Karl Marx: Machinery and Modern Industry

“Has machinery lightened the modern mans’ burden ? What is the difference between the machine and the handicraft ?”

According to Marx, a tool is a simple machine while an actual machine is considered a complex tool yet both make up a variety of simple processes. Man is the motive behind a tool, yet a machine can become a tool if run by man. The machine is a mechanism comprised of various parts in order to make it work. Machines are mechanisms derived from modified tools. Machines are continued to be modified/repaired by tools. The motive of man is the power behind by both tool and machine. Capitalisticaly the point of machinery is to save money, and shorten the work day for the laborer. (70,71)

Operations of Machines

Numerous amounts of  product are made by single machine where man is the power behind it (weaver and the loom). Machines experience “technical oneness” as they all run together to complete a process. The process of manufacture is the natural basis for division and organization of the process of production. Man must carry out “manufacture” and direct it, guide it’s process. (72,73)

The Factory

The factory uses the human being as a source of exploitation, and for the betterment of one’s individual wealth. Capitalistic exploitation is driven by the fact that man, with machine, can complete more work within more hours, resulting in more money for the factory owners. 

“The workmen are merely conscious organs, co-ordinate with the unconscious organs of the automaton, and together with them, subordinated to thecentral moving-power.” 

With machine in place, the actuall “skill” of the worker is overlooked. A division of the workers occurs as a result and hierachies are formed. Man becomes the tool in a negative manner. An individual becomes apart of the machine, not an individual seen with unique skill. In a factory people are replaceable because machines run continuously without constant supervision.  (74,75) “Increased production affects social process by benefiting the capitalist agenda”. In a factory a worker is left to feel disposable, without freedom, and a slave to the machine, figuratively and physically. (76)