Karl Marx and Communism

Karl Marx was an economic and political philosopher. As we went over, Marx didn’t like the Industrial Revolution because of its treatment to workers. He detested capitalism, which is an economic system where a company was run privately and only operated for profit. He formed the counter for it, Communism. Communism was a form of socialism that eliminated private ownership, and favored a classless society.

Communism seems to be a great thing. In communism there would be no class system, which meant no bourgeoisie and proletariat. Bourgeoisie is the class filled with business owners and landlords and proletariat class was all the hard-working people. It meant that everyone would be treated the same, and paid the same. Everything was owned by the government, so no arguing or fighting would occur among the people. Marx thought this would be a distinguished government because everything would be shared, with peace eventually being brought.

Karl Marx created a club called the Communist League. In 1844, Marx met another German philosopher is Paris, Friedrich Engels. They became very good friends, and together they wrote the Communist Manifesto, which laid the foundation for socialism and communism. It was written the send messages to the proletariat class, telling them unite in a worldwide effort to overthrow capitalism and to get rid of the class system. He also wrote Das Kapital (The capital), which he is well-known for. It took him thirty years to complete and was published in three volumes.