However, for Marx, this is quite a different story, "In this sense, the theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property," (1003). Mill believes that society naturally prefers conformity, and that this preference is aggravated by the control of society by the masses. Conformity to the control of the masses is precisely what communism requires. In the time that Marx was writing, the proletarian working class, was by far the greatest class by numbers in Europe, and for the ideas of communism to work, a great deal of conformity is required, conformity to the masses. Marx's criticism of the importance that Mill places upon individuality can be countered with the claim that the individual has no ability to make meaningful choices, and he will no longer personally be able to develop. Also, Mill could say that conformity hurts society as well as the individual in the minority, because in conformity people lose out on possible ways of approaching life and that people will stop learning from one another, to avoid social stagnation requires a compromise between conflicting ways of life, and in communism, everyone would have the same basic way of life.
For Mill, a member of society should constantly respect the rights of the other members of that society. Most would agree that is a fairly just conclusion. Thus, society has jurisdiction over any aspect of human behavior that, "affects prejudicially the interests of others," (913). People should use their capabilities to the fullest extent and they should not try to keep others from doing with their lives what they wish. Marx, however would argue against this claim by saying that when people do whatever they wish with their lives, they inevitably harm others, namely the proletarian class. For people such as Andrew Carnegie and JP Morgan to fulfill their dreams, people are going to be hurt in the process, the people that Marx is trying to help.
