Das Kapital

By: Bryan Taningco

Are you feeling skeptical at times? Tired of the upbeat consumerism that imprisons you and I? Have you ever questioned the value of resources in this almost disposable world? Since we all are consumers of this merchandise world, allow me to put stress upon the factors that enables production; which includes, of course, resources. As citizens of our country we are entitled to be concerned of our natural resources, its allocation and misallocation; along with the process that these resources undergo to be converted into goods, a process we call production.

Allow me to present, renowned sociologist, economist and Marxist; Karl Marx and his written piece entitled “Das Kapital”. Now, According to Karl Marx production is enabled by three factors; mainly Land, the place you and I stood upon along with the resources above it and the minerals underneath; Labor, the people such as you and I who works to convert this resources into goods; and last but not the least, Capital, the equipment, machineries and establishments that labourers use to convert resources.

Why am I talking about this? , you might say; you see, we are the one who consume our own resources; we are also the one responsible for its used and misallocations. We must always bear in mind that these resources, no matter how abundant they are; can be depleted and that most of them are non-renewable. We might be able to enable production now, but how about the generations that descend after us? Will they be able to produce goods? Will they be able to sustain further development? The Bottom-line is, we should be aware of our own consumption; take only what is needed at a certain time, maximize the use of every resource. It may seem hard to apply in real life but the very effort to save and conserve will go a long way. Even the effort of planting trees will safeguard a fruit in the near future. We should not live our lives as mere pawns of endless consumption; instead we should work to safeguard a sustainable future.