Karl Marx once said: “Capital is dead labor which, like a vampire, lives only by sucking in living labor, and lives all the more the more labor is zero” (Quotes from Karl Marx). Marx is well known as the father of communism, but now that the Cold War is over and communism is just a theory of government for a few countries, we can study Karl Marx as a visionary of his time, who predicted how capitalism would develop. of control. Using religion, government laws, and capitalism, the rich will always seek to control the masses. Karl Marx defined history through economic class struggle. He argued that society was divided between the bourgeoisie (middle class, business owners and capitalists) and the proletariat (wage earners). His belief was that the bourgeoisie was becoming richer and richer by exploiting the proletariat. He also believed that wage earners were always paid less than the true value of their work, defining the difference between the value of the wage and the value of the goods produced. Over time, frustration with exploitation would result in class wars between the proletariat who believed that surplus value belonged to them and the bourgeoisie who were not prepared to give up their profits. Ultimately, the revolution was the inevitable result of the capitalists' endless exploitation of workers. Karl Marks was talking about his time, but we're starting to see some of these ideas emerge in our time. One example is “Occupy Wall Street,” a protest against social and economic inequality. This protest highlights the high unemployment rate, greed, corruption and undue influence of companies that primarily deal in financial services, as well as their ties to the government. middle of paper ...... at the time, and his works were used in the construction of communist countries, his vision of the need for a balance between socialism and capitalism with the removal of religion from government was brilliant. The capitalist government we practice in the world today has led us to a massive disparity in wealth and power and, like Karl Marx, I advocate for a more equitable distribution of wealth and poverty. Works Cited Ambani, P. (2012, 01 02). The US Congress is worth more than $2 billion: wealthy lawmakers are mostly from the richest 1%. Extracted 01/05/2012 from Ecoprneurist: http://ecopreneurist.comKarl Marx Quotes. (nd). Retrieved January 05, 2012 from http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/subject/quotes/index.htmPatterson, TC (2009). Karl Marx, anthropologist. Oxford: Berg Publishers. Seed, J. (2010). Marx: Guides for the perplexed. London: Continuum International Publishing.