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[713] Kalmerico: Humans are only good if they make money. Human life is treated no differently than what Marx refers to as
the thing, which is a good or an article. In the annotations it
states that, “In the first phase, the human is the agent in
control, in the second phase, the human has become the consumer of the
beneficial properties of the thing. The individual's ability to use
external things to serve his or her needs has become a power of the
thing itself.” The power of the thing is great as humans need
the thing to survive. The thing can come in the form of food,
clothing, shelter, or any other good that allows humans to function in
life. Workers are a slave to the thing as they use all their
labor-power in creating the thing, and then use their wage to buy the
thing. Workers do not own the thing that they themselves produce, the
capitalist does. A quote from John Locke, found in Capital, states
that “The natural worth of anything consists in its fitness to
supply the necessities, or serve the conveniences of human
life.” In other words, the use-value of humans supply
necessities. The labor-power of humans is bought and sold just like
any other commodity on the market, and humans sell their labor-power
only to have the ability to earn a wage and buy commodities for
themselves to ensure their survival in a capitalistic society.
Capitalism is a very exploitative society where humans are slaves to
the thing. In capitalism, a human life is only worth the profit it
creates, otherwise it is of no use to society and somewhat of a
burden. |
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