The Debate On Capitalism And Communism Under Karl Marx's Philosophy

No one would be opposed to a world without poverty, but this is a tough concept to imagine. What most people fail to realize is that a world without poverty is not as far out of reach as most might think. Communism is an economic ideology in which there is a classless society. A classless society is a society in which no one is economically divided. Today the word communism has a negative connotation. This is because most communist leaders are power hungry and not actual Karm Marx fallowers. Karl Marx, regarded as the father of communism, had a very different vision of how the economic ideology should work. Communism is the most superior financial system because there is no poverty. It has not been correctly attempted and when performed successfully a nation strives for a common good, communism is also superior because of the many capitalistic flaws it corrects.

To begin with, in a strictly communist society there is no poverty. To explain how this is possible we must closely examine the philosophies of Karl Marx. Karl Marx was born on May 5, 1818, this is a time in which capitalism was just launching in the western world. Marx examined the problems associated with capitalism, he noticed that many people in capitalistic governments were struggling in poverty while the elite and wealthy of the society were bathing in money. Karl named these two separate classes the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, the proletariat were the employees of the capitalist bourgeoisie. Marx advocates creating a classless society with no poverty the proletariat must overthrow the bourgeoisie. When the proletariat would overthrow the bourgeoisie, a communist society could then redistribute the wealth of the nation. 

One of Karl Marx's most famous quotes says 'The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.' This is a very powerful quote because it means that if the proletarian attempts an overthrow, they have nothing to lose but if they are successful, they will lose their chains of economic depression and be able to start their economic structure. An example of this comes from Russia under Vladimir Lenin. Lenin was very inspired by Karl Marx and was one of the first world leaders to apply his methods. Vladimir Lenin inspired the proletariat of Tsarist Russia to overthrow the Tsar of Russia and establish a more socialistic economy. If we take a look back on Russia under Lenin's rule, we see that he creates many land reforms and redistributes wealth by nationalizing all businesses so that private ownership or capitalism is abolished. This worked for the economy until his death in 1924 brought Stalin to power. Although Stalin was a communist believer, he was more power-hungry than Lenin and would kill anyone opposed to his rule, thus giving communism a bad reputation for the next century.

To continue, there have been many communist nations that could have succeeded had the leader of that nation not been power-hungry. A prime example of this is Castro's Cuba. Fidel Alejandro Castro grew up in eastern Cuba. East Cubas's economy was primarily made up of agriculture and was very poor as opposed to the economically booming west Cuba. West Cuba was known as a getaway or luxury sight primarily sought after by American investors. Fidel Castro became ill by the idea of poverty and looked to unite all Cubans under one socialistic society. Castro seized power from the dictator Fulgencio Batista by gaining the support of poor Cuba much like how Lenin seized control of Russia. While Castro was overthrowing the government of Batista, he promised to hold free and fair elections when Batista was out of power, but he fell short on this promise. Although this promise was not fulfilled Castro did many things to help the proletariat. Castro started by implementing agrarian reform meaning that he would seize land primarily owned by private US investors and claim it as Cubas. This significantly impacts the lower class of Cuba because now they could work for greater wages and be free of the capitalistic American agenda. Castro also built many schools and fixed the infrastructure of Cuba. After the people started turning away from Castro, he became far more dictatorial than communistic. Castro starting slaughtering political enemies and spiraling away from true Marxist teachings. Castro upsets the united states by aligning himself with communist Russia. After upsetting the united states, he economically restricts his nation. The united states put an embargo on Cuba forcing Castro to more strongly align himself with the soviets. Castro was invited to the Soviet Union by the leader Khrushchev in discussing bettering their relations. After this Castro went on a tangent shifting even further from Marxist ideology by using any means necessary to stay in power throughout the 20th century. This is an example of how a power-hungry dictator like Fidel Castro can tarnish the name of true Marxist communism.

Lastly, there are just far more general advantages of communism and downsides to capitalism. Marx argued that in a capitalistic environment one becomes alienated with their work and has a lesser feeling of worth. When someone works for a business for a paycheck, they don't feel connected to any kind of product they are making, but in a communistic environment, one knows that everyone ounce of work they put in they directly impact their community giving a better sense of self-worth. Marx also understood that communism wasn't just a social/economic system it gives people more hope and meaning in life when one is in a capitalistic environment they can be easily replaced and will be if it saves the business owner money. The most obvious problem that Marx had with capitalism is that the workers get paid nothing while the company owner gets rich off their work, Marx called this ideology 'primitive accumulation'. He compares this idea to theft in his communist manifesto. He explains that a company owner is just exploiting the worker for profit, the profit that should belong to the worker goes to the owners' pocket instead. Carl Marx also predicted the instability of the capitalist market, he said that the capitalist economic system was based on boom and bust. This prediction became reality in the 1920s as America hit its first major depression, this is a time in which unemployment and poverty levels were at an all-time low, yet big business owners still lived a luxurious life while the majority of the nation suffered. This a downfall that would not have been present in a communist nation. If the nation was communist there would be no great recession or depression, the level of wealth would be correctly distributed so that no one would have to be hungry or starve when production slowed. This would be possible because there is no wealthy elite that hold all the money. Another prediction of Marx was that in a capitalistic environment a few shareholders would dominate the economy with monopolies. 

A great current example of this is Amazon. Amazon is the number one company globally and its CEO, Jeff Bezos is currently the richest man in the world. Amazon drives competitors out of business by producing something at a much cheaper rate forcing competitors to lower prices until they can't meet profit quotas bankrupting them. Other examples of this occur during the 1910's with people like john d Rockefeller controlling giant sectors of the economy. What is most upsetting about these situations is they use the back of the average worker to make their profits but share none with the society. The lost major benefit of communism is that people will have much more free time because there is a better distribution of labor. Karl Marx said, 'For as soon as the distribution of labor comes into being, each man has a particular, exclusive sphere of activity, which is forced upon him and from which he cannot escape. He is a hunter, a fisherman, a herdsman, or a critical critic, and must remain so if he does not want to lose his means of livelihood; while in communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticize after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic.' This means that a man can do anything he wants in a communist society because he will have free time to do it. In a communist society, man would have a lot more time to develop themselves as opposed to a capitalistic.

In conclusion, communism is a very underrated economic system. When being side by side compared to capitalism there are far more benefits than blunders. One of the greatest thinkers of the 19th century predicted many of the capitalistic downfalls and solutions to them, but in the 20th centuries the corrupt political dictators tore apart his philosophies to seize power. If the world were to make a communistic shift there would be a massive decrease in poverty and benefit the poverty trapped majority of humanity.