Capitalism, commodities and consumption

Karl Marx saw capitalism as a system of commodity production (making goods to sell) using wage labour. For Marx, the economy is not just goods and money: it is relations between people, especially between owners and workers.

Under capitalism, labour itself becomes a commodity: workers sell their ability to work for a wage. Marx argued that capitalists make profit by paying workers less than the value of what they produce. The difference is surplus value.

Commodification: over time, more and more things that were never bought and sold become commodities:

• human organs such as kidneys, sold by the poor;
• matchmaking, through marriage bureaus and matrimonial websites;
• coaching courses and private schools;
• bottled water.

This raises a moral question: should everything be allowed to become a commodity? Many believe some things, like a human body, should never be for sale.

Consumption has social meaning. What we buy is not only about need; goods communicate our status and taste. A car brand, a phone or clothes signal who we are or want to be. Advertisers use this, selling a lifestyle along with the product.

Max Weber pointed out that the goods people buy and use are closely tied to their status and lifestyle. Goods that show your social position are called status symbols.

So buying and selling is never purely economic: goods carry social meaning.