Marx’s Capital: Analysis of Capitalism and Communism
Capital: Marx’s Most Important Work
Capital, the most important work of Marx, begins with an analysis of the merchandise. This has a double value: use value and exchange value. The use value of merchandise is based on the quality of the commodity through which it fills a need rather than another. The exchange value of goods is the amount of socially necessary labor to produce it. The exchange of goods is not so much a relationship between things as a relationship between men. Work (labor force) is a commodity that the owner (the proletariat) will sell in exchange for the salary of the owner of capital. After purchasing the labor force, the owner of the means of production has the right to consume it, that is, to force it to work. The additional product not paid to the worker by the capitalist is what Marx called surplus value. Surplus value can be increased by extending the working day (absolute surplus value) or reducing the working day (relative surplus value). To increase the appreciation, the capitalist reinvests in order not to succumb to competition. Thus, the accumulation of capital on the one hand concentrates wealth in the hands of a dwindling number of capitalists and, on the other hand, eliminating the worker through the introduction of machines, generates more poverty.
The Advent of Communism
Feudalism was replaced by the bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie, to exist and develop, has to produce in its womb that which carries its death: the proletariat. This is the antithesis of the bourgeoisie. It is inevitable, thinks Marx, that the day of the revolution will arrive. That day, marked by the victory of the proletariat, will be the day of the resurrection of all mankind. Marx did not say with much precision how to configure the new society. At first, he says, there will be a dictatorship of the proletariat, with the means of production centralized in the hands of the state. The Marxist utopia is that once private property is abolished, political power will be phased out and will cease to exist. Because political power is nothing but the organized violence of one class for oppressing another. Once the division between manual and intellectual work is missing, and when the job has become a necessity and not a means of life, society will inscribe on its banners: from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs. Marx, a much better critic than a politician, did not understand that the organization of an increased production must maintain the state. He was not able to foresee the rise of the middle classes as a result of the capitalist world, which demanded that the state be strengthened to maintain their standard of living. We conclude that the Marxist utopia leads to an aporia: either communism will be given as final in history, and then the dialectic is not the law of history, or the dialectic is the law of history, and then communism will never exceed or fall short. Several authors have spoken of a certain Marxist faith. The difference, as pointed out subtly by Besançon, is that while the Christian knows that he believes, the Marxist thinks he knows. The Achilles heel of Marxism is that mix of science and hope that leads him to solidify into a theology that is worldly in the ideological machinery of the totalitarian state.