this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2025
50 points (100.0% liked)

askchapo

23196 readers
181 users here now

Ask Hexbear is the place to ask and answer ~~thought-provoking~~ questions.

Rules:

  1. Posts must ask a question.

  2. If the question asked is serious, answer seriously.

  3. Questions where you want to learn more about socialism are allowed, but questions in bad faith are not.

  4. Try !feedback@hexbear.net if you're having questions about regarding moderation, site policy, the site itself, development, volunteering or the mod team.

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
PorkrollPosadist@hexbear.net
replaceable@hexbear.net
VILenin@hexbear.net
SexUnderSocialism@hexbear.net
khizuo@hexbear.net
Wakmrow@hexbear.net
50
What are some qualitative differences that capitalism has in the 21st century as opposed to classical Marx era capitalism? (hexbear.net)
submitted 4 months ago by iByteABit@hexbear.net to c/askchapo@hexbear.net
29 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

When reading through Marx I can't help but think that capitalism has gotten even worse today than it used to be back then, meaning that the actual mechanisms that drive capital now need much more exploitation and in more forms than they used to.

Also I wonder if some changes of capitalism have also caused the working class to be so completely numb. Workers of the 19th and 20th century knew that the capitalists have opposite needs to them and only through fighting them could they stand to improve their situation. However today people just seem uninterested to really fight for themselves despite the proletariat being a much larger percentage of society compared to the past. I know I'm leaving out some important struggles going on when I'm saying this, but it still makes me wonder what made workers in the past centuries so much more class conscious.

I don't believe that much, if anything, that Marx critiqued about capitalism has changed on a structural level, but the flow of capital is so complex today, and the collected capital has become so much larger, that it begs the question if this has created some superstructures of capitalism today.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] TerminalEncounter@hexbear.net 6 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

For 1, while the mass character of the industrial/factory proletariate is diminished in the sense that there's literally fewer of them - there's still some pain points with longshoremen, logistics in general, some manufacturing, (John Deer, UAW, etc), mining, agricultural labor, etc.

Itd be really nice to bring in sectoral scale bargaining or even better revive the IWW. Back in the early 20th century they were organizing hotel workers alongside rail workers.