Marx's Class Theory Essay

Marx's class theory determines what class you belong to depending on your means of production, meaning who owned the assets necessary to produce what people needed in order to survive. The people who owned the most land and factories were considered to be higher up in the social class hierarchy, also known as the first class the bourgeoisie. They would then control all of the elements in society as well as having control over the working class. Then there is the second class known as the proletariat, these were the people of the lower class who worked in the factories or land owned by the bourgeoisie for hourly wages. This shows that using Marx theory is a quick and simple way to determine someone’s rank in society. However it is not nuanced, …show more content…
Kamprad’s grandfather was a wealthy landowner and the family on his mother’s side owned the largest grocery store in Älmhult where he grew up. Ever since Kamprad was a child he had a big interest in affairs and the business life. In 1943 when Kamprad was 17 years of age he received a large amount of money from his father that was meant for him to complete his studies with. However Kamprad used this money to found IKEA. At this time Kamprad was too young to have had money of his own that he could spend on whatever he pleased but since his family owned quite a lot of land and were successful in their business life he benefitted from this as he got money to start his own business. If one were to focus on Kamprad himself and not his family then according to Marx theory one can place him in the proletariat category. This is because he owns no land or factories and he does not have any income to boost himself up the social ladder. However here is where the weakness of Marx theory comes in, the theory is very restricted and is therefore harder to adapt to Kamprad because he is young and evidently does not own any land which is not uncommon amongst younger