Thursday, September 10, 2009
I used to think that business is for providing people with an increased standard of living. That is I believed that people created products to make the life of the rest of the world easier and more sustainable, which brings forth the term technology. Technological advances help make the life of people who need those technologies less difficult. Marx challenges this view by arguing that business is just a way for people to make money by spending it. He basically says that people invest (or appropriate) their money to a certain commodity in order to exchange it for a higher amount of money thus completing their cycle of business. He implies that every man’s main order of business is to increase their quantity of money. I agree with Marx’s claim that business is just buying to sell in order to increase one’s monetary value. I also feel that my views is important because these people are increasing their monetary value in order to increase their standard of living.
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I agree with the Marx statement in your blogpost; business is exactly that. Business is the fuel of the modern world. Ever heard of the cliche', "Money makes the world go round?" This cliche' is true in so many ways. If you look at the world around you everything is about business; you cannot escape it. There's always someone trying to sell something and another trying to buy it. Business is almost as important as breathing air. Business means money and money means survival in this modern world. Therefore buying to sell in order to increase one's monetary value can be identified as only half truth; business is not only to increase the monetary value of a person, but it is imperative to the success of a normal life.
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ReplyDeleteIn your post, you began by saying that you believed business was for creating "products to make the life of the rest of the world easier and more sustainable." You then stated how according to Marx, the real purpose of business is to profit. In the Story of Stuff, we see how you latter statement applies over the former. Business does exist to make profits, but not through benevolent goals of enhancing the quality of life of the masses or sustaining the environment. In the video, we saw how businesses exploit natural resources until they run out; then they exploit foreign resources. Then they pay low wages to employees who they expect to buy expensive goods from them. In the end it takes so many hours of work to buy something, you are too tired to use it. The video told of synthetic toxic chemicals in manufactured goods as well as waste pollutants that are not good for peoples' health or the environment. All this is carried out in the goal of profit making. Leonard's Story of Stuff video more thoroughly addresses your important concerns about the true nature of business and the associated dangers.
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