The Effects of Inequality Described in Communist Manifesto

“The extreme inequality of our ways of life, the excess of idleness among some and the excess of toil among others, the ease of stimulating and gratifying our appetites and our senses, the over-elaborate foods of the rich, which inflame and overwhelm them with indigestion, the bad food of the poor, which they often go withotu altogether, so that they over-eat greedily when they have the opportunity; those late nights, excesses of all kinds, immoderate transports of every passion, fatigue, exhaustion of mind, the innumerable sorrows and anxieties that people in all classes suffer, and by which the human soul is constantly tormented: these are the fatal proofs that most of our ills are of our own making, and that we might have avoided nearly all of them if only we had adhered to the simple, unchanging and solitary way of life that nature ordained for us” (Rousseau , 84). Through this quote, the readers are able to deduce that Rousseau in short argues that inequalities found amongst men are created by thyself and a major shift from the natural state man is initially brought into. In contrast to this, the development of inequality in the society as mentioned by Marx and Engels, is caused by the natural exploitation of the proletariat by the superior bourgeoise. In exchange for their work, the proletariat have to exchange this labor for an undervalued price in order for the bourgeoise to make optimum profit and withhold power over all resources. These developments as explained by the two parties ultimately give way to some unfortunate effects on society.

When addressing the effects that inequality plays in the Marx and Engles’ piece, there are a few things which should be discussed. In The Communist Manifesto, the power that the bourgeois class holds over the proletariat results in, “Masses of laborers, crowded into the factory, are organized like soldiers. As privates of the individual army they are placed under the command of a perfect hierarchy of officers and sergeants. Not only are they slaves of the bourgeois class, and of the bourgeois State; they are daily and hourly enslaved by the machine, by the overlooker, and, above all, by the individual bourgeois manufacturer himself. ” (Marx Engels, 17). This thus, creates many issues for the common proletariat. They, as mentioned in the text, have to sell off their labor for a lower price than it is worth in thus exposing unfair exploitation. This therefore leads into the issue that those people who have to force their labor at an abysmal price have a direct hand in various forms of societal alienation. As for inequality and how it pertains to the common man in the works of Rousseau, man in society has to deal with what he refers to as, amour propre. This concept is the reason for why men in society, he argues, feel the need to seek approval from others and concurrently compare himself to his neighbor. Being that one’s money is the factor upon which men are compared, the rich naturally have more power, just like in Marx and Engel’s works.

As far as solutions to these inequalities go, a few things must be understood before attempting to answer this question. As far as inequality goes inequality in The Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels explicitly say that the proletariat class is in hindsight, the very thing which maintains the wealth of the bourgeois. However, on a more realistic note, while the creators of this piece acknowledge the benefits of the working class and the money they can bring to those above them, they too acknowledge that the prospect of this scenario standing the test of time is not likely. Instead, they argue that the proletariat will seek to abolish this situation via a revolution against the bourgeoisie. Upon the revolution, there will be no bourgeois or proletariat but rather, a common society that rules over the means of production, a luxury largely open to the bourgeois. As mentioned by Al Campbelll in his Marx and Engels’ Vision of a Better Society, in hindsight they argue for a, “.....collective society, democratic decision making, common ownership of the means of production, the end of money and markets and their replacement with democratic planning, individual labor carried out consciously…” On the other hand, the solution to inequality in Rousseau’s society is rather simple. The solution he proposes, would be what he refers to as the, “Social Contract”. By this Contract, Rousseau means that there is a general agreement put in place which should be followed by the common man but on the same concurrently, their government. He, as mentioned in his Letters from the Mountain of 1764, said mentioned by Michael Sonenscher in his Rousseau and The Foundations of Modern Political Thought, Rousseau said in his letters from the Mountain of 1764, “The people of antiquity are not proper models for modern policy.” (2017, 328) Via this we can further expand on his point and say with confidence that Rousseau subscribed to the view that a society needed to have a democracy in place where people have the right to representation, fair elections, and freedom.