Discussion Topic

Karl Marx's Perspective on Social Stratification and Greed

Summary:

Karl Marx viewed social stratification as a form of inequality rooted in economic disparities, primarily in capitalist societies. He identified two main classes: those who own production means and those who sell their labor. This division creates a hierarchical system where wealth and power are concentrated among the owners. Marx believed this stratification, driven by greed in capitalism, could be abolished under socialism, where the means of production are publicly owned, eliminating class distinctions.

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How did Karl Marx view social stratification?

Social stratification is a form of inequality that occurs due to the inherent differences between human beings and can be determined by race, gender, age, and economic capacity among other distinguishing features. The differentiation is done to mark one group as superior over another which leads to social classes arranged as hierarchies.

According to Marxist theory, social stratification is created by the differing economic capacities among people and their relationships to the means or the factors of production. In a society, two distinct classes can be created which feature those who own the factors or means of production and those who sell their labor in the production chain to those who own the means. This basically creates the employer-employee relation in most societies. Apart from these two distinct groups Marx also recognized two other groups that don’t belong to either but are somehow related to the two large groups:

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  • petite bourgeoisie - those who own some of the means of productions but their profit earning power is not enough to earn them a position among the bourgeoisie.
  • The underclass - includes those who have no social status such as beggars and the homeless.
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For Marx, social stratification comes down to the basic concept of economics.  To phrase it in the most banal of terms, Marx believes that stratification in capitalist society is predicated upon the idea of those who have wealth controlling or subjugating those who lack it.  Marx's conception of dialectical materialism suggests that historical development has passed through the same fundamental idea where those in the position of social, economic, and political power has been based on the idea that those who control the means of production possess overall control.  These individuals create a stratification system where they remain in power and all others seek to emulate their own patterns of power recognition.  Marx believes that this will change under a socialist system, where the means of production will be owned in a public setting and not a privatized one.  In making this public, stratification will presumably disappear.

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In what society did Karl Marx expect social stratification based on greed?

Marx expected to see social stratification based on greed in capitalist society. One of the principles of Marx and Engel's work was that economics determine how a society is structured. In other words, whatever personal traits yield wealth for the society as a whole are the traits that will be most valued and honored. Therefore, a society that derived most of its wealth from its ability to hunt and kill large animals would most value the traits of physical strength and bravery, because those traits would enable successful hunting. The people who exhibited those traits would be on the top of the social heap in that culture. In a society where, on the other hand, most of the wealth derived from agriculture, people who owned the land and managed it in a stable way would be most valued and at the top of the social strata.

In capitalist culture, wealth is said to derive from those who own the most capital (roughly speaking, money). If physical strength and bravery were the traits that would make a person the most successful hunter, greed is the trait that makes the most successful capitalist. Therefore, greed would catapult people to the top in capitalist society.

It is worth nothing that Marx thought the idea that capital created wealth was a lie, what he called a mystification, and he asserted that in reality, labor creates all wealth, a concept still being debated.

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