Adam Smith vs. Karl Marx

A detailed Summary of Adam Smith vs. Karl Marx

Both Adam Smith and Karl Marx are considered two of the top twenty most influential people in the world for the millennium. They both are respected in their views for creating a perfect society where everyone is happy. Adam Smith, a brilliant Scottish political economist philosopher born in 1723, had the goal of perfect liberty for all individuals through the capitalistic approach. While Karl Marx, born in 1818, believed in individual freedom for society and logically criticized capitalism giving reasons as to why it was irrational and why it would fall. Figuring out what kind of state will ensure the greatest freedom or liberty of individuals was their main philosophical problem. They differed in their views of human nature, the social decisions made in the society, the role of competition, and the effects of the division of labor on human beings.

Perfect liberty according to Smith, will allow a system of natural liberty to establish itself in which every man, as long as he does not violate the laws of justice, is left perfectly free to pursue his own interest his own way. This self-interest produces a market and in effect produces perfect liberty.

In Smith's theory of human nature, Smith

suggests that human nature will turn the beneficence of the rich to the poor out of sympathy for their condition. Marx did not agree with Smith's passions of human nature and the phenomena of sympathy. Marx said that, because it was always in the economic interest of capita to take advantage of or exploit workers, nothing could persuade capitalists to change their ways. He thought peaceful progress towards equality and social justice was impossible. The only way to establish justice was for the workers to overthrow the capitalists by means of violent revolution, according to Marx. He urged workers around the world to revolt against their rulers.

Marx thinks that the market is just the market setting its own wages. The Bourgeoisie is the urban class that can talk to the state, and the state is under the thumb of the Bourgeoisie. He concluded that competition drove capitalists to cut the costs as much as possible and this was done through cutting the wages of the laborers. The public then could not even afford the products they produced. Also competition led to overproduction which led to lay-offs and periods of depression. He thought this brought misery for all of society. Marx also believed that man should not only labor as an individual, but for society as well. However under this capitalist system, man was working for a boss, who only seeked profit, and not the well being of his workers, or the public. He believed that these workers were getting mental

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Approximate Word count = 997
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History