Which thinker argued for communism as a critique of capitalism?

Which thinker argued for communism as a critique of capitalism?

• A. Adam Smith
• B. Karl Marx
• C. John Stuart Mill
• D. David Ricardo

Answer: (B)

Karl Marx is the thinker who argued that capitalism rests on exploitation of workers and class conflict, and that communism offers a transformative alternative. He contended that workers sell their labor for wages while the owners of capital extract surplus value, leading to alienation and recurring crises within a capitalist system. Marx’s solution was a classless society with collective ownership of the means of production and a planned economy, where wealth and power are not concentrated in a few but distributed more equitably. This critique and proposed remedy emerged during the Industrial Revolution, as capitalism rapidly transformed economies and social relations. His ideas are laid out in works like The Communist Manifesto (coauthored with Engels) and Das Kapital, which analyze how capital accumulation drives social change. By contrast, Adam Smith is associated with the foundations of capitalism and free markets, John Stuart Mill with liberal reforms within a capitalist framework, and David Ricardo with theories of value and trade—topics that do not advocate communism as a critique.

Karl Marx is the thinker who argued that capitalism rests on exploitation of workers and class conflict, and that communism offers a transformative alternative. He contended that workers sell their labor for wages while the owners of capital extract surplus value, leading to alienation and recurring crises within a capitalist system. Marx’s solution was a classless society with collective ownership of the means of production and a planned economy, where wealth and power are not concentrated in a few but distributed more equitably. This critique and proposed remedy emerged during the Industrial Revolution, as capitalism rapidly transformed economies and social relations. His ideas are laid out in works like The Communist Manifesto (coauthored with Engels) and Das Kapital, which analyze how capital accumulation drives social change. By contrast, Adam Smith is associated with the foundations of capitalism and free markets, John Stuart Mill with liberal reforms within a capitalist framework, and David Ricardo with theories of value and trade—topics that do not advocate communism as a critique.