will disappear. Along with all these elements of oppression and abuse of the proletariat, Marx states three main factors that ensure the uprising of the proletariat and uprooting of the bourgeois. First, with the urbanization and centralization of workers that industry sparked, workers have been concentrated in greater masses in certain places where they have the ability to form unions to fight for their rights. Second, the improvements in communication brought by industry allow a worker to contact workers in other regions. Third, through political and general education, the bourgeois have provided the proletariat with the knowledge and leadership needed to revolt. Again, "what the bourgeois produces above all are its own gravediggers."After reading Marxs adamant and insistent arguments in The Communist Manifesto, one must raise the question: why has capitalism survived thus far? Recent history, such as the collapse of the economy of the former U.S.S.R., has proven the impracticality and flaws of the communist system. Today, the most productive and wealthy countries are those with a capitalist system. The United States, for example, has thus far overcome the "contradictions" in the capitalist system fairly effectively. A major shortcoming of Marx was his misinterpretation of the influence of non-economic factors. His view is that the economic factor is basic. Once non-economic factors, such as constitutions, philosophical theories, religions, etc., have developed from the economic situation, they operate as individual forces. But all developments whether political or philosophical are based on economic developments. This clearly does not hold in the modern day. As demonstrated by nations such as the USA, non-economic factors may actually preserve or control the economy. Marx never seems to consider a regulated capitalist society where monopolies are banned, trade unions are common, and a minimum wage ensures workers a min...
