Prof. Franks
AAS 33A, Sec 06
October 12, 2015
Asian Americans in the U.S. Historical and Political Process: Essay Assignment
The German philosophers, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, devised a socioeconomic ideology known as Marxism. This revolutionary ideology, not only depicted the means for a self-emancipation for the working class but eluded to how the capitalistic system would come to an end. Marx emphasized that the emergence of the theory of capitalism, exemplified “...both a friend and a foe of human progress...” stating the primary source of inequality and degradation of human progress is the notion of class. Class is defined by the scholar Mario Barrera as a group similar in socioeconomic status and relation to the process …show more content…
The ratio of capitalistic success is directly proportion to the severity socioeconomic divide between the two classes. The reason the theory of Marxism seems to so aptly explain the disparity of class in the early America, is that it is around the 1700s -1800s where industrial economy begins to take shape and capitalism is institutionalized (Jones, 430). The base scaffolding upon which an early industrializing American economy is to start building, is off of that of the cheap labor and in most instances slave labor of the proletariat. This is because in an industrializing economy requires the mass production of goods. Those who controlled the means to produce those goods, known as capitalists, compete in an economy to produce the most of those goods the cheapest in order to maximize profit. In this industrial economic completion those capitalist with the cheapest labor become the wealthiest. Throughout early American history the cheapest form of labor has lain in the exploitation, enslavement and oppression of Native American populace, enslaved and free African Americans and poor and lower class …show more content…
A portion of the working class was also made up of poor white workers. These lower class white workers often suffered the under the same inhospitable working conditions as the rest of the early American proletariat. Having poor whites locked into the working class gave the wealthy whites capitalist even more control of the proletariat. As racial conflict divided the working class even further the probability of the American proletariat uniting and overthrowing the bourgeoisie, as Marx predicted, grew