Q1. What does Marx mean when he says that people are “species-beings”?

Marx uses the term “species-beings” to mean the human essence, that is, the unique features about human beings that makes them distinctive from inorganic and other living organisms. To Marx, the most distinctive aspect about human beings is their distinctive essence. Unlike other animals, human beings have biological, psychological, and evolutionary aspects which makes them superior to other animals. Human beings have different needs such as eating, sleeping, affections, stimulations, and conformity. It is these needs that affect human wants and the choice of goods and services used in satisfying them determine the nature of a society’s economic system.

Q2. Why does Marx think that capitalism is dehumanizing for workers?

One of Karl Marx most significant work was on his deconstruction of the capitalist ideology by proving the adverse implication of this economic system in dehumanizing workers by alienating them. Marx main concern was on the manner in which workers working under capitalism framework would end up living a dissatisfied and unhappy life due to the greed of their employer and inefficiency of the free market system. He pointed out that while the laborers were providing the essential human resource for producing the goods, they were paid low wages which were a smaller fraction of the goods’ value. On the other hand, the employers were able to make huge profits because of the high prices they charged on these goods. The implication is that the workers remained poor and had to continue offering their labor services. Marx, therefore, concluded that capitalism was not only a source of income inequality but was also dehumanizing to the poor workers.

Q3.Can you give any examples of this dehumanization?

An example of the dehumanization aspect of capitalism is reflected by the state most workers working in mining companies or even in corporate offices where they are a lot of work to be done. Most of the junior employees get to work early in the morning and leave job late in the evening, as late as 8 p.m. Because most of them are poor, they end up using public vehicles where some of them end up sleeping as they wait to alight. Reaching home, these group of employees eat their supper, watch TV for an hour or two and then get to bed. They have no time to engage with their families since they have been turned into work robots by their employers and the capitalist economic system. Such a scenario is what Marx describes as a dehumanizing life.

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