Bourgeoisie Vs Proletariat Essay

Marxist ideology is based on the idea of two distinct socio-economic classes—the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. Marx defines the bourgeoisie as a wealthy and capitalistic class whose economic supremacy arises from and relies on owning the means of production and preserving capital. Contrarily, the proletariat is a class of wage laborers whose only power lies in their ability to sustain themselves through work, for they do not have access to the “instruments of production.” The bourgeoisie class is comprised of industrial millionaires who exploit the laboring proletariat masses to ensure the perpetuation of their dominance and status at the top of the hierarchy. According to Marx, societal conflict between the classes has always existed and the
Marx provides a list of communist objectives that address many shortcomings of the industrial era and seek to evoke systematic change. One such solution he proposes is the abolition of bourgeoisie private property. Industrialization and urbanization caused a significant decrease in the number of landowners as the general population shifted from agricultural work in rural areas to factory work in cities. Since a system of wage labor produces capital rather than land for the laborer, the possession of land became limited to only the very wealthy. In this way, land ownership became an explicitly bourgeois feature of society and further emphasized the divide between the classes. As Marx states, “… modern bourgeois private property is the final and most complete expression of the system of producing and appropriating products, that is based on class antagonisms, on the exploitation of the many by the few.” Marx’s solution to this issue is to eliminate private property in favor of communal ownership of all resources and means of