Commodification: A Necessary Evil?

Abstract

Critiques of capitalism come in two kinds. One kind attacks capitalism in practice. It is associated with Joseph Schumpeter, who targeted the monopolisation of capital for stifling the entrepreneurial spirit, the very soul of capitalism. The other critique is older and goes deeper, attacking capitalism in principle. It is associated with Karl Marx, who targeted the commodification of labour for alienating us from our common humanity. Whereas Schumpeter was worried about capitalism’s practical tendency to concentrate wealth and thereby arrest the economy’s natural dynamism, Marx objected to capitalism’s principled tendency to evaporate the solid core of our “species being“ through the price mechanism. Both critiques retain their power today, though to a large extent, they cut against each other. I shall explore this point here from the commodification side. I take seriously - but ultimately reject - the neo-liberal proposition that commodification is merely an institutionalised extension of natural liberty. However, this does not deny either the good or the bad consequences that have resulted from this process, both of which are connected, as Marx originally thought, to the kind of person that commodification makes us become.