Paid Employment Affecting Identity

Paid employment affecting identity

In the modern era, the identity of an individual depends upon the nature of his employment. People tend to create an identity of their own in the society based on his level of income. The nature of employment has been detrimental in building up one’s own identity in the society. In the present generation, the identity of a person not only depends upon the class or race from which he belongs, but also on his level of income, which is guided by the factor of employment (Stetes & Burke, 2000, pp.224-237). Through this essay I will be analyzing various theories and also incorporating my personally held values and beliefs.

Marxist view of capitalist work:

Karl Marx’s theory of capitalism is significant enough to understand the relationship of the identity of an individual with that of the nature of his employment. Karl Marx explained in his work, the role of capitalism in shaping the modern society. In his theory he mentioned the effectiveness of capitalism in maintaining a relationship between different classes (Klegg, 1990, p.55). According to the theory, the goal of the capitalist is to gain maximum profit in the business and generally the capitalist reach their goals by the exploitation of the labor class. The capitalist exploit the conditions of the labors by paying the labors with wages which are much lesser than their efforts they put in for the work. The difference in the value of the wages paid to the workers acts as a source of profit for the capitalist. According to the theory it can be comprehended that the motive of the capitalist are always fulfilled as they take an upper hand and decide the fate of the others. This nature of the capitalist or the employers identifies them as exploiters of the society and the workers or the laborers in the society are referred as the exploited section of the economy (Baiman, et al, 2000, pp.42-44). The general identification of the two broad division of the society can be attained...