Private Property

         Karl Marx's belief on private property is, in my opinion, very rational and clever. However, it would be very difficult to implement this idea into a modern American society. He believes that if one person benefits from his or her private property, then other people do not benefit from it and therefore leads to competition for resources. Marx explains that property is actually the product of another's work or human alienation. What happens in this situation is that work itself becomes a commodity and labor loses its value. Then the worst of things happen: Workers then view their work as being taken advantage of and are exploited by the capitalist. By separating the value of the labor and the product itself, it forms internal anarchy. Alienated labor is crucial and essential in order to fully understand what Marx means when he denounces capitalism. It is apparent that the idea of alienated labor forms an inbalance of class – Marx’s biggest criticism of capitalism.
         Unfortunately, there is a division or gap between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat and this is all due to private property. The bourgeoisie, control the means of production and the proletariat is defined by the worker class, the laborers who are taken advantage of and are seen as a commodity. Back to my original statement about removing the idea of private property in America, I hate to say it but I would hate to lose my possessions. However, by attaching ourselves and supporting the idea of private property, we are indirectly supporting the notion of low-wage labor, child slavery and child labor, and malpractices for the same hardworking class. We are hypocrites in the sense that we would hate to get taken advantage of but we do so. It only affects us directly when we see these malpractices in person. I cannot fully say that I support the idea of communist society but I do concur that it would mitigate the gap between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie.