Karl Marx's Das Kapital: A modern-day interpretation of an economic classic

by Steve Shipside

Overview

Karl Marx's Das Kapital a critical analysis of capitalism and its practical economic application and also a critique of other related theories. Today it is considered one of the most famous books ever written. Here, Marx's text is interpreted for the modern day world of business and economics. Steve Shipside's interpretation is not a substitute for the original; its purpose is simply to illustrate the timeless nature of Marx's insights by bringing them to life through 21st century examples. First published in German in 1876 and is considered the most important contribution of Marx to the world of political economy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781907755828
Publisher:	Infinite Ideas Ltd
Publication date:	06/19/2009
Series:	Infinite Success
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	120
File size:	542 KB

About the Author

Steve Shipside is an author, journalist, and blogger. As a trainer with the World Association of News Publishers he has worked in over a dozen newsrooms as a coach for journalists adapting to the digital world and he has worked for some twenty newspapers on ways of using social media to best advantage.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1. She’s breaking up, captain – unsustainable capitalism 2. Sustainable capitalism 3. Ethics 4. Can capitalism afford a conscience? 5. Triple bottom line 6. Market failure and the environment 7. Environmental economics 8. You need to get out more, mate 9. Careful with that axe, eugene – ludditism 10. Technotopia 11. Child labour 12. Breaking the chains – reaching for the off button 13. Time management – less is more 14. Doling out the drudge work 15. Set your mind free from the box 16. Multi skill 17. Kinky capitalism – the fetishism of commodities 18. Forget the moral majority 19. Could try harder – reading the reports 20. Crisis, what crisis? 21. On a neural pathway to hell 22. Fit for purpose? 23. Shine on 24. Idolatry 25. Putting words into the mouths of others 26. Pick your fights carefully 27. Look at your human credit terms 28. For heaven’s sake, cheer up 29. Be special 30. Training – the fast track 31. Petty perhaps, but no small deal 32. Shackled by snacks 33. Stop living in the past 34. Know when to stop 35. Get involved in a skills exchange 36. Go back to bartering 37. Going it alone 38. Form a co-operative 39. You are what you do 40. Bigger may not be better 41. Down with debt 42. Save yourselves 43. New capitalism 44. Overdoing it 45. You want to think outside the box – learn from outside the box 46. Pay what you want 47. Don’t keep it to yourself 48. Freedom of assembly 49. Kaizen 50. Lunch ’n’ learn 51. You are what you consume 52. Power up Index

Preface

On the face of it there’s something particularly perverse about writing a modern business ideas book based on an interpretation of Karl Marx. This is, after all, the man who wrote the Communist Manifesto, the man whose only interest in penning Das Kapital was to expose the workings of the capitalist system and its pitiless, unsustainable nature in exploiting the working man. Marx believed that the capitalist system carried the seed of its own doom and would inevitably implode precisely because it was so grossly unfair. He was convinced that not only was a worker’s revolution the wholly desirable consequence of capitalism but also an unavoidable one. On this basis the only real interpretation of Kapital would seem to be to burn the building down to go and strike heroic poses in the street with a sledgehammer. There again, this is the man who said of himself that he was no Marxist. Our understanding of him is inevitably coloured by the interpretation of others and in particular a number of grim, grey regimes and the cant-spouting acolytes they churned out. When you go back to the original, the over-riding impression is of an observer and thinker who is appalled by the hardship suffered by workers, and deeply concerned about perpetuating the system that makes it happen. It’s striking just how many of his observations and concerns are every bit as valid now as they were in the 1860s. Marx wasn’t just the founding father of communism – he can equally be seen as one of the forefathers of the much more recent, far more trendy, and thoroughly more attractive school of anti-globalisation. He was in no doubt that the workers of the world are not only chained, but linked to each other by those chains. As such, he anticipated the growing concern that we haven’t removed the misery of worker exploitation – we’ve just shipped it over the horizon where we don’t actually have to look at it any more. Marx’s reflections on sustainable and unsustainable capitalism could just as easily be taken as the starting points for modern business concerns such as ethical consumerism, corporate social responsibility and Fairtrade. The fact that he points out the cyclical nature of capitalism with its boom and bust is particularly interesting reading today, and his documenting of the greed of bankers and the smoke and mirrors of stock markets has special resonance in the light of the credit crunch of 2008–9. What the modern business commentator knows that Marx didn’t, however, was that capitalism wasn’t about to implode at the turn of the twentieth century. Instead, some elements of capitalism have recognised its downside and a different, newer way of managing people, resources and exchange has sprung up. This book looks at the concerns of Karl Marx in the light of today’s troubles, and suggests some of the alternatives to revolution that have sprung up to deal with the injustice of the system. It is aimed at the modern businessperson who likes to think a little laterally, who is probably involved in some way with the management of people and has a sense of responsibility for that. But it also recognises, as Marx did, that every worker is also a person and as such should be encouraged to develop individually and creatively – without exploiting the others, whose lives they in turn impact upon.