Pobreza no capitalismo: elementos para a análise crítica com base na teoria valor-trabalho de Marx

Abstract

The general aim of the present thesis is to identify, on the basis of Marx s labor theory of value, the elements that determine and make poverty an intrinsic phenomenon in capitalism. By this way it intends to contribute to the critical analysis of the phenomenon in the modern society, in which social life is characterized by an extreme naturalization and dehistoricization that conceal the real causes of pauperization. In the first part of the work a synthesis of the mainstream reading on poverty is carried out in order to illustrate the conservative worldview that characterizes both the theoretical foundations of the usual analyses of the phenomenon and the conceptualizations and prescriptions of international organizations, of which the World Bank is taken as a paradigm. The second part toward the negative critique of poverty in capitalism initially works out the theoretic-methodological aspects that make it possible to outline the locus from where the critique is developed. Considering the mainstream reading on poverty, it is argued that it is underlined by an implicit ontology coherent with the capitalist form of organization, reason by which it is necessary to emphasize the ontological character of the Marxian critique. Assumed as the theoretical framework of this research, Marx s labor theory of value is presented in order to make it possible to identify elements to the critique of poverty in capitalism. The labor theory of value is associated with the constitution of the social totality under capital, a feature that explains its relevance and undeniable validity for today s analysis of poverty, in opposition to the mainstream analyses that naturalize it and situate its causes and proposals to fight it in the sphere of distribution. The labor theory of value demonstrates the necessity of analyzing the poverty phenomenon in its historicity and focusing on the production sphere, the relevance in considering the dynamic of capital accumulation, apart from the fact that it constitutes the theoretical basis for locating the discussion on poverty in an wider human dimension, mainly questioning the peculiar form of social connection that is established in capitalism, the absolute poverty such as understood by Marx and the alienation of social life governed by capital. It is stressed that not only the "absolute poverty" is linked to alienation, relationship that is explicit in the Marxian formulation, but also poverty in the strict sense (poverty as a fact), because only in an alienated society in which all subjects are submitted to an abstract domination there can be poverty, namely, a part of the population that being superfluous can be easily neglected and even dismissed, as shown by contemporary setting of the big cities and no longer limited to the reality of peripheral countries. In this sense, the thesis seeks to provide elements to the critical analysis of the poverty phenomenon in the present capitalist society, emphasizing particularly that it should be analyzed from a broader theoretical framework.