Self-Commoditization in the Labor Market

(2023) Employees are commodities to the employer. The employer purchases commodities to maximize profitability. This brief reflection essay looks at a single passage from the “Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts” by Marx, Engels and Werke in discussion of what labor is and what it produces. This paper will interpret the passage and defend that interpretation as the case. Then it will look at a possible implication and suggest that it too is the case. This paper will come to argue that employees can never be happy with their work for an employer because commodities are not purchased with happiness of the commodity in mind or as a primary mission for the employer.