Karl Marx, a political theorist and a critic of political economy wrote “from Economic and Philosophic Manuscript of 1844” to depict the malpractices and the abuse caused by the laws of political economy. 

Political economy is described as the interrelation of politics and economy to analyzing modern society. It does not explain the dispersion of labor, it only defines the relationship of wages to profit(656). Marx goes on to say society is derived from the laws of political economy. Our current society stands on private property, separation of labor, capital and land, and wages, profit of capital and rent of land (656) all of which promote individualism. On the other hand,  there is  another aspect of political economy that is not as appealing and profiting to an individual. He continues to list them as: division of labor, competition, the concept of exchange value etc…(656). He further expresses his distaste for labor and how common workers are taken advantage of and are used as commodities. Workers are amongst those who are at a disadvantage when viewing the laws of a political economic system. They are paid small wages for producing high quantities of commodities. Hence, why Marx refers to workers as the most wretched commodities(656). He continues to criticize that the only result of political economy is malice or avarice. This greed is the reason for the division of capital.

Marx uses certain facts to show the abuse in which the laws of the political economy flows upon workers. As briefly mentioned in the previous paragraph, labor is not the sole means of producing commodities. In this take, meaning, labor is what produces products, and those products are sold in exchange for monetary currency. The same applies for the workers as they are being paid for their services by an employer.

Political economy drains a worker to which they experience dissociation or as Marx defines it: alienation, which defines when the workers do not feel happy or content with their job/work. As Marx tries to vocalize the desolation of the working class. He states that a worker is at home when he is not working, and in his work feels outside of himself(659). This cultivates workers’ labor to be a dissociation from themselves.

Finally, Marx mentions that workers are slaves to their objects. Labor is a means of life. It is a dependency for the workers. They need those objects to live in society. By that, meaning, workers produce goods which are known as their object of labor. The term object bondage that Marx talks of, where workers not only rely on the external resources to create products, their labor, but to their life dependency/ a means to live. Their wages are what these workers use to go about in life. In result, this leads to the product being made considered to be an idol which holds power over them. This all ties in to workers being related to the product of their labor.