24 Replies to “Week 2 – Class Structure and Inequality”

  1. “Modern industry has established the world-market, for which the discovery of America paved the way”. This quote is basically saying that America is like a pioneer and has created a path for future industries and that America is the first place to create modern industries.

  2. Quote on Marx”s “Manifesto of Class strugle” “They wanted an italian ice after practiced he told me, and I did not have four dollars in my wallet, to buy it for them, I did not have any money at all.” 2008 was the biggest financial economic crisis since the Great Depression , however it affected most Americans between 2012 & 2013. Americans fallen to levels back in 1990’s. Poverty extended so quick as never before, and the middle class passed to poor class. Americans were forced into unwanted retirement to survived, families decided Not have children during those years as a solution to their families crisis. Big corporations & companies not longer offer the benefits to employees they used to offer before, benefits like retirement security, they were forced to a lower salary if they wanted to keep their jobs for a much lower salary, otherwise they were let go, College students were more in financial debt since then until now & since then, our country had been totally demoralized

    1. “Meantime the market kept ever growing, the demand ever rising. Even manufacture no longer sufficed. Thereupon, steam and machinery revolutionised industrial production. The place of manufacture was taken by the giant, mordant industry, the place of the industrial middle class, by industrial millionaires, the leaders of whole industrial armies, the modern bourgeois.” I believe this quote is stating that big company is replacing manufacturer with machine, also how owner are making million off the machine while middle class worker are out of the job.

  3. ” We see, therefore, how the modern bourgeoisie is itself the product of a long course of development, of a series of revolutions in the modes of production and of exchange”. I feel that what Marx’s is trying to convey is that every time something happens that leads to the evolution of how commerce is handled and how manufacturing has improved the ruling class grows with it thus having a new way to keep power for themselves and keep a stranglehold on the working class.

  4. “Our epoch, the epoch of the bourgeoisie, possesses, however, this distinct feature: it has simplified class antagonisms. Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other: bourgeoisie and proletariat.” (Marx, 39)
    In 1848, as well as now, society was turned against itself by classism. It has always been the middle and lower class (working class) against the upper class. It is our epoch as well. I chose this quote because even now tensions between the upper class and corporations and the working class are high. Maybe now more than ever the greed of big corporations is showing and the working class want to be paid fairly for the labor they do for these corporations. They have more than enough money to pay their workers a fair salary but instead executives give themselves a raise of which they never needed only to keep funding their lavish lifestyles while workers sometimes need to work more than one job to support themselves.

  5. From Bob Herbert: losing our way. “Middle-aged professionals were being forced into early, unwanted retirement. Low-wage, contingent work – without benefits and with no retirement security – was becoming increasingly the norm. Even young graduates with impressive credentials from world-class colleges and universities were finding it difficult to put together a decent standard of living.” What this is telling me is that during this time not only did lower class people get worse financially but so did the middle class. As many were losing their homes and couldn’t even keep their jobs or people with degrees couldn’t even find a job while rich people or higher class kept their jobs and their wealth. Shows us that the United States is not so different from any other country.

  6. In a word , oppressor or oppressed.
    I think this quote is important because this signifies all societies. All societies have as the, Manifesto of class struggles states is that for each freeman there is a slave and so forth. But moreover it means that for every super rich person there is a super poor person so to say.

  7. Karl Marx, “Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other: Bourgeoisie and Proletariat.”
    I think Marx means in out society the capitalist or the rich has control over the working class , businesses, factories etc….The proletariat gets unfair treatment and is always being exploited by the bourgeoisie which creates chaos and disputes.

  8. ” All are instruments of labour, more or less expensive to use, according to their age and sex.” To Marx there was a clear division based on your age and or sex. Your worth to a company/society depends on how much labour you can provide and at what cost?

  9. “Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other; bourgeoisie and proletariat.” These are the words that stood out to me most after reading Marx’s “Manifesto and Class Struggle.” It grasped my attention as I was reading because it almost seems as though it were written in 2020. It is something that still resonates with society today. Many feel that in today’s age, the middle-class is seamlessly fading away and that there will only be two major social classes; rich and poor. This belief entails hostility between both social classes.

