Chapter Three – Communism, Karl Marx
Main Elements of Marxism
Main Elements of Marxism
- There are only two important classes, the proletariat and the bourgeoisie
- There should not be private ownership of the means of production because production is collective
- The state should control the means of production and the appropriation of surplus value
- Government should be in the hands of the working class
- Abolition of church and the capitalist state
- To each according to their needs, from each according to their abilities
- All basic needs covered by the state with some hierarchization of salaries
- Single currency controlled by the state
- Marx is not concerned with class in the sociological sense, i.e, middle classes, working class, upper class. While Marx’s theory was strongly based on the suffering of the working class during the Industrial Revolution in Europe, his theory does not focus on differential in income, but rather explains how the accumulation of surplus value makes the worker poorer, the more the worker produces. The worker cannot keep the surplus value they produce. Corporations harvest it and in this way they accumulate wealth. This wealth is later used to influence, for example, presidential campaigns through so called “super-packs,” or by funding lobbyist that can influence lawmakers in Congress.
- Materialist philosophers do not think that ideas drive society. They think that our economic activity influences the way we think and what we can accomplish as a society. As a materialist philosopher, Marx thought that we needed a revolution to abolish capitalism and create a different kind of mode of production. He envisioned socialism as a first step toward communism.
