Karl Marx and Incentive

Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, and revolutionary that lived from May 5, 1818 – March 4, 1883(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Marx). Karl Marx is considered to be the father of modern day communism and socialism.   He wrote Economic and Philosophical Manuscript of 1844 between April and August of 1844 but his writings would not be published until 1932 in Russia well after his death (http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy
/marx/section1.html).   One of the main topics of his writings is what he calls estranged labor.   This form of labor would be found under an economic system of private ownership where society is divided into two classes, those who are property owners and the property-less workers (Marx).     Marx explains that estrangement or alienation of labor occurs when the workers feel alienated from the products they produce.   Marx’s thoughts are that the worker puts everything he has, including his own life, into the product he produces yet the harder he works the more distant he will become because he does not own the product or get to enjoy it.   Not only was the worker estranged from the product that he produced, he would also be alienated from other human beings and the human race.   The worker’s labor would also become impersonal since there was no pay off in the end.   Marx’s theories may seem to make sense in writing but when it was applied in reality this whole concept failed.   Although Marx had a good concept about creating the perfect society, his theories failed because workers were not given any incentive to work.

At first glance, Marx’s theories seemed to have been the answer for a perfect human utopia.   Everybody worked hard to benefit society, there was no poverty, and everything was shared equally amongst all citizens.   One would think that this image of a perfect world would be enough of an incentive to motivate workers but it wasn’t.   Humans by nature are more apt to consume then they are to produce.   Marx Strongly...