Karl Marx on The Working Class
Karl Marx believed that history evolved in a way that can be understood and acted on by people. He also believed that economics drives history and is the base structure of society. He viewed history as proof that evolution is inevitable and that a revolution’s determinate factor will be economics. Concepts such as the bourgeoisie, surplus value, and industrial reserve army serve as evidence that support Marx’s belief in the revolutionary potential of the working class. Marx put tremendous faith in the working class in starting this revolution. The working class, or “bourgeoisie,” is those who own the majority of society’s wealth and basis of production. Marx’s concept helps to elucidate what he sees as the looming danger within capitalism. His argument is that the "weapons" used by the bourgeoisie was that of their need for material wealth and profit. The belief was that because of this profit hoarding desire, coupled with the institutional network of power that supports it, the progression of materialism eliminated feudalism and shepherded in the stage of capitalism. But Marx argued that this is not the final stage of growth and that capitalism will inevitably give way to an order where the Proletariat will assume control and deconstruct the power structures of capitalism. Consequently, as a result of this economic inevitability, which allowed the usurpation of feudal control to a capitalist order, the same fate will compromise capitalism and the emergent bourgeoisie. By viewing Marx as an anthropologist of sorts, it is evident that his theories are primarily concerned with social relations and how they ultimately paved the way for an economic revolution. Moreover, Marx was also concerned with the concept of “value” and the intrinsic power within laborers and how these are integral in determining the key elements of the working class. One of the most important concepts of value, and one that is undoubtedly ubiquitous in Marx’s doctrines, is “surplus