186 Political Theory: The Relationship of Man and the State- Abolition of private property.
- A heavy, progressive, graduated income tax.
- Abolition of the right of inheritance.
- Confiscation of the property of emigrants and rebels.
- Centralization of credit in a national bank monopoly.
- Centralization of communication and transportation in a
state monopoly. - State ownership of factories and means of production;
planned use and improvement of the land. - Equality of labor; establishment of industrial armies, espe
cially for agriculture. - Combining of agriculture and manufacturing industries;
abolition of distinctions between town and country by distri
bution of the population over the country. - Free education for all children in public schools; abolition of
child labor.
The world that Marx envisions will be a society without
government. There will be no need for the state and the govern
ment the state requires, since the state is simply a device to
enforce the will of the oppressors over the oppressed. Once the
owner-worker delineation is eliminated, the social distinctions
which follow naturally will also be eliminated. It is because of
the social distinctions that class is pitted against class. In a
classless society the main source of friction will be eliminated.
Certainly there will be individuals who will go against the group,
but there will be no state power needed to inhibit these misguided
people. The force of the whole body of the community will keep
them in line.
Also, Marx envisions a secular world in the future. Religion
will not be necessary, since the use of religion emanated from the
need of the oppressors to keep the oppressed content. The option
of a happy life in the hereafter was an explanation for the pain of
this life which the poor had to endure. Since man is a material
being, the material needs of this life are of primary importance.
The spiritualism of religion was “the opiate of the masses,” and
the drug runners were those who owned the means of production.
The final synthesis for Marx, then, is a classless society,
where there is no state, no religion, no enforcing arm of govern
ment. The members of this society will live in a giant economic