The bourgeoisie and proletariat classes according to Karl Marx

One basic tenet Karl Marx's defines in his famous Manifesto of the Communist Party is the distinguishing characteristics of two opposing social classes, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat classes. These classes can easily be defined as those who gain wealth (bourgeoisie) from the working class (proletariat). While the bourgeoisie class continues to gain wealth and power, the proletariat falls in a downward spiral of social and economic crisis. This paper will examine how each class differs according to Marx's definitions. Marx's theory illustrates a good versus evil society. In his manifesto, he says, "Society as a whole is more and more splitting into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other: Bourgeoisie and Proletariat" (Marx). He predicts that a "haunting specter of Communism" (Marx) is looming ahead in the future, unleashing a revolution that will overthrow economic forces, and governments as well as social and cultural forces that exist in capitalist countries. Marx urges this overthrow by the proletariat class, asking them to liberate themselves and unify under the Communist Party. Communism will lead them in a revolutionary action that will overthrow the bourge

These laborers, who must sell themselves piecemeal, are a commodity, like every other article of commerce, and are consequently, exposed to all the vicissitudes of competition, to all the fluctuations of the market. However, this class has done more than that. The largestproblem is a division of social classes. In fact, "there is no longer aproletariat to dictate, for exploitation has been abolished and all classesare merged in one" (Britannica). Thebourgeoisie revolutionized the process of economic production, which leadthem to dominate the world and establish a world market, which in turnfeeds the growth of industrial production. However, the bourgeoisie, after paying him a "subsistence wage is able tokeep for himself the rest of the laborer's product" (Britannica). Not only are they slaves of the bourgeois class, and of the bourgeois state; they are daily and hourly enslaved by the machine, by the overlooker, and, above all, in the individual bourgeois manufacturer himself. Theproletarian revolution is described as a transitional phase, which createsa new order. , capital, is developed, in the same proportion is the proletariat, the modern working class, developed -- a class of laborers, who live only so long as they find work, and who find work only so long as their labor increases capital. This realization leads the proletarians to rise up anddestroy the bourgeoisie. (Marx) and: Modern Industry has converted the little workshop of the patriarchal master into the great factory of the industrial capitalist. Romans aqueducts and Gothic cathedrals" (Marx). This has broken down "nationalisolation in intellectual production, in which the bourgeoisie "cannotexist without constantly revolutionizing the instruments of production andthereby the relations of production" (Lavine 303). In conclusion, Marx's somewhat modern theory has survived because itrepresents freedom and choice for all.