Karl Marx Social Class Analysis

Poverty is a worldwide issue. With emphasis on poverty in third world countries like Africa, Haiti, etc. Citizens of Brevard County tend to overlook how poverty is happening in our own back yards. My social issue is about poverty in Brevard County and I aim to bring awareness to this terrible situation. Poverty as defined by Wikipedia “is general scarcity, dearth, or the state of one who lacks a certain amount of material possessions or money.” According to “Brevard County Income and Careers,” 12.51% of Brevard County’s population is living in poverty. Seminole County, a neighbor to Brevard has 10.78% of their population living in poverty. As you can see the percent of population in poverty in Brevard

Trailer Park Boys has the reputation of being considered an example of low culture with seemingly mean less storylines. Many believe that this show has no educational value and contains storylines with little to no depth. However, in season 7, episode 10, Marxist ideas are displayed regarding the ruling class and the division of classes. As the Trailer Park Boys run an international drug smuggling operation, they are subject to the law enforcement, the ruling class, and must surrender to a police force. However, they are faced with a choice in which country to surrender to as they are in-between the two countries. The Trailer Park Boys demonstrates the division of classes in relation to Marx's work and how the ruling class influences a society.

In this essay I will compare and contrast Marx and Weber’s theories on social change and the rise of modern capitalism. Firstly I will provide a brief outline of Marx’s theories relating to social change and capitalism. I will then briefly outline Weber’s theories on social change and the rise of modern capitalism. Finally I will give my own critique of the theories outlining which one I prefer and the reasons for my choice.

The Communist Manifesto, written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, had little to no influence when it was first published in 1848 for the Communist League. However, soon after Marx and Engel’s other writings on socialism became published it grew in popularity, and was considered a standard text of the time (Brians, 2006). With Marx’s radical ideas, and Engels’ thorough writing, they were able to convey how they were individual of the other socialists of the time and elaborate on their idea socialism and how it would inevitably be achieved. The three main ideas from The Communist Manifesto are class conflict, ephemeral capitalism, and inevitable revolution.

Karl Marx was a German philosopher and economist in the 18th century. He is known for his book the Communist Manifesto that was published in 1848. Marx believed that a revolution of the working classes would over throw the capitalist order and creates a classless society. The Industrial Revolutions led to the proletarianization; his partner Friedrich Engels explained why the changes created by the proletarianization of the worker would develop into a huge problem for industrial societies.

Karl Marx founded his theory on struggle through historical context. Struggle and tension were the driving engines of progress or as Marx put in The Communist Manifesto, “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles” (Marx & Engles). According to Marx, humanity could not progress

Socioeconomic status is frequently considered to be a potential confounder or a risk factor for overweight and obesity in health studies. Although there is general agreement that SES is a multidimensional construct, scholars tend to include only one socioeconomic status component in their predictive models and few researches have provided an explicit theoretical and methodological rationale for the choice of indicators (Ball et al., 2002).

Social inequalities can be described as the differences in “income, resources, power and status” (Naidoo and Wills 2008, in Warwick-Booth 2013, 2) that advantage a social class, a group or an individual over another, and thereby establish social hierarchies. It also affects inequalities in regards to gender, race, access to health and education, and general living conditions. In sociology, the dichotomy between the conflict theory approach and the functionalist approach has led to a discordant opinion in regards to social inequalities. The conflict theory seems to admit that social inequalities needs to disappear in order to install a common and equal base for all individuals, whereas the functionalist approach believes that social inequalities

In any of the sciences, it is essential to break down the components of the object of study and understand them before delving into the subject and Sociology is one of the major sciences demands us to understand the basic concept of class and it’s background. So theoretically a class are like-minded people who are located at the intersection of economics, society, and politics. The Marxist claim to class rests on the distinctiveness of these three interpenetrating aspects of social life. So basically class is the division of groups based on the economic roles and position that shapes the social world they inhabit and the culture they choose to follow which in turn molds their political choices and actions. The layman ideology would be that what you are led to what our experience which inevitably leads to what you do. According to this ideology, we map people according to these three categories and when the mapping is done these classes should coincide.

In the Communist manifesto, a well known quote of Marx, “the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” This is introductory to the first part of the pamphlet and a conclusion to Marx’s theory about class struggle. Marx’s highly structured on how the class struggle emerges and affects the development of a society.

Writings of Karl Marx had formed the theoretical basis for communism and the continual debate against capitalism. Marx understood capitalism to be a system in which the means of production are privately owned and profit is generated by the sale of the proletariat’s labour. He considered it to be an unfair exploitation of hard work with alienated social interactions and purpose. I agree with Marx that capitalism is indeed unfair and alienating, because it concentrates wealth within a small group of people by exploiting the surplus value of workers’ labour, and creates an alienated workforce. Hence, this essay will first discuss the relevance of Marx’s perception of capitalism as an alienating and unfair system for the contemporary world, before examining the potential of governments to influence the extent of alienation and unfairness that occurs.

On January 1859 Karl Marx claimed the impact and the importance of any political institution to any society: “In the social production of their existence, men inevitably enter into definite relations, which are independent of their will, namely relations of production appropriate to a given stage in the development of their material forces of production. The totality of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which arises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness. The mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political and intellectual life. It is not the consciousness of men that determines

This essay will discuss the concept of one of the greatest economists, a philosopher, a journalist, a historian, also known and believed to be one of the founding fathers of sociology. Karl Marx, made a contribution to sociology in the 19th century. He developed a sociological theory that stated that human societies progress through a struggle between two distinct classes, namely; the bourgeoise and proletariat. It claims that society is in conflict between the rich who own and control everything, and the poor who must work for the rich and be rewarded very little for their hard work. The theory is known as the conflict theory or the Marxist theory or Marxism, which is more concerned about the class struggle within the society,

Karl Marx and Emile Durkheim both displayed very differing views on the division of labour, and they each have a different proposal on how a society should be ordered. In this essay, I will be highlighting on how Marx believed in a classless society, and how Durkheim believed in structural functionalism, where a society will adjust to achieve a stable state. Furthermore, I will be relating both of their views to my home country Singapore, and why Durkheim’s theory of structural functionalism will be more applicable to the society of Singapore.

It would take volumes to describe how important Karl Marx’s work is in sociology. His work is important in the 21st century because his concepts and ideas are the only genuine seeds for a better society. I see Marx as a voice for the voiceless, the weak, and the vulnerable in all societies across the globe.