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The Plight of the U.S. Working Class

Bibliographic Data

ID9201632
AuthorsFred Magdoff, John Bellamy Foster (0000-0001-7418-3004)
Year2014
Volume65
Issue8
Pages1
Publication date2014-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueMonthly Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0027-0520 • E-ISSN: 0027-0520
PublisherMonthly Review Foundation (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.14452/mr-065-08-2014-01_1
OpenAlexW2092840743
LanguageEN
Citations received2

Modern capitalism, sociologist Max Weber famously observed early in the twentieth century, is based on "the rational capitalistic organization of (formally) free labor." But the "rationality" of the system in this sphere, as Weber was to acknowledge elsewhere, was so restrictive as to be in reality "irrational." Despite its formal freedom, labor under capitalism was substantively unfree.... This was in accordance with the argument advanced in Karl Marx's Capital. Since the vast majority of individuals in the capitalist system are divorced from the means of production they have no other way to survive but to sell their labor power to those who own these means, that is, the capitalist class.... The result is a strong tendency to the polarization of income and wealth in society. The more the social productivity of labor grows the more it serves to promote the wealth and power of private capital, while at the same time increasing the relative poverty and economic dependency of the workers.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website

Argument (complex analysis) · Capital (architecture) · Capitalism · Capitalist mode of production · Economic growth · Economics · Irrational number · Neoclassical economics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Poverty · Power (physics) · Productivity · Rationality · Sociology · Working class · History · Law · Political Economy and Marxism

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Unique citing works2
Citations per year0,2
Citation span2016 - 2017 (2)
Citation velocityhistorical
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 2
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