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The American Dream, By Karl Marx

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We often hear about the “American Dream” in which freedom includes the opportunities of success and prosperity if one just works hard for it. People come from all over the world thinking that they will be able to achieve their dreams in the United States because they trust their work ethics and think that they will be able to rise in social standing and succeed. However, Karl Marx thought otherwise. Marx believed that although people can work hard in this society, only a handful of people might be able to get to the top and succeed. His reasoning is due to capitalism, where capitalists are able to use money to obtain more money in a free market economy. However, there are unequal opportunities. The “working class” has to sell their labor power …show more content…

For example, he said, “The result is that the more he works the less wages he receives, and for the simple reason that he competes to that extent with his fellow workers, hence makes them into so many competitors who offer themselves on just the same bad terms as he does himself, and that, therefore, in the last resort he competes with himself, with himself as a member of the working class” (P. 215). The ones who are working under the rich, large company owner are the ones who are constantly competing to keep their jobs. Only the large company owner will be able to succeed while everyone else is struggling for his or her jobs. Marx also stated, “The more productive capital grows, the more the division of labor and the application of machinery expands. The more the division of labor and the application of machinery expands, the more competition among the workers expands and the more their wages contract” (P.216). This reveals that not only they are competing for their jobs but they are also putting their wages on the line. With more competition and more workers or machinery, their wages are decreasing. He also talked about how women and children are able to work for less and thus, companies may hire women and children over men. Machinery could take over the jobs of the people and in the future, everything may be running on machinery while the working class will no longer exist. The gap between the prosperous and the poor will widen and inequality will definitely increase. The working class would also notice this inequality that is happening to

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