I want a goddamn B+ on this thing. Just once.
Who wants to read a half-realized essay?
Entrapment:
Marx, Weber, and the Capitalist Machine
The system of capitalism is far more than just an economic philosophy: it envelops the inner and outer workings of the lives of everyone it touches, entrapping those who live within its all-encompassing structure. Max Weber, in The Protestant Ethic and the "Spirit" of Capitalism, among other works on Protestantism and its effect on the economy and psychology of its followers, examines the origins of the capitalist machine and why capitalism permeates our lives even today. In his vast works on capitalism and his solution to capitalism, communism, Karl Marx examines how the system works and attempts to flesh out the contradictions of the system that will eventually give rise to communism. Both theorists study the rational bases for production, the contradictions and irrationalities inherent in the system, and the effect of the system on the individual.
The rational, systematic seeking for profit is produced by the mindset inherent in the Protestant ethic. Weber contends that rational capitalists produce more profit more efficiently than the disorganized adventurers of the past. The idea of work as a "calling" or a "duty" to God originated in Protestant asceticism, with Protestant capitalists working diligently at their calling in the name of God - but not spending their earnings on wicked luxuries. "Man was merely the steward of the gifts granted him by God's grace; he, like the wicked servant in the Bible, must give an account of every penny, and it is at the very least dubious whether he should expend any of this money for a purpose which serves not God's glory, but his own pleasure" (Weber 115). What made the idea of a "calling" so effective in producing a consistent, capitalist system was that it made work and profit the thing - the only thing - that mattered. "But what was definitely new was the estimation of fulfillment of duty within secular callings as being of the absolutely highest level possible for moral activity" (Weber 29). This ethos ensured that the capitalist would use any means (that is, any legal, "moral" means) necessary to achieve high profitability in his duty to God.
Marx analyzes those means by exploring the division of labor and mechanization. The advent of technology meant faster, cheaper, more efficient forms of producing commodities with less human input. The division of labor meant that complex, skilled tasks were broken down into more simple tasks, which were again broken down into even more simple tasks, and again and again until any task needed could be completed by a worker with any degree of skill. "Manufacture also arises
Entrapment:
Marx, Weber, and the Capitalist Machine
The system of capitalism is far more than just an economic philosophy: it envelops the inner and outer workings of the lives of everyone it touches, entrapping those who live within its all-encompassing structure. Max Weber, in The Protestant Ethic and the "Spirit" of Capitalism, among other works on Protestantism and its effect on the economy and psychology of its followers, examines the origins of the capitalist machine and why capitalism permeates our lives even today. In his vast works on capitalism and his solution to capitalism, communism, Karl Marx examines how the system works and attempts to flesh out the contradictions of the system that will eventually give rise to communism. Both theorists study the rational bases for production, the contradictions and irrationalities inherent in the system, and the effect of the system on the individual.
The rational, systematic seeking for profit is produced by the mindset inherent in the Protestant ethic. Weber contends that rational capitalists produce more profit more efficiently than the disorganized adventurers of the past. The idea of work as a "calling" or a "duty" to God originated in Protestant asceticism, with Protestant capitalists working diligently at their calling in the name of God - but not spending their earnings on wicked luxuries. "Man was merely the steward of the gifts granted him by God's grace; he, like the wicked servant in the Bible, must give an account of every penny, and it is at the very least dubious whether he should expend any of this money for a purpose which serves not God's glory, but his own pleasure" (Weber 115). What made the idea of a "calling" so effective in producing a consistent, capitalist system was that it made work and profit the thing - the only thing - that mattered. "But what was definitely new was the estimation of fulfillment of duty within secular callings as being of the absolutely highest level possible for moral activity" (Weber 29). This ethos ensured that the capitalist would use any means (that is, any legal, "moral" means) necessary to achieve high profitability in his duty to God.
Marx analyzes those means by exploring the division of labor and mechanization. The advent of technology meant faster, cheaper, more efficient forms of producing commodities with less human input. The division of labor meant that complex, skilled tasks were broken down into more simple tasks, which were again broken down into even more simple tasks, and again and again until any task needed could be completed by a worker with any degree of skill. "Manufacture also arises