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Communist Manifesto George Boyer argues that the Communist Manifesto would have been a very different document if it had not been written just before the "hungry forties" in Manchester. In the Manifesto, Marx and Engels give a critique of capitalism that is completely understandable considering the hardships of the time, but on the same token really only applicable to that particular time period in the nineteenth century. This is because it was written by Marx, based on Engels' practical experience of capitalism on his family's cotton farm in Manchester, England, during the early 1840 's. The Communist Manifesto is greatly based on the new social system that had emerged in that time, and it is pitted strongly against the bourgeoisie.
They claim that the bourgeoisie are responsible for modern industry, which they argue is what led to the desparate situation that was emerging in the hungry forties. The Communist Manifesto states, Modern industry has established the world market, for which the discovery of America paved the way. This market has given an immense development to commerce, to navigation, to communication by land. This development has, in turn, reacted on the extension of industry; and in proportion as industry, commerce, navigation, railways extended, in the same proportion the bourgeoisie developed, increased its capital, and pushed into the background every class handed down from the Middle Ages. If the Communist Manifesto had been written later, such as the early 1850 's, it would have been more watered-down. Since the Manifesto was written in a time of greatly increasing suffering among the lower class, it was written from the point of view that the entire problem was class based; the bourgeoisie and the proletariat were locked in a showdown.
A less revolutionary Communist Manifesto may not have gone to the lengths that the actual document did, calling for the complete abolition of personal property. If it had been written much later, it would also not have had such fervent political claims that the bourgeoisie had taken over politics. In later times, the working class had great political success and won many laws in their favor, such as the Dwellings Act, the Trade Union Act, and the Public Health Act. In the time it was actually written, the Manifesto was based on laws that were very detrimental to the already suffering lower class, such as the Poor Laws. The entire period, from the 1820 's to the end of the 1850 's was a difficult time for the working class. After the Napoleonic wars, the standard of living was extremely low for workers, until the economy recovered and evened out again.
This leads into what may have been the same about the Manifesto. The document addresses the cyclic quality of the the economy and business under the capitalist system. If it had been written in the 1850 's, it would have had more proof and ammunition to point out this weakness of capitalism. Since the Manifesto was greatly based on the capitalistic experience of the cotton industry specifically, it would also have been more optimistic if it had been written outside of that time frame. By the 1850 's, wages for cotton workers had increased substantially from the lows they had reached during the hungry forties.
Some of the predictions that were made in the Manifesto would probably not have appeared had it been written later, in the 1850 's. They predicted that as capitalism progressed, wages for the working class would ceaselessly decline. This theory would have been knocked down because of the Victorian Boom which would occur. From 1856 to 1873, Britain's gross domestic product per man-hour grew at an annual rate of 1. 3 percent, and the living standards increased sharply as a result of this incredible economic upturn.
The cyclical quality that is addressed in the Manifesto would also remain because of economic downturns of 1858 and 1868. Their prediction that each downturn would become increasingly severe would have been disprove, however, because neither of these economic low points came close to the severity of the 1830 's and 40 's. In the Communist Manifesto, it states The bourgeoisie has stripped of its halo every occupation hitherto honored and looked up to with reverent awe. It has converted the physician, the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the man of science, into its paid wage laborers.
This can be seen very easily today, as modern society has greatly influences the way that every person views their job. Even though doctors still must take an oath to protect the health and safety of those that cross their path, they have become just as focused on money as any other profession. Stories of people being pushed through a doctor's office as though it was an assembly line are common in today's HMO-ridden society. Once article addresses this money-centric medical phenomenon in its own way. In Time Magazine's Popping Pills Out of an ATM, which describes a new phenomenon in which doctors have vending machines of common medicines. They can access the medicine more quickly, but this assumes that the one medicine is both the best choice for the patient's situation, as well as safe.
Medica, Minnesota's largest HMO, installed MedVantx medicine-vending machines in 10 clinics in one month. This occurrence correlates with what was written in the Communist Manifesto because doctors are thought to be workers for the public good, but this speed-focused change shows that this situation is changed; they are more concerned with seeing a greater number of patients, or more aptly clients, than helping each one to their greatest ability. By the same token, the doctor could be considered one of the workers. In the UK, doctors work some of the longest hours of any profession. It could be considered that they "must sell themselves piecemeal" for a wage or salary.
The modern 24 -hour Call Centers, are today using factory methods, imposing zero hour contracts, smashing unions, and basically teaching the class struggle in a modern setting. Between the change in focus of the medical profession and the overworking of those individuals who work within that industry, this situation truly mirrors the description in the Communist Manifesto: The bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn asunder the motley feudal ties that bound man to his "natural superiors", and has left no other nexus between people than naked self-interest, than callous "cash payment." It has drowned out the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervor, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of philistine sentimentalism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation. It has resolved personal worth into exchange value, and in place of the numberless indefeasible chartered freedoms, has set up that single, unconscionable freedom -- Free Trade.
In one word, for exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, it has substituted naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation. Finally, the modern hospital setup can be compared to the changes that the Manifesto predicted: Modern Industry has converted the little workshop of the patriarchal master into the great factory of the industrial capitalist. Masses of laborers, crowded into the factory, are organized like soldiers. As privates of the industrial army, they are placed under the command of a perfect hierarchy of officers and sergeants. Not only are they slaves of the bourgeois class, and of the bourgeois state; they are daily and hourly enslaved by the machine, by the overlooker, and, above all, in the individual bourgeois manufacturer himself. The more openly this despotism proclaims gain to be its end and aim, the more petty, the more hateful and the more embittering it is.
The modern hospital, which has replaced the one-on-one caring and interaction of the doctor's office, has specific positions and a hierarchy for its employees. Instead of a few people filling different roles while maintaining relationships with each other as well as patients, they have become mechanical, minimizing their interaction with each other or the sick and injured people that they are supposed to help. This setup increases efficiency of the hospital's work, but it begs the question of whether or not the staff's work is as accurate as it would be if they did not have this strict military style. It shows that the Manifesto's predictions are coming true in some ways, as modern economics lead even the most formerly reputable professions into questionable territory. Reference Engels, Friedrich and Marx, Karl. The Communist Manifesto.
New York: Monthly Review Press, 1998. Humor, Paul A. The Communist Manifesto: A Framework for Critical Analysis. Muncie, Ind. : Ball State University, 1974. Rate, Julie. Popping Pills out of an ATM.
Time Magazine. February 28, 2005.
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