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Urgency of the research. Urgent problem of social inequality needs consideration and solutions searching. It is important to analyze the ideologies that seek to overcome inequality in order to preserve the common values in their moral attitudes, as well as to focus on the common public good. Reinhold Niebuhr's method is to analyze the ethics of the poor through considering the ideology of Marxism as the ideology of the poor and the working class.

Target setting. Technological progress does not solve social problems, and in sometimes even increases them. It happens due to the imperfection of the world capitalist model, which results in the unequal distribution of privileges. Thus, the privileged class receives all the gains of progress and improves its quality of life, but the poor have no access both to technologies and privileges. It results in increasing of social tensions and helps for class conflicts to emerge.

Actual scientific researches and issues analysis. Ethics of the poor and poverty was studied and analyzed by theologists, philosophers, social scientists and economists. Among them there are Gustavo Gutierrez, Ivan Petrella, Daron Acemoglu, Abhijit Banerjee, Yuval Noah Harari, Heinz Dietrich, William James, Douglas Macintosh and others.

The research objective. The purpose of the article is to analyze Marxism as an ethic of the poor in terms of Christian realism of Reinhold Niebuhr.

The statement of basic materials. The article observes the historical background of relations between the poor and the rich. The influence of the capitalist social order on increasing inequality between rich and poor is described. It is noted that the proletarians think about social relations from the position of class conflict. It is described that the idealistic path to equality is the Marxist idea of worldwide revolution and the annihilation of class structure. It is emphasized that the destructive nature of Marxist idealism aims to the destruction of society. It is demonstrated that the ideas of the proletarians are based on envy and desire for revenge, not on moral values.

Conclusions. Reinhold Niebuhr was found to regard Marxism as the ideology of the poor, and the socialists and communists as political representatives of the poor class. It is established that the ethical position of the proletarians is social idealism and moral cynicism. It has been determined that moral cynicism is manifested in the rejection of ethical achievements of society, including national ideas. It is found that the hopes of building a perfect society after the worldwide revolution have religious nature. It is found that despite the accurate description of the problems of society, the ideas of Marxists cannot be put into practice because of sentimental speculation on the dreams of the underprivileged and because of their destructive position to the entire world system.

Keywords: economic inequality, privilege inequality, ethics of the poor, Marxism, socialism, Christian realism, Reinhold Niebuhr.

 

References:

  1. Liebknecht, W., 1899. ‘No Compromise – No Political Trading. Part 2’. Avaiable at : <https://www.marxists.org/archive/liebknecht-w/1899/nocomp/nocomp2.htm> [Accessed 9 April 2020].
  2. Niebuhr, R., 1960. ‘Moral Man and Immoral Society’, New York : Charles Scribner’s Sons.
  3. Niebuhr, R., 2011. ‘The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness: a vindication of democracy and a critique of its traditional defense’, Chicago : The University of Chicago Press.
  4. Marks, K., 1926. ‘Do krytyky politychnoi ekonomii (A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy)’, Kharkiv : Derzhavne vidavnicztvo Ukrayini, 198 s. Avaiable at : <https://vpered.wordpress.com/2013/12/23/karl-marx-zur-kritik-der-politischen-okonomie/> [Data zvernennya 9 kvitnya 2020].