German philosopher Karl Marx is well known for his book, The Communist
Manifesto. Like Martineau, Marx believed that social scientists should try to
improve society. His personal goal was to free workers (the proletariat) from
oppression and poverty that he felt they suffered as the result of industrialization.
He proposed revolution as the only route to freedom. Marx predicted that this would
happen as follows: factory owners (the bourgeoisie) decrease the workers’ over-time
pay in order to make a higher profit; the workers, living in misery, realize that their
only hope is to unite and overthrow the owners; the workers revolt, finally, take over
the factories, establish a new government and a single class society, and abolish the
private ownership of property.