A founder of modern sociology was also a critic of the economic system built on wage labour. For him, the general acceptance that labour can be bought is found only in which kind of society?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Capitalist societies
Option (1) Capitalist societies — Correct. Marx held that only in capitalist societies does almost everyone accept that a person's labour can be bought for money. Labour becomes a commodity here because workers must sell their labour power to earn a wage.
Option (2) Feudal societies — Incorrect. In feudal societies, peasants were tied to the land and owed labour and dues to the lord by custom and duty. Their labour was not openly bought and sold for a wage in a market.
Option (3) Slave societies — Incorrect. In slave societies, human beings themselves were bought and sold as slaves. The whole person was the commodity, so the sale of labour alone was not the accepted practice.
Option (4) Socialist societies — Incorrect. In Marx's thought, socialism is a system in which the means of production are owned in common. It aims to end the sale of labour to a capitalist class, so the buying of labour is not generally accepted there.
NCERT (2026-27): “4.2 Understanding Capitalism as a Social System “… In earlier times, human beings themselves were bought and sold as slaves, but today it is considered immoral to treat people as commodities. But in modern society, almost everyone accepts the idea that a person’s labour can be bought, or that other services or skills can be provided in exchange for money. This is a situation that is found only in capitalist societies, according to Marx.” |