Marx on capital, by Ari Sclar

The essential condition for the existence, and for the sway of the bourgeois class [the middle class], is the formation and augmentation of capital; the condition for capital is wage-labor. Wage-labor rests exclusively on competition between the laborers. The advance of industry, whose involuntary promoter is the bourgeoisie, replaces the isolation of the laborers, due to competition, by their revolutionary combination, due to association. The development of modern industry, therefore, cuts from under its feet the very foundation on which the bourgeoisie produces and appropriates products. What the bourgeoisie therefore produces, above all, are its own grave diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable.”

- Karl Marx, 1848

1. What specific economic theory (be specific!) is Marx opposed to? Explain.

1. What proposal does Marx promote in opposition to the theory you discussed in question No. 1? Be specific.

1. What is the tone of Marx’s passage? In other words, what is his attitude toward what he is describing in the passage?

1. Is Marx’s goal in writing the passage apparent from the above excerpt? Explain in 1-2 sentences.