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The anarchists weren't the only ones who would have loved to

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see capitalism come tumbling down the other big shakers and movers in the

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underground were the Communists a fellow by the name of Karl Marx gets the credit [Karl Marx appears]

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for coming up with Marxism which is usually seen as the foundation of modern

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communism they'd also like to give him credit for a pretty phenomenal beard [Thumbs up appears for Marx's beard]

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well Marx was a Prussian writer and philosopher living in exile in Britain

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he thought that British anarchism in other labour movements had the right

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idea and he started to flesh out some ideas on his own his book Gus capital [Person scribbling on parchment]

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was a serious no-holds-barred criticism of capitalism this little ditty was

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fated to become one of the most influential books of political theory [Das Kapital book appears in light]

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ever the gist of Karl's argument was that in industrial capitalism the owners

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of the factories completely exploit their workers marx said that it was

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totally unfair for workers to twirl away for barely any money while the guys at [Woman working in factory]

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the top raked in all the cash well Karl thought it was crazy that owners were

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making tons of money selling things they didn't make just because they were

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owners marx asked why were owners necessary at all what if the workers

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owned the factories and the machines on which they work wouldn't a system like

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that help them to make the money they deserve to be paid well like anarchists [Woman worker crowned and dollar symbols fall]

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Marx thought that government employers should go the way of the dodo so what's

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the difference between anarchism and communism now it's actually pretty

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blurry under some lenses to simplify imagine anarchists being like let's go [Anarchism and communism become blurry]

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guys let's take down the government right now while the Marxist were like

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dude chill well unlike anarchist mark sauce at the blissful [Marx in space looking at Earth burning]

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exploitation free state of no government with just around the bend

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no matter what so he was more of an economist and historian than anything

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else so he'd spent a lot of time studying the transition in Europe from [Marx studying]

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feudalism to capitalism hmm he thought the transition from capitalism to

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communism would happen in kind of the same way

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communism was going to be the next stage in the world's economic development just

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because that was the natural flow of things once dividing the line between

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workers and owners came down all the other capitalist trappings would fall [Worker and owner either side of equal sign]

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like dominoes competition money the concept of ownership itself the

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government all of it would disappear faster than free pizza slices while we [People take slices of pizza]

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hate to burst uncle Carl's bobble there but never really worked out like that

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did it capitalism is still going strong today

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and most of the countries that gave communist in the world

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well they collapsed remember the USSR also there have never been any communist

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countries in which government totally disappeared pretty frequently there's [Magician taps capitalism]

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been a strong government bossing people around

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yes dictatorships all that kind of stuff anyway on the other hand socialism which

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is kind of like communism life is working out great in a whole lot of

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countries mainly Europe well socialist ideas have also taken [Socialist ideas below a pink tree]

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root in many capitalist countries like with Social Security in the u.s. some

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countries also have a system called democratic socialism which dials

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socialist ideas up in the capitalist MIT some people think this is a cat's

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pajamas while others think is the surest sign the end of times have come but

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we'll see what happens the communism versus capitalism debate has been raging [Capitalism communism animals fighting]

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in one form or another for years and the strong I can't stop anytime soon will

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arcs one day be proven right will we one day all exist in a happy land where [Marx statue appears in sunshine and rainbows]

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everybody shares everything just because it's the nice thing to do who knows well

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whoever's been stealing people's lunches from the shmoop fridge seems to think [Man eating food from fridge]

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that times already come

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