Marxism essay

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The Marxist theory is a conflict social system theory. It was introduced by Karl Marx who saw society as divided into two opposed classes one which exploits the labour of the other. He predicted that the proletariat, working class and "wage slaves", will unite and other throw capitalism and the bougeoisie and will create a class less society. Capitalism is an economic system based on trade. Marx detested the unfair system and fought hard to educate people about their inequalities. He said that the relationship between the two classes is determined by the means of the production, the proletariat own their own labour which they have to sell for an exploitative wage to the bourgeoisie who own the means of the production. Therefore the relationship between the two classes is independent and unequal as the bourgeoisie don't pay a fair wage for the labour and they make the surplus wealth.

The theory states that the proletariat must work in order to earn a wage for survival and they work long hours at forced labour. Therefore they can feel alienated, this means that they can feel physically and mentally exhausted as the work doesn't give them any mental energy. This leads to polarisation where the bourgeoisie accumulate the surplus wealth and become richer and more powerful. However, as a consequence polarisation and alienation could lead to the down fall of the capitalisation and start a revolution. This is where the proletariat join together, refuse to work for the bourgeoisie and other throw capialism and the owners of the means of the production to move into communism. Marxism believes that the family contributes to producing the social structure and that the point of it is to benefit the ruling class ideology. Engels believes that the nuclear family is developed as means of passing on the properties to the next generations. Also, Eli Zaretsky said that it's an illusion in a capitalists society men can't have a private life and be themselves at work and that the family cna't meet it's members' needs e.g. it's based on domestic servitude of women.