Das Kapital Theme of Society and Class

Marx is known for saying, in the Communist Manifesto, that the history of society is the history of class struggles. But in Das Kapital he goes into much more detail about what makes the capitalist class tick. And although the book is mostly a depiction of how capitalism functions, he can't keep himself from making plenty of statements about the struggle between the working class and the owners of the means of production.

1. What are the chief differences between the capitalist class and the working class, according to Marx? Consider what he says each owns, what each does, and what each wants.
2. What's the same and what's different about class divides before capitalism and class divides under capitalism? Where do necessary labor, surplus labor, labor-power, and surplus-value fit in?
3. According to Marx, how does the capitalist class view planning in production within workshops and for society as a whole? Look at the different types of economic systems. To what extent is the economy planned in the United States? Consider both the inside of individual workshops and outside them (in society as a whole).

For the most part, society can be divided in two classes: a capitalist class and a working class.

The stratification of economic classes is much more complicated than just a capitalist class and a working class.