Karl Marx (1818 – 1883), Response to Maxed Out
Karl Marx explored a plethora of ideas during his time, however his main focus, and that which is most readily seen in Maxed Out, is this idea of the duality of substructure and superstructure, and its applications to capitalism. As the foremost premise, Marx believed that it was the essential nature of human beings to enjoy participating in collective work. He saw the depravity of this experience as a crime against the fundamental being of human nature.
The economic substructure, to Marx, is the defining structure of society. The economic and material relationships formed and maintained in the substructure, are what shape the superstructure, or the “secondary and dependent set of institutions and ideas” (Lengermann and Niebrugge, “Class Notes Karl Marx,” Page 4). The superstructure, then, is comprised of society’s most basic institutions such as government, religion, and education. How the link between substructure and superstructure is formed then, is “through human activity as people take the formative experience of the economy into their life in the family, politics, religion, [and] education” (Lengermann and Niebrugge, “Class Notes Karl Marx,” Page 5).
Other posts on sociology and Maxed Out:
Sociological Implications of Maxed Out, Introduction
Sociological Implications of Maxed Out, Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Response
Sociological Implications of Maxed Out, Jane Addams Response
Sociological Implications of Maxed Out, Karl Marx Response
Sociological Implications of Maxed Out, Africana Theorists Response
Sociological Implications of Maxed Out, Conclusion
The substructure, in essence an economic foundation of society’s organization, is an economic arrangement that can take more than one form. What Marx analyzes during his lifetime is the resulting effect on the superstructure, that the substructure, when organized as capitalism, has. What Marx determines is that when capitalism is in fact the mode of substructural organization, then alienation is like to result, something he describes as “a distinctive malaise of the human personality” (Lengermann and Niebrugge, “Class Notes Karl Marx,” Page 1). Put simply, this is the inability to experience pleasurable, collective work.
Maxed Out introduces a new class of individual who has become eternally indebted to credit card companies or other lenders. These people are slaves to the monthly minimum payment they face on their enormous-and-growing liabilities. In this way, partially, the poor continuously grow poorer. In analyzing this phenomenon, it helps to take a look at the Marxist model of capitalism. That is, the Proletariat trade their commodity, that being their physical bodies and their capacity to provide labor, for money, that they then use to purchase other commodities off which to live. So what you see with the Proletariat in America is not that they have much of a problem with providing labor and receiving money for doing so. It’s that instead of only using their money to purchase other commodities off which to live, lenders have provided credit which can also be used to purchase those commodities. What ultimately happens is that the working class buys commodities on credit, but because they are on credit, they’re not truly owned by the worker. The worker owns a liability to the lending company, and if that obligation isn’t met in some small form each month, then the purchase commodities can be revoked.
Clearly, a disparity exists. From a Marxist perspective, it’s when the credit enters into the equation that a problem arises. The standard equation of capitalism is disrupted, and because capitalism is the organization of the economic substructure on which our culture operates, all other aspects of social life are affected as well. Referring back to the interrelation of substructure and superstructure, because the substructure in America is disturbed, many institutions of the superstructure are also displaced. The female debt collector depicted in Maxed Out said that, in attempting to collect on overdue bills, she often calls family members or neighbors. In this way, the institution of family is disrupted. On a separate note, the fact that many Americans borrow an exorbitant amount of money and have a difficult time repaying it puts a strain on the economy and government. Specifically, making monthly minimum payments of mostly interest serves only to make the rich richer and the poor poorer.
To complete the discussion of Marx, it’s essential to remember his assertion that, as the chief economic substructure, capitalism is the source of alienation. Alienation, he says, causes a person to become “separated from the basic qualities of humanness,” that being primarily the right to find joy in collective work (Lengermann and Niebrugge, “Class Notes Karl Marx,” Page 6). What Maxed Out does a magnificent job of illustrating is the wide-ranging effects that a capitalistic market, with predatory entities such as credit card companies, has on the ability of individuals to maintain control of their life, and live out the maxims that Marx has set down as essential to being human.
Other posts on sociology and Maxed Out:
Sociological Implications of Maxed Out, Introduction
Sociological Implications of Maxed Out, Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Response
Sociological Implications of Maxed Out, Jane Addams Response
Sociological Implications of Maxed Out, Karl Marx Response
Sociological Implications of Maxed Out, Africana Theorists Response
Sociological Implications of Maxed Out, Conclusion
Works Cited
Lengermann, Patricia and Jill Niebrugge-Brantley. 2005. “Class Notes The Africana Theorists, Spring 2008 American University, Washington D.C.” (https://blackboard.american.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_43370_1%26url%3D).
---. 2005. “Class Notes Karl Marx, Spring 2008 American University, Washington D.C.” (https://blackboard.american.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_43370_1%26url%3D).
---. 2005. “Class Notes Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Spring 2008 American University, Washington D.C.” (https://blackboard.american.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_43370_1%26url%3D).
---. 2005. “Class Notes Jane Addams, Spring 2008 American University, Washington D.C.” (https://blackboard.american.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_ 2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_43370_1%26url%3D).
Maxed Out. Dir. James Scurlock. Perf. Mark Mumma, Ronald Reagan. DVD. Magnolia, 2005.
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