The Communist Manifesto By Karl Marx And Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Even though his views of a communistic utopia are strongly opposed in America, we can use the problems he pointed out to improve capitalism. Marx thought people wanted to feel important through their work, and he feared capitalism would ruin this desire. In large firms and factories, the contribution of individuals would seem minute, leading to alienation (Wolff). Marx also concluded that capitalism made humans expendable. He believed people would be seen as another form of production that could easily be replaced when costs rise or new technology takes their place. This could be solved by a communist world where everyone feels valued. This "equal ness" would also prevent capitalists from gaining enormous profits, which came at the expense of the talent and hard work of the labor force. He also believed capitalism was unstable and was bound to have many crises throughout its reign due to an accumulation of an abundance of resources. One rather remarkable belief of Marx was how unemployment was good because it meant the labor force was so productive that people did not need to work. He thought unemployment should be looked at as freedom. For example, Marx opposed the female work opportunity movement by asking why women want to join in the agony that is work. Overall, Marx thought capitalism would teach us to be anxious, competitive, conformist, and politically complacent

Marx has opinions and views on so many various topics, but his ideals of Communism are quite clear and do not stray often from his main point. His theory however only addresses landowners and steers clear of other commoners. He does not deal with the minorities of women,

Karl Marx believes that a capitalistic society separates the rich from the poor. corporations that holds the money hold the power to dictate whether certain fucntions of society.

Between the late 1840’s and 1850’s industrial revolution and the growth of markets led to a clear distinction between the working class and the class of owners. People are working harder to live a luxurious life. During this time the Communist Manifesto (1848) by Karl Marx (1818- 1883) and Walden (1854) by Henry David Thoreau (1817 – 1862) were published. Both Marx and Thoreau were after ending slavery. Marx was after ending slavery among the class struggles, while Thoreau was after ending slavery from your self. Thoreau had a similar vision of utopia as Marx, however his approach to the problem was that revolution is internal rather than violent, pervasive and militaristic. They had radically different solutions and starting points to the similar problem Marx and Thoreau perceive.

Marx’s solution to poverty and social injustice is Communism. The principles of Communism as listed in the Communist Manifesto are: elimination of private land ownership, graduated or progressive income tax, elimination of inheritance rights, confiscation of rebel and emigrant property, state control of money and credit, state control of manufacture and agriculture, universal labor, combination of agriculture and manufacture leading to no distinction between urban and rural, population spread out over the country, free education, proper child labor. By centralizing all power, capital, and property in the state, theoretically all power, capital, and property would belong to all citizens equally. If the state controls all manufacturing and agriculture, and if all citizens are required to work, than theoretically the workers will not be mistreated as they are their own employers through the state.

Marx believes a totalitarian state is a necessity in the beginning stages until a classless society is achieved; he is indifferent to limitations on the power of the government because he knows society will not willingly change their ways for the greater good (Marx and Engels, 1969). Marx recognizes the desire for society to change and his structure for the future is clearly outlined in his works. A socialist system will teach people to be selfless and lead to destruction of class distinctions. The main goal is to reduce the unequal distribution of wealth achieved through exploitation of the workers by the bourgeois class. Marx viewed capitalism as a flawed system which teaches human nature to pursue selfishness. For example, people are less willing to produce and sell their commodities if it bears no monetary generation. There is an overwhelming want by people to make money and it hinders the development of technology.

In Chapter 2, "Proletariats and Communists," Marx elaborates the social changes communists hope to effect on behalf of the proletariat. Marx notes firstly that the interests of communists do not differ from the interests of the proletariat as a class; they seek only to develop class-consciousness in the proletariat, a necessary condition of eventual proletariat emancipation. The primary objective of communists and the revolutionary proletariat is the abolishment of private property, for it is this that keeps them enslaved. Bourgeois economics, capitalism (a system based on owning your own property that you buy and make profits off of whatever you sale) requires that the owners of the means of production compensate workers only enough to ensure their mere physical subsistence and reproduction. In other words, the existence of bourgeois property, or capital as Marx calls it, relies on its radically unequal distribution. The only way the proletariat can free itself

Marx’s primarily aims to explain how communism will free men, end the class struggle. The work argues that class struggles, and the exploitation of one class by another is the source of all inequality. Marx’s theories become one the motivating force behind all historical developments. The work strongly advocates the freedom of the proletariats which Marx’s claims can only be achieved when property and other goods cease to be privately owned. He see’s that private property has been a problem through out history, capital that aids the ruling class to maintain control. Marx argues that the lower class come together in a revolution and gain power and eventually take the power away from the upper class.

