Introduction
The issue of labor division came up with the advent of industries during the Industrial Revolution. Understanding the way labor was divided in the course of the Industrial Revolution requires a look at some of the historical content presented in books and movies. It is important to understand that division of labor normally leads to simplification of roles in a company. This fact was evident during the Industrial Revolution. As the employers divided labor, functions became simplified. In this specific essay, the issue of labor division during the Industrial Revolution is analyzed. The paper involves looking at the way the concept is represented in a movie. This concept is best represented by The Mill , which gives the role of labor in the society during the Industrial Revolution.
Das Kapital as it relates to The Mill
Das Kapital is a concept in philosophy that relates to political economy. It explains the economic patterns that underpin the capitalist mode of production. Really in Das Kapital, the motivation force behind capitalism is the blatant exploitation of labor with the unpaid work being the main source of surplus value (Sabel, 1982). In this specific case, the owner of the means of production, who is the employer, claims the right to this surplus value because of the protection such a person enjoys from the ruling regime through property rights. Das Kapital is a concept that simply explains the exploitation of the poor by the elites who control the whole economy.
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The concept of Das Kapital is best reflected in the film, The Mill . In this specific film, poor workers in a factory are seen being subjected to long hours of labor and poor pay. The owners of the mill subject them to long hours of labor, but the kind of compensation given to them is quite minimal and unable to sustain them. Capitalists will always ensure that the poor workers spend all their time producing output for them. Moreover, they will ensure that the money paid to them cannot assist them much in terms boosting them economically. Moreover, the overtime worked by the poor laborers goes unpaid and is the main source of surplus value.
It is seen from this movie that the elite owners of the means of production provide even food and housing services to the workers in order to ensure that they do not get a lot of money. The poor payment given to these is said to be as a result of the money, which goes to fringe benefits like food and housing. Therefore, there is a quite strong relation between the movie The Mill and the concept of Das Kapital.
How The Mill represents division of labor in both industry and society
It is true that The Mill does strongly represent the division of labor in both industry and society. In both cases, the poor unskilled individuals often take up the hardest jobs in the company. The skilled professionals are the ones that end up with easy jobs. Paradoxically though, the poor unskilled who perform the hardest jobs in the companies as well as within the society are the ones that still get minimal payment. The highest pay goes to the professional workers who even just sit in the offices without any sweat on their faces.
This kind of labor division in both the society and the industries is represented in the movie, The Mill . In this movie, the poor and unskilled women and men are the ones subjected to tough, hard and injurious jobs within the factories. However, there are professionals who just sit in the offices and get the highest payment for their sitting. Moreover, they are the ones that take the praise when production is high despite the fact that they do not participate in the actual production manual work.
What you think is missing or could be improved on in either source
Although the movie, The Mill, best represents the nature of labor division in the society and within industries, there is room for its improvement so that it an strong show the nature of capitalism and its disadvantages. This movie should have also included scenes that show what people miss because of capitalism. The movie should have sought to juxtapose capitalism against classical approach to political economy so that viewers can clearly understand the opportunity cost of developing and entrenching capitalism.
Conclusion
The labor division approach of the Industrial Revolution was basically capitalist in nature. The owners of production means had immense ties and protection from the government. They, therefore, perpetuated unfair exploitation of poor unskilled workers to build vast surplus value. This issue is best represented in the movie, The Mill . It is evident from the movie that in such a capitalist political economy, the poor always remain poorer while the elites continue to amass more wealth as they grow richer.
References
Melany, R. (2013). The Mill. YouTube . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbIC0sVnRbU&t=285s .
Sabel, C. F. (1982). Work and politics: the division of labour in industry . Cambridge University Press.
