Business Law with UCC Applications 13th Edition by Gordon Brown,Paul Sukys

تمرين 5

No two intellectuals appear to be further apart than Adam Smith, the spiritual founder of capita l ism, and Karl Marx, the principal architect of communism. Yet if we read the following two excerpts from their most influential treatises, they appear to be in agreement on at least one point: the propensity of workers to unite in a common cause and eventually become violent as a result.
Such combinations, however, are frequently resisted by a contrary defensive combination of the workmen; who sometimes too, without any provocation of this kind, combine of their own a c cord to raise the price of their labour. Their usual pretences are, sometimes the high price of provisions; sometimes the great profit which their masters make by their work. But whether their combinations be-offensive or defensive, they are always abundantly heard of. In order to bring the point to a speedy decision, they have always recourse to the loudest clamour, and sometimes to the most shocking violence and outrage. -Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, p. 71.
The unceasing improvement of machinery, ever more rapidly developing, makes their livelihood more and more precarious. The collisions between individual workmen and individual bourgeois take more and more the character of collisions between two classes. Thereupon the workers begin to form combinations (trade unions) against the bourgeois; they join together in order to keep up the rate of wages; they form permanent associations in order to make provision beforehand for these occasional revolts. Here and there the contest breaks out into riots. -Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Essential Works of Marxism, p. 21.
It is curious that both of them believe that workers will eventually revolt against their capitalist bosses. This may result from the theories of an earlier philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, who believed that human nature was inherently depraved and that, when placed in a state of nature, the instinctive tendency of human beings is to engage in war. This view, of course, runs counter to the view of Jean Jacques Rousseau, who believed that humans in state of nature were fundamentally good.
Do the activities of the governments of Wisconsin, Ohio, and Michigan reflect Hobbes or Rousseau? Smith or Marx? Explain. What about the public employees in each state? Do their activities reflect Hobbes or Rousseau? Smith or Marx? Explain.