Lesson4 Work
In the laws of political economy, the alienation of the worker from his product is expressed as follow: the more the worker produces, the less he has to consume; the more value he creates, the more valueless, the more unworthy he becomes; the better formed is his product, the more deformed becomes the worker; the more civilized his product, the more brutalized becomes the worker and the more he becomes nature@s bondsman.
Political economy conceals the alienation inherent in labour by avoiding any mention of the evil effects of work on those who work. Thus, whereas labour produces miracles for the rich, for the worker it produces destitution. Labour produces palaces but for the workers, hovels. It produces beauty, but it cripples the worker. It replaces labour by machines, but how does it treat the worker? By throwing some workers back into a barbarous kind of work, and by turning the rest into machines. It produces intelligence, but for the worker, stupidity and cretinism.
alienation 异化 brutalize 使...变得残酷无情 bondsman 奴隶
inherent 固有的, 内在的 hovel 简陋小屋 cretinism ［医］ 呆小病, 愚侏病
劳动
政治经济学原理对劳动者与自己生产的产品的异化有如下表述：工人产出的越多，消费能力就越小；创造的价值越多，自己就越不值钱，工人的价值就越低；产品的性能越好，工人受损害的程度就越大；产品的文明程度越高，工人就变得越没有感情，越来越成为大自然的奴隶。
政治经济学没有提到工作对劳动者的有害影响，因而隐藏了劳动具有的内在的异化劳动者的本质特性。这样，虽然劳动为富人创造了奇迹，却给劳动者带来了贫困。劳动建造了宫殿，劳动者却住在简陋小屋里。劳动产生了美丽，却严重损害了劳动者。机器取代了人工劳动，那么劳动者受到了怎样的待遇呢？一些劳动者被迫从事低级繁重的工作，其他的都变成了机器。劳动带来了智慧，带给劳动者的却是愚昧和痴呆。
