View of Class

View of Class

Karl Marx 's view of class as exposed in his Communist Manifesto suggests firstly the existence of two distinct classes with irreconcilable differences . These are the proletarian and the bourgeoisie . The proletarian or proletariat was initially a derogatory term used for people who had no other wealth aside from their children . Marx 's sociological take on the term refers it to the working class . True to its derogatory origin , the proletariat is the class in society that does not own the means of production (Martin , 1998 . In short , they

are those who are employed to do work and get paid by salaries . The bourgeoisie or capitalist is a term to connote the owning class . They are considered the upper class of society who owns the means of production . They are the merchants , landowners , and other capitalists . Marx 's theory in class revolves around the interactions between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie and the inevitable consequences thereof . Marx argued that the bourgeoisie constantly exploits the proletariat . Since the workers do not own any means of production like their own farm or business , they must seek employment from the bourgeoisie in to survive . They are hired by capitalists to work on making goods or providing services These fruits of production then become the property of the capitalist who sells them and gets a certain amount of money in exchange . Some of the money earned from the selling of the products or services is used to pay the workers ' wages , while the rest called surplus value is used to pay for other expenses of the capitalist and his profits . This gives the capitalist the ability to earn money out of work done by his employees with very minimal effort on his part (Martin , 1998 . Since obviously new wealth or profit was created through work done by the employees the capitalist gained wealth or an excess of wealth which he did not work for . If that happened , then that means that other people , that is the laborers did not receive the full wealth which they should be receiving as just compensation for the work they did . In other words , the workers were exploited by the capitalists

On the other hand , Scott and Leonhardt (2005 ) argued that society cannot actually have the distinct perception of classes that is proposed in Marxist doctrine . They base this on the fact that people regardless of race or social stature are experiencing luxuries that were not as equally distributed just a few decades ago . Marxist principle usually claimed that the normal , everyday worker is of an inferior class to the capitalist . This principle was based on external markers that connote poverty in one and wealth in the other . Scott and Leonhardt 's article makes an attack on the markers of such a principle , arguing that at present , it has become very difficult to know a person 's class from the color of his skin or the gods they worship , much less on the clothes they...