Karl Marx and Andrew Carnegie Compare and Contrast

In the conceptualization of the predominant 19th century political thought process, none- if any- were more influential than John Stuart Mill and Karl Marx. Both were philosophers, sociologists, economists and political thinkers, but each held unique views towards the ideal government, to freedom, and to the impact of the industrial revolution. Each discussed some of the ramifications of the industrial revolution, and the ways in which the government can be re-aligned for greater social prosperity. John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) advocated for Liberalism, a system in which liberty and equality would remain at the forefront of all political proposals, and representative interests. Mill celebrated individuality, and the ability to not conform to a higher power. In contrast to Mill, Karl Marx (1818-1883) was a revolutionary socialist who advocated for a complete social revolution throughout society, in an effort to counter the ill perceived effects of capitalism. Marx’s central tenet relied upon the fact that he sought to abolish private property, and monopolies, so as to enable all individuals to acquire an equitable means of living. Marx’s belief was that capitalism forces the economy into constantly being exploited, which in turn leads to recessions. Mill believed that all power should be allocated to the individual; whereas Marx believed that bestowing such power within a socialist regime would allow for the creation of a truly egalitarian society. This paper will analyze how

Marx put forward his conception of historical materialism for the first time in German Ideology in 1845-6. He believed that it was

In an era consisting of big industrialist, such as Andrew Carnegie, there were many differences of opinions on the execution of capitalism between these industrialists and their workers. Andrew Carnegie expressed his ideas and views in article, “The Gospel of Wealth,” in which he outlines the duties of industrialist to better the life of their workers and community. On the other hand, a working man wrote “A Work Mans Prayer,” a sarcastic response to Andrew Carnegies “The Gospel of Wealth,” clearly against what Andrew Carnegie believes and claims. These differences can be

Wealth can be defined as a surplus. This surplus is distributed among a society. The distribution creates associations among the people of the society with respect to wealth. The Gospel of Wealth, written by Andrew Carnegie, describes two classes and the association of wealth between them. Adam Smith’s passage, Of the Natural Progress of Opulence, similarly, includes a reciprocal relationship of production between the town and country. Unlike the other essays, Marx’s, Communist Manifesto, debunks the separation of classes and urges equal distribution of wealth and, The Position of Poverty, Galbraith’s composition, emphasizes the importance of wealth in the public sector to abolish poverty. The essays all have a common structure of the distribution of wealth and include some insight on how to maintain the distribution or how to alter it so that it is more beneficial to society. Carnegie, Smith, Marx, and Galbraith explain the distribution of wealth and it’s affects on society.

Social classes have been part of an ever changing dynamic since the beginning of society and as the decades pass the relationship between rich and poor, employee and employer has become more apparent with the advent of industrialization. With the gap of wealth and power widening, tension is created and thus competition is a byproduct. Andrew Carnegie saw the world in this perspective and as a wealthy business realized the enormous responsibility he and others like him had to the classes below him while Karl Marx saw two very distinct classes formed as a result from industrialization. Carnegie believed the competition that arose from social classes was a benefit to society and humanity as a whole while Marx believed social struggle was actually a hindrance to humanity because it allowed for the employee to be exploited by the employer. These opposing viewpoints held similar points in

The Communist Manifesto,” published the following year. In it, the two philosophers depicted all of history as a series of class struggles (historical materialism), in this Marx predicted that the upcoming proletarian revolution would sweep aside the capitalist system for good, making the workingmen the new ruling class of the world.

Written by German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1848, the Communist Manifesto is one of the most intriguing and controversial works in history. A political pamphlet written after an explosion of revolutionary struggles, it provided a new thought on economic and social ideas.

“When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist” (Câmara). In 1847, a group known most publicly as the “Communist League” met in London. This group commissioned a man by the name of Karl Marx to write a manifesto on their behalf, soon known as the Communist Manifesto. Marx was a German philosopher, economist, and sociologist that took his opportunity in writing this manifesto to attempt to explain the primary goals of communism, as well as define a theory underlying the movement.

The Communist Manifesto was written in 1848 by German philosophers Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Marx “identified the class struggle as the motor of history; he predicted the end of capitalism through a revolution of the working class” (Seidman, 2017). Marx theorized that human societies progress through a struggle between two peculiar social classes, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. Karl Marx looked at power dynamics, he explored and analyzed the ways in which struggles over power initiates societal change.

The nature of capitalism meant the bourgeoisie needed to exploit their workers in order to make a surplus. If they didn’t do this they would fall themselves into the proletariat and their employees would work for someone who would. This made the situation of the proletariat all the more dire. Marx expressed this view when he defined the proletariat as “a class of labourers, who live only so long as they find work, and who find work only so long as their labour increases capital” (page 8). This meant that the chances of a proletariat had to advance into a higher economic class were reduced and a further polarisation of classes would develop. This meant that a class struggle was inevitable if one views Marx’s theory as one of ‘group-formation’ as is explored by Reinhard Bendix in his study of Marx. Bendix suggests that in Marx’s view “ruling classes are aware of their common interests and have the organizational means to promote them, while oppressed classes still seek to achieve class consciousness and organizational cohesion.” Hence due to a lack of class consciousness the proletariat continue to struggle. This was inevitable, according to Bendix view of Marx, due to the nature of the oppressed classes. A similar idea that causes inevitable class conflict mentioned again by Bendix is that a “lack of acquaintance and competing interests divided the workers amongst them-selves. Although all of them lived a starkly deprived life, their

The Industrial Revolution brought about many changes to the landscape of the world. This paper will look at how the idea of freedom evolved during the Industrial Revolution. In particular, it will focus on Karl Marx and the ideas he lays out in the Manifesto of the Communist Party. Marx was adamant about the idea that freedom was not truly achieved by industrializing a nation; rather he believed that the nature of power simply evolved.

The Communist Manifesto, written by Karl Marx and assisted by Friedrich Engels was published in London in 1848. Marx and Engels were both German philosophers that founded the Marxist theory, which are the political, economic, and social principles and policies advocated by Marx. Marx’s book criticizes capitalism and the economic conditions that were taking place in Britain from 1837 to 1838. Marx creates a clear distinction between the “two great classes”, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat in his book the Communist Manifesto.

After being expelled from France for exhibiting communist traits, Marx was drafted in 1847 by the newly founded Communist League in London, England, alongside Engels to write “The Communist Manifesto,” published the following year (History.com Staff 2009). In the manifesto, all of history was seen as a series of struggles between classes. They predicted that the upcoming proletarian revolution would sweep aside the capitalist system for good, making the workingmen the new ruling class of the world (History.com Staff 2009)..

"A spectre is haunting Europe the spectre of Communism" (Marx and Engles). So begins the title of one of the most famous books in modern history if not as a literary giant, as an idea that changed the social and political make up of the entire world. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engles wrote The Communist Manifesto in response to their views of the social and working conditions of Europe after the Industrial Revolution changed the view of labor and commodities. For Marx, history was defined as nothing more than a continuous class struggle. In Ancient times, slavery changed into feudalism, then capitalism replaced feudal society, especially after the Industrial Revolution. Eventually, this class struggle would allow the workers of the world to revolt and overthrow the owners of production anf form a society with no class called communism.

In 1848 Karl Marx wrote the Communist Manifesto which was a formal statement of the communist party. “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles […] we find almost everywhere a complicated