Capitalism, alienation and welfare. From the industrial revolution to the uberization of economic life

Abstract

In the following essay I propose to review Adam Smith’s ideas about the division of labor as a form of productive organization and the impact it has on people's lives two hundred years after his birth. Firstly, I will compare what I consider to be the main coincidences and divergences between Smith’s and Marx’s analysis on this issue. Next, I will present a mental experiment that I have called the “Zapallar Experiment”, whose purpose is to show that the tension that can be recognised between Smith and Marx’s ideas is still alive. Thirdly, I will review, using the previous conceptual framework, the problem of the division of labor in a context in which, according to Zizek, the presence of a “late capitalism” has brought an ideological change in the working classes.