When Karl Marx wrote his Communist Manifesto, he theorized that “The history of all hitherto existing human society is the history of class struggles.” Marx believed that the two warring factions in the ongoing conflict were what he called the “bourgeoisie” and the “proletariat.” The bourgeoisie represented the rich people who own the land, factories, machines, and other implements by which goods are produced. The proletariat represented the workers who are employed by the bourgeoisie. According to Marx, these two groups will battle it out until a proletariat mob stages a revolution to force rich people to give up their wealth and abolish private property.
Of course, Marx’s thinking is immoral and downright crazy, but it is also far too much of an over-simplification of economic realities. The world is made up of more than just the rich and the poor. I would guess that the vast majority of Americans who listen to this broadcast would not fall into either of those categories. Because America embraces the principles of capitalism, we have a bustling middle class filled with workers, tradesmen, small business owners, and others. Few Americans would qualify as being truly impoverished.
Obviously, I would be the first one to back an idea that would raise the standard of living for the poorest Americans. However, abolishing private property will not make life better for anyone. By calling for the poor to overthrow the rich, Marx establishes this class of poor people as morally superior to the rich. Of course, Marx himself was an atheist, so the idea of him assigning morality to anyone is laughable. God’s Word establishes what is and is not moral.
All that aside, saying that all poor people are more moral than all rich people is categorically wrong. There are plenty of immoral rich people out there, but many rich people have exceptionally charitable hearts. Likewise, some poor people are moral and some are immoral. At the heart of the class struggle and identity politics is the idea that we should judge individuals based on their wealth, sex, or skin color rather than the content of their character. Conservatives should reject this poisoned ideology and all others that flow from the writings of Karl Marx.
