t all up in a famous quote, stating that religion is "an opium for the people." Marx's hypothesis of historical materialism contains this maxim; that "It is not the consciousness of men which determines their existence; it is on the contrary their social existence which determines their consciousness." Marx has applied his theory of historical materialism to capitalist society in both The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital, among others. Marx never really explained his entire theory through but taking the text literally, "social reality" is arranged in this way: That underlying our society is economic structure; and that above the foundation of economy rises "legal and political...forms of social consciousness" that relate back to the economic foundation of society.An interesting mark of Marx's analysis of economy is evidenced in Das Kapital, where he "studies the economy as a whole and not in one or another of its" parts and sections. His analysis is based on the precept of man being a productive entity and that "all economic value comes from human labor." Marx speaks of capitalism as an unstable environment. He says that its development is accompanied by "increasing contradictions" and that the equilibrium of the system is precarious as it is to the internal pressures resulting from its development. Capitalism is too easy to tend to a downward spiral resulting in economic and social ruin. An example of the downward spiral in a capitalist society is inflation. Inflation involves too much currency in circulation. Because of inflation and the increase in prices of goods resulting from it, the people of the society hoard their money which, because that money is out of circulation, causes more money to be printed. The one increases the effect of the other and thus, the downward spiral....
