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SOC 221 08 May 2003 U.S. Economy, Examined Under Marxist Theory In his critique of modern society, political and economic theorist Karl Marx asserted that industrial capitalism manifested severe inequality between the owners (bourgeoisie) and the working class (proletariat), which ultimately would lead to revolution and the establishment of a classless society. Under examination, the United States is a prime example of a country with a capitalist economy that exhibits great economic disparities among different social classes. Under the current leadership of President George W. Bush, the U.S. federal government has embarked on a series of tax cuts in an effort to stimulate America’s lackluster economy. In January 2003, President Bush unveiled a $674 billion tax plan deemed to strengthen the U.S. economy by proposing an end to taxes on some dividends, with the hope that it will encourage job growth and investment in new capital—two necessary factors needed to jumpstart the damaged economy. However, President Bush’s economic stimulus proposal overwhelmingly benefits the top 1 percent of Americans—those who earn more than $350,000 a year, while 80 percent of American households—those who earn less than $73,000 a year will receive less than 10 percent of this stimulant (Dionne Jr.). Furthermore, America’s economic climate, specifically highlighted by President Bush’s stimulus package, is undoubtedly in accordance with Marx’s assessment of the modern, industrial, capitalist society. To Karl Marx, the Industrial Revolution bred a new class struggle between the working class, known as the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, the owners of production. Unlike previous class struggles between dueling classes, such as the peasants and the lords of Feudalist Europe, capitalism produced alienation, the detachment from the basic human need to work. According to Marx, humans under capitalism suffered from four forms of alienation: alienation from work, alienation from the product, alienation from the sense of human purpose, and alienation from other people within the same class (Adams, Sydie, 128).
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