Karl Heinrich Marx was born to a middle-class family on May 5th, 1818. A long line of Marx's family members were Rabbis, but Marx's dad converted to Lutheranism to avoid anti-Semitism before Marx was born. Marx was born in Prussia, which is now Germany and his parents were Jewish (Wolff). Marx was home-schooled by his dad until high school, then he went to Bonn University because his dad wanted him to become a lawyer. However, Marx was more interested in philosophy and literature (Biography.com). Karl Marx was a journalist, economist, and revolutionary socialist whose ideas still influence us today.
After the first year at the university, Marx got married to Jenny von Westphalon. She was a low class citizen. In 1836 Marx enrolled in the
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The difference between capitalism and socialism is socialism believes social inequality is bad for people. They believe the opposite of capitalism in that the government should have programs to help the poor by taxing wealthy people more. This means, hard - working people would have money taken from them to help people who are lazy, and do not work and want to survive by having by having the government support them. Socialists approve of free public schooling and healthcare. On the other hand, capitalists believe the government does not use money as wisely as private businesses do. Therefore, society is better off with the free market in choosing economic winners and losers (Capitalism Socialism or Communism …show more content…
It says the value of a commodity ( something that is bought or sold ) can be measured by the ''average number of labor hours needed to produce that commodity'' ( investopedia.com ). For example, if a car takes twice as long to create than a computer, the car is twice as valuable than the computer. It does not depend on how much effort was taken to make the product, just the amount of time. This theory is demonstrated to be proven false, but it was popular among economists through the nineteenth century. The Labor Theory of Value was not only studied by Marx. Marx tried to turn this theory against the capitalist theorists. Most of the capitalists did not agree with this theory. Marx said his theory could explain the value of all goods, including the economic good that workers sell to capitalists for a wage. Marx called this commodity ''labor power''. Labor power is the worker's ability to produce services and goods. Marx said the value of Labor power depends on the number of hours it takes society to feed, clothe and shelter a worker so he, or she is able to work. He asked the question: if all services and goods in a capitalist society are sold at wages and prices that show their true value, how can capitalists enjoy earnings? How do capitalists squeeze out left overs between total earnings and total costs? He said capitalists must have a powerful place because they are owners of the means of production and then