Karl Marx : Men Are Made Selfish Through Environment

"Man is not naturally selfish but is made so through his environment"; Karl Marx would have agreed with this statement. Marx was a socialist, and supported the rise of communism, which was the notion of equality of power in society. Marx believes that environment is the leading cause of selfishness for many different reasons, which I will discuss briefly in this assignment.

Karl Marx believed that individuals are introduced to competition through their environment, this competition is what causes selfishness to occur in individuals. He saw capitalism as to blame for the selfishness as individuals are competing for even the basic necessities of life.

Karl Marx disagreed with the capitalist way of life, making the poor poorer, the rich richer and the exploitation of wage- laborers; Marx instead pushed for communist society. Marx had a very negative outlook on wage-labor "Ð'...But does wage-labor create any property for the laborer? Not a bit. It creates capital i.e. that kind of property which exploits wage labor, and which cannot increase except upon condition for begetting a new supply of wage-labor for fresh exploitation". (Arts 1000 text, 217) Marx clearly saw the bourgeoisie as being exploitive of the proletariat, or working class people and believed that there should have been a new system put in place, one where the proletariat had the power. This system is Communism, "Communism deprives no man of the power to appropriate the products of society: all it does is to deprive him of the power to subjugate the labor of others by means of such appropriation". (Arts 1000 text, 218) Marx failed to realize that selfishness is only made worse through society, as it is human nature to take care of individual needs before others. So by abolishing competition in labor, where those who work harder don't gain anything more than someone who slacks, you will gain nothing as you can't remove the essence