One basic tenet of Karl Marx's,
defined in his famous "Manifesto of the Communist Party", is the distinguishing characteristics of two opposing social classes, the
bourgeoisie and the
proletariat. This paper explains how these classes can easily be defined; the
working class, or proletariat, and those that gain
wealth from it, the bourgeoisie. While the bourgeoisie class continues to gain wealth and power, the proletariat falls in a downward spiral of social and economic crisis. This paper examines how each class differs according to Marx's definitions.