Karl Marx - Communist Manifesto?

Question

Working on a paper, & have my own opinion....curious about what others think. Here's the question:

If Marx knows workers are not legally enslaved, why does he use the metaphor for slavery throughout his work to describe the relationship between capitalist & wage-laborer? Can slavery be abolished by paying workers better wages?

Answer 1

Must slavery be legal in order to be real? Or would it not be better to have someone not even realize the extent of their servitude?

Pay alone does not erase slavery. Control over one's destiny is the principal thing.

Answer 2

Karl Marx believed that societies and economies evolved. First was the cave men who looked out for their basic needs. Then came the ancients, who developed the concept of property ownership and classes, where one group of people would have more money then another group. Then the feudal system, where there was the ruling political class, who had all the power and money, and the serfs, or indentured labourers, who did all the work. Then capitalism emerged, which created a third class in between the polical elite and the common workers, who were the capitalists because of their control of money, sometimes called the bourgeois. These people evolved from the traders and merchants of the feudal system, the burghers. Communism was supposed to be the final stage, when the wealth of the upper and middle classes would be redistributed evenly amongst all people. That's a pretty simple overview of it, anyway.

Answer 3

there was a famous economist, Adam Smith, from long ago who persuaded the slave owners to "set the slaves free." When they protested, he explained that slavery was too expensive. If you set them free and offer to pay them, then they have to pay for birth, sickness, old age, housing, food, etc. The trick was to pay them based on the price of corn. Just enough to eat. Not enough to afford to stop working or too little and die. He called this "wage slavery" and won the argument. Marx was operating on this principle in his writings. To answer your last question, this will not happen, better wages, as then you will lose your workforce. This principle of oppression is still very alive and well in the modern world as everyone lives "from paycheck to paycheck," never able to get out of the trap. This is all part of a much darker story of very powerful men exploiting the masses. Today it is part of the big lie.