Marx Alienation of Labor: Does Owning Work Cure It.
Marx alienation of labor describes feeling at home only when you are not working. The obvious cure seems to be owning the work. But self-employment swaps one manager for a market and for yourself, and the theory may not fit you anyway.
The 1844 sentence that describes your Tuesday.
In 1844 a twenty-six year old Karl Marx wrote notes he never published. He wrote that labour is external to the worker, who denies himself in it. Then came the line: he feels at home when he is not working. That is why Sunday evening has a texture.
Why owning the work does not end the supervision.
Leaving looks like the cure, because the work would finally be yours. However, you swap one manager for a market of thirty customers. Any of them can leave without a meeting or a reason. Then the next supervisor is you, with no HR department, no hours and no appeal.
Where Marx alienation of labor stops fitting.
Marx located alienation in a structure, not a mood. It meant selling your labour power to someone who owns the means of production. So a self-employed person who owns their tools may not fit. Adalberto Perulli argues the fit holds anyway. Yet stretched that far, alienation describes all work and means nothing.
Apply Marx alienation of labor to your own week.
Write down which hours this week felt like they belonged to somebody else, and why.
Then write who would tell you to stop on a bad Thursday if you worked for yourself.
From the book.
You do not stop having a supervisor when you leave. You swap one manager for a market of thirty customers, any one of whom can leave without a meeting, and none of whom will ever explain why. Then comes the harder half. The supervisor who moves in afterwards is you, and this new one has no HR department, keeps no hours, and cannot be appealed to.
I Want to Start a Business but I Can't Quit My Job, chapter 8: The job might be the problem, and a business might not be the answer
Questions about Marx alienation of labor.
Does Marx alienation of labor mean owning your work cures it?
Not obviously. You trade a manager for a market of customers and for supervising yourself.
Did Marx define alienation as feeling bad about work?
No. He meant a structural relationship where you sell labour power to someone who owns production.
What does Adalberto Perulli argue?
He argues legal autonomy hides real subordination, so much self-employment is wage labour in another hat.
Read the whole chapter.
This lesson covers one section of chapter 8, “The job might be the problem, and a business might not be the answer”. The book goes further, with the full evidence, the stories and every exercise.
Lessons in this chapter.
- 01 Starting a Business After Unemployment: Escape Can Work.
- 02 Don't Know What to Sell: You Are Typical.
- 03 Motivations for Starting a Business: Escape vs Ambition.
- 04 Going Back to a Job After Self Employment: The Loop.
- 05 Marx Alienation of Labor: Does Owning Work Cure It.
- 06 Survivorship Bias in Entrepreneurship: The Empty Slot.
- 07 Do I Want a Business or Just to Quit: Two Columns.
- 08 Wrong Reasons to Start a Business: Why Motive Matters.