Giving Up Labor Power Leads to More Real Housewives

A rich, extravagant, jewel-adorned housewife. Groups of constructor workers slaving away at this beautiful 6 bedroom 7 bath home in Coto De Caza, a suburb of Orange County, CA. What exactly brings these too contrasts together? Karl Marx would suggest that it is the finished product that brings these two opposites together; the constructors workers who built this house have created a nice paycheck for Jeana Keogh, a character on the popular reality show "Real Housewives of Orange County". This "partnership" (for lack of a better word) consists of the laborers (i.e the constructor workers) producing a home for Jeana Keogh to sell. In exchange for the workers' labor they are able to take home a reasonable salary enough for the necessities of life. Meanwhile, Jeana will attempt to sell this home to some upper crust family of the O.C., most likely taking home a commission of around five or six figures. How ironic, right? These workers put their time, energy, and sweat into creating a home that is sold for millions of dollars, only receiving the bare minimum of wages while the lucky real estate agent can spend her funds on not only her beautiful home in Coto De Caza but also her jewelery collection (see video above).
According to Marx, this situation is common in our economic world. When explaining the relationship between a worker and his employer, Marx claims, "The worker receives means of subsistence in exchange for his labor power, but the capitalist receives in exchange for his means of subsistence labor, the productive activity of the worker, the creative power whereby the worker not only replaces what he consumes but gives to the accumulated labor a greater value than it previously possessed," (Marx, 663). Marx suggests that the worker has more power than he realizes. In a capitalist society, the worker gives up this labor power to the employer. In Marx's "Wage, Labor, and Capital", he explains this relationship through a situation of workers on a farm. The farm workers receive a mere five silver groschen for their worker, just enough to buy the basic necessities of life. However, these workers fail to recognize (or chose to overlook)that their labor produces double the amount of their wages. Marx claims that these groschen are consumed "reproductively for capital" and "unproductively for the workers". What the worker needs to realize is that it is their labor that produces value and capital. They are the key behind the tenant farmer's success, and in the success of "Real Housewife" Jeana Keogh. One concept Marx acknowledges is inspired by the story of Robinson Crusoe. Marx emphasizes, "Everything produced by him was exclusively the result of his own personal labor, and therefore simply an object of use for himself,"(Marx 670). Marx is suggesting that we each are responsible for producing our own materials. We all require the same basic necessities to survive; therefore we are all responsible for creating those items. There would be no social stigma regarding your line of work; rather we all produce the same materials. What do you think? Who really holds the power in the construction worker-Jeana Keogh Real Housewife relationship? Marx is If the workers decide to quit.....well, let's just say there would be no more "Real Housewives of Orange County".


Works Cited
Marx, Karl. "Capital". Ed. Julie Rivkin and Michaell Ryan. Literary Theory: an Anthology. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub., 2004. 665-672. Print.