  10. “All are instruments of Labor, more or less expensive to use, according to their age and sex.” According to Marx there was a clear division of labor and its based off of how old you are or your gender. Even though Marx was talking about the society he lived in, this also describes the society we live in nowadays. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like we have advanced in any positive way when it comes to separations within working class citizens.

  11. “All are instruments of labour, more or less expensive to use, according to their age and sex.” According to Marx there was a clear division of class and it was based off of how old you are and your gender. Although he was talking about the society he lived in this could also apply to the society we live in nowadays. Unfortunately, it seems like we have taken any real positive steps torward breaking down these barriers.

  12. “Modern industry has converted the little workshop of the patriarchal master into the great factory of the industrial capitalist.” In this quote, you can understand that Marx is trying to explain how modern industry can help little stores or companies in their journey of becoming a greater store or company.

  13. “The bourgeoisie, Historically, Has played a most revolutionary part.” (Page 40). Karl Max is trying to say that usually the middle class or the higher class always plays a part in changing the world. That they have the most influence out of all people.

  14. The quote that I chose from Marx’s The Manifesto of Class Struggle is ” All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses, his real conditions of life and his relations with his kind”. I chose this quote because it stood out to me. The reading touched on the bourgeois society vs the proletariat society which is the lower class vs the middle or upper class. The proletariat class are viewed as labourers, less than or slaves by the bourgeois class but everything isn’t always what it seems, the proletariat society are strong, hardworking, and also people who refuses to give up when they’re being faced by obstacles.

  15. “Masses of laborers, crowded into the factory, are organised like soldiers….Not only are they slaves of the bourgeois class,.. they are daily and hourly enslaved by the machine, by the over-looker, and, above all, by the individual bourgeois manufacturer himself.” This quote means that factory workers are treated like soldiers in that they all wear the same uniform and are expected to perform the same duties daily while being watched by superiors. They have no free will within this job and are at the whims of the machine they control, the boss that is always an arms length away, and the system that traps them within this seemingly endless daily routine.

  16. Quote on Marx “Meantime the market kept growing, the demand ever rising.” This quote explains that the market is growing and it is true because every year the market will grow which it will effect the demand and supply. A good quality supply results in a high demand and an increase in the market.

    1. “Meantime the market kept ever growing, the demand ever rising. Even manufacture no longer sufficed. Thereupon, steam and machinery revolutionised industrial production. The place of manufacture was taken by the giant, mordant industry, the place of the industrial middle class, by industrial millionaires, the leaders of whole industrial armies, the modern bourgeois.
      Modern day technology and labor is being over passed and over turned. In times things change and evolution defines

  17. “The modern bourgeois society that has sprouted from the ruins of feudal society has not done away with class antagonisms. It has but established new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old ones.” Everything in today’s society has come from the beginnings of the societies before us, which entails not only the good but also the bad. Although we might not experience the same struggles as those before us, any adaptions to new conditions will also bring about new struggles.

  18. “The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the whole surface of the globe. It must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connexions everywhere”. The fact that the market is always expanding, there is a need to make big connections and have a locations for its products everywhere so therefore there is move movement and money involved.

  19. Quote on Marx “In place of the old wants, satisfied by the production of the country, we find new wants, requiring for their satisfaction the products the distant lands and climes.” (Page 41, 3)
    This quote exemplifies that we are always inquiring new and better things.

  20. According to, it states” The bourgeoisie has torn away from the family its sentimental veil, and has reduced the family relation to a mere money relation” to show that money can have an effect on the concept of family.

  21. “Meantime the markets kept overgrowing, the demand ever rising. Even manufacture no longer sufficed.” This is saying how modern industry had established the world market.

  22. “Modern industry has established the world market, for which the discovery of America paved the way. This market given an immense development to commerce to navigation, to communication by land.” This quote expresses how modern industry brought an economical evolution to America and its land through navigation and communication.

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