Question

Week 2: Read pages 26-35 & The Bloomberg article “What Would Karl Marx Think.”

1) Explain why Marx’s ideas are so radical concerning Capitalism. Include on your response, the terms, “means of production, bourgeoisie, proletariat and capitalism.”

2) How did the Ruling class or the bourgeoisie control the workers? In your opinion, does the elite or ruling class control the working class today? If so, in what ways?

3) With conflict theory in mind, how much upward social mobility does an individual have here in the United States? If one is born a poor child, what are the odds that they will become a wealthy adult? Explain your viewpoint using the readings. Can Marx’s writings be used to explain social inequality today in the United States?  Support your claims with examples from the required material(s) and/or other scholarly resources, and properly cite any references.

Answer 1

Note: This response is in UK English, please paste the response to MS Word and you should be able to spot discrepancies easily. You may elaborate the answer based on personal views or your classwork if necessary.

(Answer) (1) Karl Marx on Class Differentiation: Marx stated that there are 2 classes of society. These are the upper-class and the lower-class. The upper classes are bolstered by a life of leisure. They are endowed with ownership of property, production and abundance. The lower-class on the other hand he believed was doomed to a life of hard work and would be at the mercy of people who owned the means of production.

According to Marx, the 2 main classes in the capitalist stage of production are the Bourgeoisie and the proletariat

Bourgeoisie: These are the people who own the means of production. Through this ownership, they exploit the lower classes of society. Example, a landowner need only pay taxes for his land and minimum wage to his workers. He could yield great profits from the produce of his land

Proletariat: These are the lower classes that consist of the wage-earners and workers of society. Their major resource is, in fact, their labour work. Example, these are the farmers working on the land. They are people who earn minimum wage and are at the mercy of the landowner for their basic needs.

Capitalism is simply a form of government that encourages this private ownership. In this way, the government has much less control of ownership, the people and also the markets.

(2) In this day and age, the two classes that exist are those who are financially affluent and those who earn minimum or less than the minimum wage. In these circumstances, the bourgeoisie or the ruling class are able to afford better college educations, better jobs in high places and the government. In this way, it is the upper class who might determine the salaries, the policies and the rules for the working class to follow. Karl Marx theory of the ruling class controlling the working class is still perhaps true in most ways.

(3) According to Marx, one might have one of two types of lives, based on their status. They are:

Ascribed status: It is the status given to an individual at birth. This status is based on ethnicity, class and social strata. This in no way is the status that describes the individual themselves.

Example: An immigrant civil worker’s child will be branded as an individual from a lower middle-class background with an immigrant status. This in no way reflects who the child really is as an individual.

Achieved status: It is the status that, the individual has earned for themselves. This status is earned based on professional status, personal standing in the society, contributions and other elements.

Example: If the immigrant child of the civil worker grows up to be a botanist who helps build the county’s agro-industries, he becomes a successful individual. His personal and professional contribution towards society has helped achieve a certain status.

Through tools like education, development of skills, making an impact in their field, it is possible that the child born in less privilege might acquire a state of well-being in society.

Conflict theory is a theory propounded by Karl Marx that claims society is in a state of perpetual conflict due to competition for limited resources. It holds that social order is maintained by domination and power, rather than consensus and conformity.

If one were to view the conflict theory as something that is ingrained in all situations, then the perspective on social mobility and equality can be better understood. Since resources are limited, it is essential that the government actually regulate them. This would ensure that the privileged don’t get more than necessary and the underprivileged get an allotted quota. This might help change the dynamics of distribution in the United States.