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Modern Day Communism: Karl Marx

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Karl Marx (1818-1883) credited as the founder of modern day communism, saw the economic class as the biggest conflict facing the society as one between the bourgeoisie (winners of power) and the proletariats (powerless). His theory sharply demonstrates the vast differences in classes based on a socially unbalanced relationship of the capitalists, or bourgeoisie, who own the means of production, and the workers, or proletariat, who must sell their labor to survive. Marx’s viewed this unequal social structure as the central conflict in society and the source inequality in both power and wealth. Conversely, the main perspective being a macro approach as the fall of a capitalist system would produce a void for communism to fill and thrive.

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