What efforts were made to improve the lot As defined by the famous 1800's revolutionary socialist, Karl Marx, the working class are individuals who sell their labor power for wages and who do not own the means of production. He argued that they were responsible for creating the wealth of a society. He asserted that the working class physically build bridges, craft furniture, grow food, and nurse children, but do not own land, or factories. In The Communist Manifesto, Marx argued that it was the destiny of the working class to displace the capitalist system, abolishing the social relationships underpinning the class system and then developing into a future communist society in which "the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all." The history of the working class has been set by the vast surplus of production available from industrialization creating better living standards.
The class struggle’s which Marx refers to above is that of the Bourgeoisie, who own the means of production and the proletariat, who sell their labour. Marx believed that the two classes are based on a contradiction, this ascends from the fact that the workers who make the commodities do not get the profit that is made. Instead the profit goes to the Bourgeoisie, over time
It wasn’t until shortly after his death that Karl Marx’s ideology began to significantly influence socialist movements. Although relatively unknown during his lifetime he has become one of the fundamental economic and sociological figures of the modern era. Many of his theories and insights into the way society functions are still relevant in the expanding capitalist society that exists today. Marx was very critical of capitalism and the division in society between the bourgeoisie and proletariat classes, attempting to highlight the injustice and exploitation of the working class by the wealthy upper and middle class. Marx predicted that capitalism within a socioeconomic system would inevitably create internal tensions between social classes leading to its demise and replacement by a new system, communism.
Durkheim sees anomie as responsible for the world’s disorder of economics- the lack of morality and regulation resulted in overpowering the weak; thus, he feels that only norms can prevent the abuse of power and calls for regulation and equal opportunity from birth- the greater the equal opportunity the less need for restraint. Marx looked at how capitalism separated humanity by making work a simple means of individual existence. In addition he describes society in terms of class and economic conflicts. Marx saw proletariat or people of a working class as being underneath the bourgeoisie or the capitalist of a modern society. Marx looked at how alienation of production of commodities by workers also leads to alienation of social life.
With their property they use it for businesses and factories. Like the upper class, they also own apart of the lower class but they own the proletariats. Third we have the proletariats. This is the first part of the lower class. They live in cities and work in factories under the middle class.
I. Unionization a. Unionization in its simplest form is the collaboration of a group of workers in a certain industry. b. Motivations for unionization — Personal job dissatisfaction usually leads to the need for Collective Bargaining  Collective bargaining includes: o Salary improvement o Retirement requirement and benefits o Better working conditions o Management misbehavior against employees o Effective conflict resolution — Belief that unionization will lead to concrete improvements as a result of Collective Bargaining II. Economists have two different views of the effect of unionization in the economy: First view is that unionization is good for the economy and the other view states the contrary. A According to the organizers of the American Worker Project, David Madland and Karla Walter, whose goal is to conduct research on the increase of wages, benefits, and security of American workers – “the essence of labor unions is to allow workers to reap the benefits of the economic growth they help create.” i.
In capitalist societies, workers are employed to produce goods which are sold by their employers at a profit. Only a bit of the profit ends up in the workers wage, most of its kept by the employer. Marx said that if workers were allowed to notice the unfairness of this, they’d revolt. So, to avoid revolution the capitalist system shapes the superstructure to make sure that the workers accept their lot in life. Institutions like the family, education and religion lead individuals into accepting the inequalities or capitalism.
Bertens, H. tells us that ‘Capitalism...thrives on exploiting its labourers’ and that these labourers have had to create ‘labour unions to get better deals’, this supports the idea that the working class are gaining more power but it is seen to be a very long and slow process. Plath wanted to show the reader that in order for the working classes to be able to achieve and become more equal they must ‘shove’ their way through the barriers created by upper classes and although this will take a long time they will eventually break through and ‘inherit the earth’, the narrator suggests that equality is their right and by standing up for themselves the working classes are just reclaiming that right. However, Barry, P. in Beginning Theory suggested authors are ‘constantly formed by their social contexts in ways which they themselves would usually not admit’, this would suggest that the capitalist society has led Plath to believe that things were getting better for the working classes so that her writing would
The Innovation Journal: The Public Sector Innovation Journal, Volume 9 (1) EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT: Democracy or Delusion? by Howard A. Doughty That the term ‘empowerment’ is so widely used today in ‘progressive’ management circles suggests not just manipulative intent but an awareness that even in periods of deep recession the boundaries of workplace control continue to be challenged by workers striving to attain a measure of power, security, and dignity. - James W. Rinehart1 Lord Bertrand Russell wrote somewhere that work is of two kinds: altering the position of matter at or near the surface of the earth, and telling others to do so. The first, he said, is unpleasant and ill paid; the second is pleasant and well paid. A more succinct statement of power relations in the workplace would be hard to find.2 This essay is a reflection on one of the more interesting concepts in the contemporary management of human resources-employee empowerment.
Herbert Gutman’s essay focuses primarily on the effects industrialization (the technological advancements of machinery) had on the labor ethics of the American working-class. The new and different working environments significantly altered the way workers acted during labor hours. However, I think Gutman also presented many facts that would suggest that industrialization itself wasn’t the largest influence on laborers’ work ethics. In my view, factors such as cultural background, gender, and age are just as, if not more, relevant to citizens’ ethics in the workplace. Different groups of people behaved in different types of ways depending on where they came from, who they were, and how old they were.