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Karl Marx was a German philosopher, economist, journalist, and sociologist. He is regarded historically as the father of Marxism. He was the most influential socialist thinker and an advocate for human rights. He envisioned an equal materialistic society in which everyone contributes their time, resources, and labor to a common pool and alternatively receives enough rewards to satisfy their needs. His theory condemns the exploitation of social classes and articulates the disadvantages of capitalism that prevent individuals from being free. He suggests a solution of socialism in that property should not only benefit the wealthy but the public at large.

Despite these ideologies, some people depict Marx’s philosophy to be absurd as the flaws outweigh the benefits and have no place in today’s world. Here are the pros and cons of Marxism that depicts to us a legitimate picture of the theory.

Pros of Marxism

1. It creates equality: Many injustices and inequalities happen because of the divide in social classes within a society. Marxism creates a system of true equality, whereby everyone shares abundantly in society’s wealth. In his vision of a classless world, there are equal gender roles, ethnicity, racism, and discrimination. The theory holds a compelling image for the exploited groups in society as it calls for low-interest rates to almost zero to spur economic development, equitable health care access, and education.

2. Helps with capitalism: Even though capitalism is significant as it encourages competition and innovativeness, it creates a monopoly. A monopoly happens when a company dominates the market and controls prices. Marxism believed that to eliminate monopoly; companies should be state-owned. His philosophy has made it possible to reevaluate capitalism hence a beneficial impact on today’s world.

It points out the social difference between those who own productive products and those who sell their labor. Marx points out the unfairness of ordinary workers’ exploitation by holders of means of production. His discovery led to the inception and formation of trade unions and protective labor laws that are still influential today.

Through Marx’s ideologies, people have become more educated on the existing and increasing gap between the wealthy and the poor, globalization, and liberalization of markets.

3. Reduces debt: The Marxist philosophy points towards a reduction in debt tendency as communities will be harmoniously working together to build their society. People would provide for each other while the government helps by distributing the required resources.

4. Benefits society: Under the Marxist, the society is grouped as a whole as all social classes are involved as differing power interest groups are equal. Profit maximization and resource utilization are equitable hence benefiting the whole society when it comes to growth.

5. Offers protection to the unions: Marxism encourages unions to stand up for personal rights and prevent the exploitation of workers by management to achieve maximum production levels.

Cons of Marxism

1. It abolishes religion: One of the downsides of Marxism is its attempt to discredit religion. His principle of equality faces a challenge of religion as some people will automatically be placed in superior or inferior positions over others within the religion. People are allowed the freedom to choose their faith though it does not support organized religion like Christianity, Hinduism, or Judaism as it will be used to control people. Therefore, the theory does not allow freedom of worship.

2. It negatively affects the education system

• According to Marxism, the education system should be state-controlled, meaning that the government is in full control of the school curriculum and teaching modules. It is negative as the state can manipulate the curriculum and teach students substandard information regarding their county. Such teachings will not take into consideration democratic principles hence interfering with students’ free intellectual development. Brainwashing would also create a surplus of misplaced nationalism and uninformed students.
• The role of a teacher in the Marxist is insignificant as he enjoys no academic freedom.
• Without constant critics from other agencies, the state may decide to concentrate more on economics studies that are advocated for by Marxism to sharpen productive skills. This would lead to the creative faculties of the child in music, arts, and drama being neglected.

3. It eliminates the private ownership concept: Under the constitution, there is an emphasis on human rights, one of them being the right to own property. Marxism’s socialist vision limits ownership of private property. Everyone contributes to the greater good by living in a given place within the community. There is a lack of control over choosing where to live; hence there is no privacy.

4. It does not encourage entrepreneurship opportunities: Business under Marxism is basically for the government as everything runs through it. There is no self-employment. Income sharing reduces individual incentives to work and be creative. Innovativeness will be hard due to a lack of motivation and individualism hence leading to skills and economic stagnation within a society.

5. It can lead to communism: Communism is an economic system where the society owns the factors of production while the government controls them. It eliminates the occurrence of a free market as the government sets prices, hence discarding free market will. It is a possible occurrence in Marxism as it does not promote individualism.

It can develop into state tyranny. A state can easily repress individual freedom and misallocate resources as people would be stuck in the normalcy of their life and not advocate for change.

6. It is economically deterministic: Marx argued that economic laws determined the shape of society and history itself. It is not the case as other factors shape history too. For example, under capitalism, countries like America and Britain have been able to push for neo-liberalism.

7. It does not work in the Real world: The major weakness of Marxism is its failure to recognize human nature hence making it hard to be implemented in the real world. It portrays a perfect society and does not take into account the essential weaknesses of human beings like selfishness and greediness. The oppression of personal wealth and comfort for the good of the masses is inefficient and unproductive hence cannot survive in today’s world.