Marx's objectives to individual rights - Research Paper Example

However, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels are convinced otherwise, affirming that bourgeois private property is the final and most complete expression of the system of producing and appropriating products, that is based on class antagonisms, on the exploitation of the many by the few. 1 For them capitalism, which is based on the right to own private property, is beneficial only to the select few capitalists - or the bourgeoisie - who reap their benefits from the exploitation of the wage earners, the proletariat.

For Marx and Engels, at least, private property rights protect the freedom of some but not only deny the freedom, but results in the exploitation, of many others. To understand this argument, it is necessary to have a first look at the basis of Marxs theory. Marx strongly believed that capitalist society consisted of two classes, the bourgeoisie, or the ruling class, and the proletariat, who are the exploited class: "To maintain its own existence private property must also maintain the existence of the property - less working class needed to run the factories.

The proletariat is compelled, however, to abolish itself on account of its miserable condition. This will require the abolition of private property - both disappear in a new synthesis that will resolve the contradiction." 2 The employers, or the bourgeoisie, build up their wealth through the exploitation of their workers. Under capitalism workers essentially own their own labor which in one respect makes them free. However, although the workers are in charge of their own labor power, in the sense that it is not owned by a master or land owner, they are not free as they are forced to sell it out in order to survive.

Instead of owning the product of their own labor, this instead goes to the capitalists who in turn retain a certain amount of the value of the product for themselves and their investment. Thus capital can be defined as accumulated labor.