All Lecture Questions - Condensed Format

Analysis: How does Marx’s concept of “annihilating space by time” drive capitalism’s global expansion?

• It slows local markets

• It preserves small-scale artisanship

• It reduces travel costs

• It requires ever-faster production cycles across regions

Analysis: Why do capitalist crises “reset” profitability but deepen class conflict, rather than resolving exploitation?

• They eliminate surplus only temporarily before competition resumes

• They abolish class divisions

• They distribute wealth equally

• They enforce labor protections

Analysis: In what way did market rent logic subordinate peasants?

• By converting land

• By reinforcing serfdom

• By strengthening guilds

• By increasing peasant rent

How does Engels’s depiction of 19th-century English working conditions illustrate Marx’s theory of surplus value?

• Workers lived on wages far below the value they produced

• Workers owned the factories

• Workers received surplus dividends

• Workers set their own hours

Why is commodity fetishism critical for maintaining capitalism?

• It hides social labor relations behind price tags

• It glorifies artisan skills

• It ensures fair compensation

• It discourages mass production

Which scenario best captures Marx’s notion of alienation under wage labor?

• A factory worker never controls or owns what they make

• A volunteer works unpaid

• A landowner rents out their property

• A manager sets corporate strategy

How does the “dictatorship of the proletariat” differ from bourgeois parliamentary rule in Marx’s framework?

• Workers’ councils enact policies directly without class mediation

• Multi-party elections continue

• A single monarch rules

• Religious authorities govern

Analysis: Why would Marx predict that technological innovation intensifies exploitation rather than liberating workers?

• New machinery raises output expectations while reducing labor power

• It guarantees shorter workdays

• It equalizes income

• It democratizes ownership

In what way does overaccumulation of capital trigger systemic breakdowns in Marx’s model?

• Excess capacity leads to falling profit margins and crisis

• It leads to hyperinflation

• It resolves class antagonisms

• It eliminates commodity markets

Analysis: How can class consciousness transform a society according to Marx?

• Shared recognition of exploitation unites collective action

• Improved wages prevent radicalism

• Private property rights expand

• Individual charity solves poverty