Final answer:
Karl Marx attributed the poor conditions of the world's workers to the exploitative nature of capitalism, specifically money and private ownership. He believed that private ownership led to class conflict, exploitation of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie, and ultimately, would result in the need for a communist society without private property where workers control the means of production.
Step-by-step explanation:
According to Karl Marx, the terrible conditions of the world's workers were a result of money and private ownership, particularly within the capitalist system. Marx saw capitalism as a way of organizing an economy so that land, factories, and other means of production were owned by individuals and companies rather than by the government, which he referred to as the 'dictatorship of the bourgeoisie.' He believed that the bourgeoisie exploited workers to maintain low wages, subsequently increasing their profits and political influence.
Marx argued that this exploitation would lead to the collapse of the capitalist system and be replaced by communism, a system under which there is no private or corporate ownership, but communal ownership of the means of production. Marxism emerged as a critique of capitalism and proposed a classless society where workers or the government would control the means of production, counteracting the stratification and inequalities perpetuated by private ownership. Marx envisaged a world where workers developed 'class consciousness' and united globally to overthrow the capitalist system, leading to an international dictatorship of the proletariat.