Karl Marx on Alienated Labor and on Money Chapter 12 Course Reader

What does Marx mean by his use of the term “alienation of labor,” or “alienated labor?”

In what ways does he say the human world is devalued when labor is alienated?

What are some of the different forms of the alienation of labor?

What is Marx’s critique of money? What great authors does he cite, and what points do they make?

David Korten, Money vs. Wealth (Chapter 13A in the Reader)

In his section on “Money pathology” Korten distinguishes between the economy of production and the economy of finance. What is each and how does it operate? Give examples of each. Where are the largest profits found?

Name the five different forms of capital discussed by Korten(third and fourth pages of the article). Discuss the concept of social capital. – what is it and why is it important?

Who is Charles Hurwitz, and what happened to the Pacific Lumber Corporation when he took it over?

How many of the 100 largest economies of the world were corporations at the time of Korten’s writing? (1997)

What are Korten’s suggestions for healing the money system?

How many billionaires were there at the time of Korten’s writing in 1997?

Chapter 13 B. David Korten, When Corporations Rule the World, Rise of Corporate Power

What were the Navigation Acts, and how did they affect the American colonists in the New World? (p. 55)

2. What was Adam Smith’s famous book, and what was his attitude toward corporations? (p. 56)

3. Does the U.S. Constitution mention corporations? Why or why not? pp. (56-57)

4. Who had the power to issue corporate charters in the early years after Independence from

5. What kinds of limits were set on corporate charters? (pp. 56-57)

6. What is the significance of Dodge vs. Woolsey in 1855? (p. 57)

7. How did the Civil War mark a crucial turning point in the relationship between corporations and society? (from p. 80)

8. What do you make of the quote from President Lincoln? ( on p. 58, you will see a more extensive version of the same quote on the folder page for Unit Five)

9. What happened in 1886 that was “a stunning victory for the proponents of corporate sovereignty”? (p. 59) This is very important: the doctrine of corporate personhood that found its deepest and most harmful manifestion in the Citizens United Supreme Court decision of 2010, which equates money with free speech, and enables unlimited political contributions from both individuals and corporations because “they are free speech.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_v._FECChapter 15, Vandana Shiva, Biting the Hand that Feeds

20. Describe Vandana Shiva’s views on what is an “open” vs. a “closed” economy? On what basis did she disagree with Mike Moore, former director of the WTO? (p. 6)

21. Describe the water crisis that took place in Cochabamba, Bolivia when a subsidiary of Bechtel Corporation attempted to privatize the water supply in 2000. What was the outcome of this crisis? (p. 9)

22. What are Vandana Shiva’s positions on GMO’s?

23. What are her views about the exploitation of women in “masculinized agriculture.”

24. What forms of resistance does she discuss and participate in? What is the name of the movement she founded in India?

Chapter 16 A., James C. Kennedy on “The Dark Age of Money”

25. Who is Milton Friedman? (p. 1)

26. What, according to James Kennedy, is “the foundation of Friedman’s principle”? (p. 1)

27. How is this different from Adam Smith’s model of capitalism?  (pp. 1-2)

28. How did Friedman’s ideology “survive and eventually take over the State”? (p. 7)