The (Dis)Empowered Worker

One of the central questions that Marx sought to address, that so much of his analysis of Kapital was interested in discovering, was how to enable a society wherein the worker--the producer, the creator, the artist, the birther--would be able to derive the full value of one's labours.

Why Marx was concerned with this matter is easy to see. It has to do with the fact that there is a 'surplus value' that is derived from the labours of the working man or woman, but that does not go to that working man or woman. The working-(wo)man does not received the full value of his or her labour. The worker works not for him- or herself, or even for his or her family and friends. The worker also works for the 'capitalist'--i.e., the one who capitalizes on the dis-advantaged position of the worker. The surplus value--or I should say, a percentage of the value of a man's or woman's labour--in the current Capitalist system, goes to one who is not even present in the act of labour and birth.. That missing agent, the 'invisible hand' of capitalism, accrues a degree of value from the labours of those who produce and do the work without ever actually being involved in those labours.

How this all comes about is a story in itself. Suffice it to say now that there is an unconscious tendency within the Capitalist System to have a perpetual state of affairs where there are these intense zones of desperation. In a manner of speaking, Capitalism thrives on a 'lack of opportunity.' Such a 'lack of opportunity' creates a set of conditions where there is an abundant supply of workers that can be taken advantage of so that 'surplus value' can be derived from their labours. That 'surplus value' is Capital.

It is not so much a state of healthy competition we are talking about here as a state of exploitation. The desperate conditions that many live in around the world happens to be a 'boon to the tried and true Capitalist.' In fact, what one can do is leverage and hedge one nation's dispossessed against another nations. This goes for both those illiterate and under-educated as well as those literate and educated to the hilt. The threat of 'losing the job' is the point of leverage for the Capitalist. It is what allows the proletariat to settle for scraps, for less, for 'just getting by.' It is what also leads to frustrations in love and relationships. The disadvantaged position of the worker leaves him or her feeling like they are 'being taken advantage of'. However, that person may not know why. So that person tends to blame those closest to him- or herself. Thus, one's family and friends--one's significant others--can come to be the unwitting scapegoats and verbal punching bags taking the brunt of frustration that is owed to a system based on the worker never deriving the 'full value' of his or her labours.