(no subject)
James Milne Class H 5/8/06
“Sell a man a fish, he eats for a day, teach a man how to fish, you ruin a wonderful business opportunity.”
--Karl Marx--
Karl Marx is social philosopher and the founder of international communism and was born in Trier, West Germany. In 1841 he received a doctorate from the University of Jena and edited a newspaper that was soon suppressed from Germany. This forced him to move to Paris in search of work, where he reorganized the Socialist League of the Just with help and sponsorship from Engels, his partner and friend. In 1848 he finished the Communist Manifesto which shows history as nothing more than the struggle to become a member of a higher class. In 1849, after he was expelled from most European countries, he settled in London and started his first major work, Das Kapital. As his health weakened, so did the communist party that he had been a leader of until its end in 1872, and after he died the party almost completely disappeared.
I chose this quote by Marx because I think it has a lot to do with the way modern economics and marketing works, people would rather sell a man a fish every day so that they can make money, instead of teaching him to fish, which would really help him for the rest of his life. This could be looked at as a good or bad thing though; it all depends on how you want to look at things, either as a nice person, or a person that wants to succeed.
Marx could have been frowning on economics and the selfishness when it comes to buying basic essentials for survival, and what information is being withheld from us for the cause of making money. If everyone was taught to make the things that they need, and no one had to buy them, then people would be able to focus on the things that really matter, like family and friends. But instead people are forced to focus on nothing more than working, because if they don’t make money then they can’t survive in modern society. People are very dependent on the businesses that make the product they need, instead of depending on themselves and learning how to create the things they need to survive. If people helped each other more often, instead of worrying about how much money they are going to make from them, then there would probably be a lot less problems in the world.
Marx could have also been making a comment about how if you want to succeed, then you can’t do nice things for people, because you won’t make any money from giving people helpful advice. That’s how you have to do things in today’s world, if you go through life being nice to everyone, then it will end up being you who needs help, but no one will be willing to help you like you did them. A successful business man in today’s world has to know how to manipulate people and convince people hat their product is the best. When you watch T.V. you don’t see KFC telling you all about their secret recipe and how to make it on you own for much cheaper, you see people trying to make their product look perfect so you’ll spend money on it. This may sound mean, or cruel, but that’s how society works. In the long run, some one, at some point, has to be convinced to buy a product so that many other people that are employed by that company, can earn a living too. In return for those people earning money, they go out and spend it on other things, which provide other people with enough money to survive too. If a business revealed their secret, or told us the complete truth about a product, then it could result in a chain reaction of people losing their jobs, and families going hungry.
“Sell a man a fish, he eats for a day, teach a man how to fish, you ruin a wonderful business opportunity.”
--Karl Marx--
Karl Marx is social philosopher and the founder of international communism and was born in Trier, West Germany. In 1841 he received a doctorate from the University of Jena and edited a newspaper that was soon suppressed from Germany. This forced him to move to Paris in search of work, where he reorganized the Socialist League of the Just with help and sponsorship from Engels, his partner and friend. In 1848 he finished the Communist Manifesto which shows history as nothing more than the struggle to become a member of a higher class. In 1849, after he was expelled from most European countries, he settled in London and started his first major work, Das Kapital. As his health weakened, so did the communist party that he had been a leader of until its end in 1872, and after he died the party almost completely disappeared.
I chose this quote by Marx because I think it has a lot to do with the way modern economics and marketing works, people would rather sell a man a fish every day so that they can make money, instead of teaching him to fish, which would really help him for the rest of his life. This could be looked at as a good or bad thing though; it all depends on how you want to look at things, either as a nice person, or a person that wants to succeed.
Marx could have been frowning on economics and the selfishness when it comes to buying basic essentials for survival, and what information is being withheld from us for the cause of making money. If everyone was taught to make the things that they need, and no one had to buy them, then people would be able to focus on the things that really matter, like family and friends. But instead people are forced to focus on nothing more than working, because if they don’t make money then they can’t survive in modern society. People are very dependent on the businesses that make the product they need, instead of depending on themselves and learning how to create the things they need to survive. If people helped each other more often, instead of worrying about how much money they are going to make from them, then there would probably be a lot less problems in the world.
Marx could have also been making a comment about how if you want to succeed, then you can’t do nice things for people, because you won’t make any money from giving people helpful advice. That’s how you have to do things in today’s world, if you go through life being nice to everyone, then it will end up being you who needs help, but no one will be willing to help you like you did them. A successful business man in today’s world has to know how to manipulate people and convince people hat their product is the best. When you watch T.V. you don’t see KFC telling you all about their secret recipe and how to make it on you own for much cheaper, you see people trying to make their product look perfect so you’ll spend money on it. This may sound mean, or cruel, but that’s how society works. In the long run, some one, at some point, has to be convinced to buy a product so that many other people that are employed by that company, can earn a living too. In return for those people earning money, they go out and spend it on other things, which provide other people with enough money to survive too. If a business revealed their secret, or told us the complete truth about a product, then it could result in a chain reaction of people losing their jobs, and families going hungry.