The Communist Manifesto By Karl Marx Analysis
Introduction
“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” (Tucker, 1978). These words began one of the most famous pieces Karl Marx ever wrote, The Communist Manifesto. In this work, he railed against what he perceived to be the evils of capitalism and called upon the workers around the world to unite to bring an end to this exploitative system once and for all. Communism was to rise and free all people from the shackles of the bourgeoisie and allow them to go on with their lives, as they pleased, in peace and happiness. As we all now know, this has yet to become a reality for most countries around the world. There have been cases where communism was implemented, some more successfully than others, but never en masse. So, how do the words of Marx relate to our society in the U.S. today?
Analysis
The modern capitalist system operates in a way that …show more content…
Though the days of the bourgeoisie have long passed, we still have an unbalanced system where most of the power and wealth is concentrated at the top. Today, those at the top are generally CEOs of corporations such as Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, and Bill Gates of Microsoft. According to Forbes, in 2016 the richest 400 people in the United States had a combined net worth of $2.4 trillion dollars and an average individual net worth of $6 billion. (Forbes, ) In 2012, 76% of income and wealth in the United States was held by only 10% of households. (WaPo ) So, how did this happen? In Marx’s vision of capitalism, as the proletariat became more productive and could increase production levels of the goods to be sold, more surplus value was being created for the bourgeoisie. Instead of sharing more of those
“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” (Tucker, 1978). These words began one of the most famous pieces Karl Marx ever wrote, The Communist Manifesto. In this work, he railed against what he perceived to be the evils of capitalism and called upon the workers around the world to unite to bring an end to this exploitative system once and for all. Communism was to rise and free all people from the shackles of the bourgeoisie and allow them to go on with their lives, as they pleased, in peace and happiness. As we all now know, this has yet to become a reality for most countries around the world. There have been cases where communism was implemented, some more successfully than others, but never en masse. So, how do the words of Marx relate to our society in the U.S. today?
Analysis
The modern capitalist system operates in a way that …show more content…
Though the days of the bourgeoisie have long passed, we still have an unbalanced system where most of the power and wealth is concentrated at the top. Today, those at the top are generally CEOs of corporations such as Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, and Bill Gates of Microsoft. According to Forbes, in 2016 the richest 400 people in the United States had a combined net worth of $2.4 trillion dollars and an average individual net worth of $6 billion. (Forbes, ) In 2012, 76% of income and wealth in the United States was held by only 10% of households. (WaPo ) So, how did this happen? In Marx’s vision of capitalism, as the proletariat became more productive and could increase production levels of the goods to be sold, more surplus value was being created for the bourgeoisie. Instead of sharing more of those