In Time

When human beings genes are mutated and individuals stop aging at 25 and must work hard to prolong their life, the question of power and consumerism comes into question. Karl Marx, a philosopher from the 1800s, questions the way that society is run after the industrial revolution and how individuals in the society become alienated from themselves and others in the current system that we have now. The main character in In Time, Will Salas has always lived a life scrounging for more time added to his clock.  Living in the ghetto time zone, Will has become accustomed to those that surround him literally living out the phrase "time is money." When he witnesses a man with a lot of time on his wrist in his community, Will  decides to confront the man and protect him. The man, in turn, gives Will the rest of the time on his watch, which happens to be a century, more time than Will has ever had. He then ruins the balance between life and death within the nation and those that live "average" lives are now able to live just as long as those who once lived forever due to their wealth.

The comparisons with Karl Marx theories and the ideas expressed in "In Time" reveal to the viewer the question of power and the comparision to the consumerist way of thinking that as a modern nation we express. Should we place the amount of value that we do on money and waste time that we could use to explore and gain knowledge and independence  to gain more money for our bank accounts? Does our system of money making really benefit us as a whole or does it stunt the possible growth that individuals have when not focused on material and industrial goods?

Karl Marx believes that workers become literal parts in a system and lose all identity just to be able to participate in normal "human" things such as eating, sleeping, relaxing, and reproduction. The things that we should just do because we are human become luxury. He believes that the system we have in place alienates the worker from himself and others which in turn takes away from the way that we can further ourselves as individuals and as a society.

The correlations between In Time and the way that Karl Marx interprets our society depicts to the viewer the ridiculousness of our materialism and critiques how the individuals in power are stealing from the poor.