Marx advocated social reform for the proletariat (workers).The focus of Marx’s conflict theory is that by eliminating privilege, the overall welfare of the society can be increased. This would then create a true equality

Carson: Marx’s system was for the government to create high income taxes and takes property until the state/country owns everything and the people own nothing making them “equal”. His system also had several principles including the government having complete control over education,labor, and communication vehicles(i.e.the media), the government has ownership of transportation,agricultural means and factories. Nobody has ownership of private property, no rights to their inheritance, there’s a heavy income tax on everyone. Basically the government owns everything and the people own nothing.

Marx believed that societies were evolving in a certain direction, which was leading to communist societies (Habibis & Walter, 2009. p. 15). This would lead to the fulfilment of people’s potential as opposed to the distribution of wealth and power (p. 15). He also believed that all forms of inequality were created by capitalistic values where wealth provided further wealth (p. 5). Also that there was economical deterministic value of class (p. 5). The stratification of society into classes was in itself a social inequality system (p. 5).

Marx believed that regulating class conflict will ensure the stability of the social order because the non-producers were seizing the wealth and the real producers were losing. The two classes that Marx discussed as taking over a capitalist society were the bourgeoisie (dominant class) and the proletariat (working class). His definition “in so far as millions of families live under economic conditions of existence that separate their mode of life, their interests, and their culture from those of the other classes, and put them in hostile position to the latter, they form a class” (Marx). This is why Marx believed that class conflict is the driving force behind the need for social change.

By doing away with the privileges of the wealthy, Marx believed that the human condition would improve. But first, someone needed to break the cycle of production determining society’s values (Backman, 688). Marx would do this by "the transfer of economic and political power to the great mass of the proletariat" (690). Marx’s ideas were an appropriate response to the early 1800s’ problems because of the inferior class system, poor living conditions, and the horrible working conditions that the wealthy had determined for society.

Marx main focused this issue being related to capitalism. Marx argued about the ruling class and how poverty would benefit it. Poverty helps increase the motivation of the working class to work. People who are in the labor force receive unequal rewards. Wages are very low and decrease the wage demands as a whole. Their needs to be a change in wages that could help out people in poverty get out of the hole that society has them locked into. This way it would motivate people into the working force and contributing more to society. Marx believes that in a capitalist’s society, the bourgeoisie class owns the means of production and the proletariat class sells their labor to the bourgeoisie. This gives them all the power and status to have control of the society’s superstructure. This allows the bourgeoisie to create its ideologies, values and norms. Personally I agree more with Marx with his view on poverty and think that he points out what is wrong with social stratification proving Davis and Moore’s theory to be inconsistent. Marx believed that social stratification is created by people’s differing relationship to the means of production. Meaning that they own productive property or they labor for

Karl Marx came up later with a theory of a classless society to help the working class fight back. Marx came up with many radical ideas to change the way society was proceeding socially which, caused him to be banished from his native land in Germany and then from France, eventually he ended up in England. (Compton's Encyclopedia, 121) Karl Marx believed that social conflict was needed for society to function. He showed people not to be scared of conflict but rather to except it as a way of life. Karl Marx believes that people have a "class consciousness" which means that people are aware of differences between one another and that it causes a separation between groups of people. People mostly look at material objects for a sense of class status. If you are wealthy in life then you have many material objects and if you are poor then you have very little. People need to be educated in order to move up in society, which is why the working class people rarely have a chance to be very successful. Karl Marx realized that the working class deserved more then they were receiving and he tried to help the situation. Marx wanted the wealthy people and the poor to become more economically equal in status. Karl Marx also discusses the economic issues that the working class faces with change. With capitalism growing there is a greater need for production in the factories. More products need to be produced and at