Money and Power: An Introduction to
Capitalism
Karl Marx
The Bourgeoisie/ The Proletariat
Labour Theory
Alienation
Conflict
 Conflict occurs due to a differences in opinion, or social
inequalities
 Conflict can also occur between what people feel they
deserve and what they receive: distribution of wealth and
power in society
The Bourgeoisie & The Proletariat
Karl Marx, a sociologist, economist, revolutionary socialist in
the 1800s examined inequalities between two types of
people:
 The Bourgeoisie (the people who owned
property, the means of production); and
 The Proletariat (the working class,
the people who owned their labour power)
 The Bourgeoisie accumulated power by controlling and
owning the means of production= own large-scale operations
and corporations that produce the goods people in society
consume
 The Proletariat are the working class; they work for the
ruling class and consume products of big companies
 Marx= the bourgeoisie exploited the working class and
opressed them through this ideology we like to call :
CAPITALISM
Capitalism: An Ideology
 Marx saw capitalism as destructive= wanted to get rid of it
 ManyWesterners see Capitalism in a positive light
 Superstructure of society: law, morality and education
 The key to understanding a society at any point in history: mode
of production (ex. feudal times= land- lords owned and
controlled it; capitalist= capital, machinery, mines, factoriesowned and controlled by capitalists
 In capitalist societies, capitalists own and control the productive
resources; workers only own their labour and work for capitalists,
who then own the product and sell it for profit.
“Mo Money (for the capitalists), Mo
Problems (for the labour workers)”
Marxism and Alienation
 What is alienation?
 Marx refers to alientation in economic terms: the aspect in
which workers are disconnected from what they produce and
why they produce= systemic result of capitalism
 Workers lose control over their lives by losing control over
their work= workers cease to be autonomous
 Pre-capitalist societies example: A shoemaker would own his
shop, set his own hours, determine his working conditions,
shape and sell his own product= he was connected to his work.
 Today’s capitalist societies: average worker is replaceable;
impersonal
 Workers have lost control over the process of production, the
products they produce, the relationships they have with each
other= they have become estranged
Karl Marx’s Ideas
 Humans cannot be humans under alienated conditions
 Capitalism must be abolished if a society’s emancipation is to
be complete
 Real liberty does not exist until a worker controls his/her
workplace and the products they produce
 Profit should be dispersed equally amongst those who have
contributed to the labour of the product
“Capitalism: A Love Story”
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNl_G0m_ABU
New Vocabulary
 Working Class: sometimes called the proletariat, typically blue-collar
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jobs, those who work for a salary.
Eviction/Notice of Eviction: removal of a tenant/tenants
(person/people living in a household) from rental property by the
landlord; removal of people from a home that is in foreclosure
Foreclosure/Foreclosed: the process where a bank will sell or take
repossession of a home after the owner has repeatedly failed to pay their
mortgage
Profit: money that is made off goods
“Bottom Feeders”: those people who exploit the weak and win
economic advantage; who feed off the poor in hash economic times
Housing Crash: severe decrease in price of homes, which is a result of
home owners holding mortgages that exceed the value of their homes
Free Enterprise: the economic system of capitalism: a separation
between government interference in the economy; it is based on the idea
that consumer’s interests will be best met with restricted government
involvement in privately owned businesses.