Marx and Engels turn to history to understand the world and argue that "the history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggles" ( Poster 65). These class struggles, based on who owns capital, are the Marxists' way of reading history. According to Marx and Engels, the current bourgeoisie, with its power and growing industrial city, is "itself the product of a long course of development" and the last bourgeoisie existing before the proletarian revolution (Manifesto 67). By stating this they illustrate the understanding that material goods are what have driven history, ideas and progress. They see the end result as a place where "class distinctions have disappeared" (Manifesto 84). By this the authors mean that private property and any other type of personal material wealth will disappear, leading to a better society. The whole premise behind the ideas of Marxists is that it is wealth – capital – that directs society and these class struggles. While these ideas describe the power that wealth has on the ideas and history of a society, the impact that Marxist philosophy further solidifies the relationship between the two seemingly separate phenomena