Maybe Karl Marx wasn’t all wrong

For the worker losing his job because his employer moved operations to an undeveloped country for cheaper labor, some of Karl Marx’s ideas might ring true. This worker now understands how much the owners of the capitalist enterprise he worked for concern themselves only with profit, not with their employees or their communities.

A worker losing her job to a robot might also be a candidate for Marxism, if she is not given training for a new job.

Marx predicted that self interest would lead owners (capitalists) to focus solely on profit, turning workers into economic slaves, dependent on the capitalists for their jobs.

After the capitalism of Marx’s time was tamed with laws to protect workers and to oversee their fair share of profits in fair wages, the new capitalism soared. It seemed to prove Marx wrong as the average worker knew a standard of living never before reached in human history.

Within the past few decades, business practices have changed. Obviously, a business can’t exist without profits. However, profit now appears the only goal of many owners. Labor, a cost, is the enemy.

Seeing labor only as a cost illustrates the struggle between what is best for the most and what is best only for me.

One company might gain greater profits for a time by shedding workers, but workers are also consumers. If all businesses see labor only as a cost, over time less people have money to purchase products. All businesses will suffer.

We should not condemn capitalists just because they are capitalists. Capitalism is a very efficient form of production. It works well when a business sees profit as only part of the equation. Capitalism works well when tamed.