The ideas of Karl Marx Karl Marx was one of the most important thinkers of Western civilization. For good or for ill, few individuals have had as profound an effect on the course of history as Karl Marx. Marx was a highly original thinker: like many original thinkers, he expressed many intelligent ideas and a considerable amount of nonsense. It is impossible, in one assignment, to do justice to anything as complex (and contradictory) as …showed first 75 words of 621 total…

…showed last 75 words of 621 total…fall apart because of its "internal contradictions." Marx argued that private business would become less and less profitable as time went on, and that fewer and fewer people would be able to own businesses. In a capitalist society, Marx argued, a few people would grow more and more wealthy while the masses grow poorer and poorer. Eventually, the masses would take it no longer, but would rebel, overthrow the capitalists, and establish a classless society.