Marx

What is the economic condition of the bourgeoisie? What is the economic condition of the proletariat?

The bourgeoisie is a group of people that fall under the category of the “middle class.” According to Karl Marx, they oppress all the other social classes found within the same hierarchy. They are modern capitalists. Capitalists, referring to wealthy people involved in business enterprises. They monopolize the wealth system and this monopoly is exactly what oppresses the other classes. The bourgeoisies are the owners of property which is a personal wealth that the proletariats cannot possess.
Proletariats are the group of people that would fall into the category of the “working class.” According to Karl Marx, they are considered the class of modern wage laborers who do not have a means of production of their own so they are reduced to selling their labor-power in order to live (Marx 357). Proletariats are the hard working people that use their skill of laboring to maintain a life and support their loved ones. They struggle from day to day trying to find work. It became harder for them with the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution came about, bringing machines in to replace the work of people. Only few people are needed to actually run the machines. Those that once did the same work as the machines are replaced by a more “efficient” means of production.
Proletariats are worse off than the bourgeoisie economically. But according to Karl Marx in “The Communist Manifesto”, the proletariats are better off in the long run. Their skills will be utilized longer and they are more efficient. Communism will level the playing field for them when it removes the owning of property from the bourgeoisies rights. The action of the revolution of communism was explained as, “The immediate aim of the Communists is the same as that of all the other proletarian parties: formation of the proletariat into a class, overthrow of the bourgeois of supremacy, conquest of political power by the proletariat” (Marx 368). In retrospect, communism should actually help fuel the proletarians along and also help them conquer the bourgeoisie.
The two classes were in constant struggle but the proletariats would shine through with communism.

Marx, Karl. "The Communist Manifesto." A World of Ideas: Essential Readings for College Writers. Ed. Lee A. Jacobus. Trans. Samuel Moore. 7th ed. New York: Bedford/St. Martins, 2006. pp353-379.