Karl Marx and Max Weber: Weber's Protestant Ethic

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This paper discusses how Max Weber believed that capitalism was created because of the Protestant Reformation and the belief that the individual entrepreneur was capable of obtaining great wealth and social position. Capitalism was, to Weber, a conscious decision by the masses to change their lives as they began to place importance on what they could acquire. It further discusses how Karl Marx, on the other hand, believed that capitalism grew out of a separation of the social classes, or the poor versus the wealthy. The poor labored for the wealthy, according to Marx, out of the necessity for survival. However, the wealthy took advantage of this dependence by reducing jobs, reducing wages and raising the cost of goods produced by the laborer.

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