by subsequent governments throughout the boom, recession, and even depression years (Sperber, 2013). Therefore, there is a need to evaluate the role of Marxism in making such decisions or the decisions that have been applied to fix some of the challenges facing the economy such as the 2008 Great Recession. Most economists argue that they can dissect most of the issues and machinations of the economy to make nuanced arguments and submissions regarding the determinants of wages in the market, prices, profits, market demand, foreign exchange, as well as unemployment (Fuchs, 2014). They also suppose that they can explain government involvement in economic policy formulations and actions aimed at enhancing the performance of the economy through crucial fields such as taxation, regulation, price and wage controls, currency, and foreign trade policies (Smith, 2014). However, the evaluation of any economic theoretical framework remains to be its practicality in the market or the society.
Therefore, the prevailing sentiment is calling for intervention of the capitalist system to enact and implement protectionist and anti-free trade policies to protect local industries (Lafferty, 2016; Musto, 2013; Kirkpatrick, 2016). This will be going against the capitalist ethos and introducing a social concept into socialism. The overgrowing of many of these companies means that they might hold too much influence and control over the economy of certain countries or even the global economic wellbeing. In such cases, these businesses become “too big to fail.” This was the case in 2008 where major companies such as the auto industry and AIG could not be allowed to fail (Lafferty, 2016; Musto, 2013; Kirkpatrick, 2016). This is the danger of uncontrolled and free market capitalism.
Additionally, Marx’s views of the expansion of capitalism are massively relevant in the modern economy. Karl Marx provided a crucial insight into the working of capitalism by explaining that capitalism displays a massive need to expand continuously. This is highlighted today as globalization or the expansion of capitalism globally. In this case, Marx argues that the dynamism of capitalism cannot be conceptualized without capturing its need and ability to expand internationally (Fuchs, 2015; Worley, 2016).
Marx explains that the relationship with the international was the historical foundation of the growth and expansion of manufacturers and the movement of goods across borders. At the same time, internationalization offered these businesses a massive chance to expand their accumulation of capital because the profits will be increased as well. Many of these companies seek to grow and expand because there is an advantage in being big. As a result, many of the firms seek to expand and grow. After a while, these companies become too big for the country (Smith, 2016; Woodcock, 2016). Consequently, they start exploring for businesses, markets, opportunities outside the country and, thus, enhancing globalization. According to Marx, capitalism could not be contained within single countries, its inherent nature to expand meant that expansion and globalization was massively inevitable. However, this inevitability of businesses means that they will do all they can to purse low wages, high profits, and a fast accumulation of capital. This has happened in recent years as more and more businesses in the West have outsourced and shipped their production activities to low-wage countries like China, Mexico, and Southeastern Asia nations. The issue of outsourcing has also become one of the major economic concepts in recent years. Its impact has been increasing unemployment among the blue-collar workers in the US, UK, and the West because the manual manufacturing jobs either have been shipped to China and Southeast Asia or have been eliminated due to automation and technology that have sought to make production efficient (Marx, 2015c). This has established a massive quandary for these governments regarding how to bring these jobs back or restructure the economy to ensure that the blue-collar population can earn a decent living in the market.
In the area of international relations, Marxism has been influential in shaping the aspects and issues important in determining the international relations. Marxism insists on economic and material aspects in influencing international relations. In this case, Marx argues that the economic issues trump other concerns and issues in international relations. This means that the issue of class is elevated in determining trade relations and other relationships among countries. In today’s world, relationships between countries is primarily determined through trade relations. Although issues like the War on Terror, climate change, and security have a massive sway in such relations, trade and economic connection is the fundamental issues connecting many countries. For example, trade is the primary issue influencing the relationship between the US and China. These nations are the two largest economies in the world. However, politically, the US and China do not agree on many issues. They disagree on issues such as the regulation of currency, climate change, human rights, freedom of speech and expression, and other sociopolitical aspects. However, China is the US’ biggest trading partner.
Marx and Engels argued that the main source of international instability was the growing capitalist globalization. Specifically, they argued that the struggle between the cosmopolitan proletariat and the national bourgeoisie is the biggest determinant of international relations. Therefore, Marx’s view indicates that the struggle to meet the material needs in the community is the leading issue determining the relationships among nations in the world. For example, the current US administration is risking disrupting decades-old relationships and alliance in renegotiating trade deals such as NAFTA. This is an indication that the citizens in the US are not meeting their material needs under the trade arrangement provided by NAFTA. Therefore, this indicates that trade and economic factors have a massive power in maintaining relationships as well as breaking them in the event of an economic conflict. This is also underscored through the dependency theory, which indicates that the developed world uses multinational corporations, missionaries, experts, and the popular media to penetrate developing countries and integrating them into the capitalist system. This is aimed at appropriating natural resources and thus enhance their dependence of developing countries.
The short-termism of capitalist approaches in the world does not recognize that the world might cease to support such growth and expansion in the future. This is because so long as it is profitable, then it makes sense to the business and markets as well. Around 10 years ago, the issue of climate change had gained massive prominence in the society (Cash et al., 2015; Marx-Pienaar & Erasmus, 2014). The media, political class, and the academicians throughout the developed world were devoting much of their time and energy discussing climate change, its potential impact on the planet, and the actions needed to reverse the impacts of global warming. For example, Al Gore’s focus on climate change was especially prominent with hundreds of thousands around the world viewing his documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.” AT the time, even the right-wing politicians were forced to acknowledge the urgency and impact of climate change (Calderon et al., 2016). However, this has changed dramatically in recent years.
From this study, the concept of Marxism is increasingly relevant to today’s issues in the US, UK, Europe, and the rest of the world. The philosophical thinking advanced by Karl Marx have found relevance in today’s world in the wake of the massive challenges caused by the expansionist approaches adopted by capitalism.
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Cash, B.A., Kinter III, J.L., Adams, J., Altshuler, E., Huang, B., Jin, E.K., Manganello, J., Marx, L. and Jung, T., 2015. Regional structure of the Indian summer monsoon in observations, reanalysis, and simulation. Journal of Climate, 28(5), pp.1824-1841.
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Davis, S.C., Parton, W.J., Del Grosso, S.J., Keough, C., Marx, E., Adler, P.R. and DeLucia, E.H., 2012. Impact of second‐generation biofuel agriculture on greenhouse‐gas emissions in the corn‐growing regions of the US. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 10(2), pp.69-74.
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Haunschild, R., Bornmann, L. and Marx, W., 2016. Climate change research in view of bibliometrics. PloS One, 11(7), p.e0160393.
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Kinter III, J.L., Cash, B., Achuthavarier, D., Adams, J., Altshuler, E., Dirmeyer, P., Doty, B., Huang, B., Jin, E.K., Marx, L. and Manganello, J., 2013. Revolutionizing climate modeling with Project Athena: A multi-institutional, international collaboration. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 94(2), pp.231-245.
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