Nature of capital and its impacts on the modern world

“Capital is money, capital is commodities. By virtue of it being value , it has acquired the occult ability to add value to itself. It brings forth living offspring , or, at the least lays golden eggs.

~ Karl Marx

It is humans that make something into money and with it they also bring the desire to keep it. Production is no longer used as a form to satisfy the wants of your family and community but rather has become an exchange for money . Money has become a medium of circulation, with this coexistence with money in the society grows greed, the greed to accumulate more and more money .

With the emergence of money, emerges capital, which is nothing but creating money out of money.

It is investing money in a commodity with the aim of receiving more money at the end. Due to this nature the focus of production changes to the purpose of production being the secondary factor and the main primary factor being creation of more wealth. Capital only serves one purpose, that is accumulation of money.

Earlier merchants bought the already produced goods and sold them , but as to ensure a steady supply they decided to go into production as well ;ultimately giving rise to industrial capital. Industrial capital has set the route for every phenomena in today's world. It changes the entire nature of production, they thrive to achieve higher value of production with the same frame of workers and time .This was achieved by division of labour . Division of labour as explained by Adam smith is a mode to increase the productivity of the work force and decrease labour costs.

All this has changed everything phenomenally, having drastic impacts on the modern world and our lives .The never ending dynamic nature of capital gives the modern world its thriving .As contrary to the premodern society, time and efficiency have become the modern notions .Right from a young age our education system sets us into this rhythm of time management .

This capitalism has made work meaningless ,it is no longer a creative process .The modern assembly line includes hours after hours of monotonous work,production has transformed from creative entire product work to monotonous one part work .This is the result of division of labour which has molded our society and minds to be time conscious.The industrial structure of time goes against our biological clock it's something we need to be socialised into. Work is no longer done for pleasure but rather just as a source to create wealth to find leisure elsewhere. Hence in this kind of system the concept of leisure also tends to become very important .

Another effect of this division of labour is that work becomes mechanical ,thus machinery gradually begins to replace human labour .Although through this, the efficiency is increased but on the contrary it creates structural unemployment, as more and more jobs are taken over by machines and more and more people continue to get marginalised .There is no effective solution to resolve this issue of unemployment as production demands to be efficient . A system where the market capital grows changes the entire relationship dynamics ,where due the concept of freedom in the modern society each one is responsible and expected to bring money.

By the end of 19th century Europe had gradually converted all the countries for their market and colonised the entire world. With this extensive market came very high level of production. But by the end of world war 2, Europe had lost all its colonial empires and was left with no market for the supply of their enormous amount of production .Hence due to this desperation to sell their produce with the lack of market, arose intensification of markets.

Their main aim was for each person to buy more .Luckily for them this was also the time mass media had come into the light . Intensification of the market changes the view of a good life ,the message that the meaning of life is consumption was introduced in the brains of the public facilitated through mass media . People have started to measure their life by what they have ,each class has a level of consumption with constantly trying to move up the ladder by increasing their level of consumption.

Branded products have become a part of our normal way of life, the industry is developed in a way that forces us to follow such absurd norms. Today's society can also be termed as throw away society as products are formed in such a way that they become obscene after certain amount of time due to which a lot of products are junked . This system of use and throw has become a part of the developing economy forcing us to consume more .

With this increased rate of production comes an enormous hunger for raw material, which inturn comes from the environment hence creating a negative impact on the environment.The forest being the lungs of the earth is considered crucial for the health of the atmosphere is now being destroyed in order to receive raw materials . The extensive cutting of trees has caused the rate of deforestation to rise, the mining has caused soil erosion and polluted the rivers , the pollution levels are rising and the sink capacity of the earth has started to get exhaust. As these resources are being exhausted ,conflicts are beginning to rise between countries in order to obtain theses scarce resources .

Although attempts have been made to eliminate these issues ,until this kind of production and capital works I doubt the problem will be solved . It requires for the nature of production to change which in turn cannot happen until the entire capitalist outlook changes .In conclusion i'd like to say that even though it is said that capitalism has exceedingly benefitted the world and helped in its growth, but does world growth means if the environment is going to be destroyed through it. Every year the number of people who own half the world’s wealth gets smaller and smaller, is that who capitalism benefits?