Karl Marx Division Of Labour

The beggar fits differently into Smith’s and Marx’s accounts of capitalist production due to dissimilar understandings of human nature. To begin with, according to Smith, our human nature is self-interest. It is the fundamental axiom that powers what Smith calls the “division of labor”. Smith explains that self-interest creates and initiates trade amongst people, which in turn develops into the idea of the division of labor and efficient production. For Smith, the trading of goods and services occurs before the division of labor because as he writes, “In that original state of things…the whole produce of labor belongs to the labor” (Smith, 73). Essentially, people satisfy their own needs through their own means. However, people do not originally …show more content…
Smith even claims that natural liberty, like the division of labor, is rooted in self-interest. He is a staunch opponent to government intervention, an advocate for the self-regulating market, and a protector of natural liberty. Smith acknowledges the plight of the workers and their disadvantages by stating that the government should only intervene to provide workers with public education (Smith, 840). Smith believes education is the only area in society that government may intervene because extensive intervention puts natural liberty at stake. According to Smith, the impoverished are less fortunate and deserve the right to public education. However, Smith confesses some of the disadvantages the impoverished face due to the division of …show more content…
Humans not only create things and make decisions for their own subsistence, but also use their skills to express themselves. Marx believes humans take pride in their unique labor and production. Humans do not just eat, sleep and procreate like animals; they are instead much more complex and creative beings (Marx, 76). According to Marx, the uniqueness of labor is what distinguishes humans from animals and defines their existence. Marx is outraged by how capitalist production corrupts human labor. This distortion begins with the worker becoming increasingly alienated from their product, labor, and humanity itself. This creates a sense of lost reality where the characteristics that make humans distinct, such as their labor and products, are now moving away from them. Marx specifically defines this process as “estrangement”. The worker now feels more human when he is at home than when he is at work (Marx, 74). Workers no longer find joy in their labor and have no relationship with the products they create. Labor and the ability to produce objects that distinguish humans from animals have now been corrupted by capitalist