200 years ago, at the birth of capitalism, there were only about 60 million people in the world who were not living in extreme poverty. Today there are more than 6.5 billion people who are not living in extreme poverty. Between 1990 and 2015 alone (in Thomas Piketty’s view the devastating years in which social inequality rose so sharply), 1.25 billion people around the world escaped extreme poverty—50 million per year and 138,000 every day.

We live in an age of globalisation, accusations of monopolies from companies such as Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple and an increasing global wealth divide. All of this has been made possible by the development of capitalism. Arguably 'good' things have arisen out of capitalism as an economic system such as economic freedom (for some), innovation and efficiency among other advantages.

Watch the video above on classical Marxism. Karl Marx, a revolutionary or fundamentalist socialist believed that ultimately capitalism is doomed. What do you think about the views of Marx? Is Marxism relevant today? What can we learn from the views of Marx about what may happen if we allow capitalism to grow?

Leave your thoughts below.