Marx's Theory of Exploitation (Key Concept)

The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels is 28-29 pages long, I know you all have limited time, so here is a handy 4 page excerpt that will highlight its primary message and give a sense of how revolutionary (still to this day) their ideas were

You can easily find copies of the entire Communist Manifesto online (search The Communist Manifesto PDF)

Here is a basic and to the point definition of Marxism from Investopedia

Marx's theory that the "owners" (large businesses disconnected from the realities of their workforce) ruthlessly exploit "workers" (viewing them as no more than a resource, such as iron ore or replaceable machines) and how this is a problem. Here is an entry from The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy on exploitation - this is heavy reading, but very important to consider.

Much more easier as an example is that the Walton Family, according to Market Watch, makes a 100 million dollars a day

yet, they do not find it acceptable to pay their workers a "living wage" and how that exploits the individual workers, but is, according to Forbes magazine, a serious cost (exploitation) of society-at-large

Notice that all of these sources are from capitalist/investment publications and mainstream educations sources (easily available and accessible). Reflect on capitalism and marxism as competing ideologies and how the hegemony of capitalism in America works to shut down any discussion/knowledge of marxism by a majority of its citizens.