How did Marxism view private ownership of the means of production?

In Marxism, private ownership of the means of production—such as factories, mines, and railroads—is viewed as the fundamental mechanism of exploitation in capitalist society.123

Marxism posits that this system allows the ruling class, or bourgeoisie, to appropriate the surplus value created by the labor of the working class, or proletariat. Because workers own nothing but their labor power, they are forced to sell it to those who control the means of production, leading to their alienation from the products of their work and the production process itself.1452

Marxism argues that this arrangement is inherently contradictory and unstable, inevitably resulting in class struggle. The ideology predicts that the proletariat will eventually overthrow the bourgeoisie, seizing control of the means of production to establish a socialist or communist society. In this future state, the means of production would be publicly owned and operated for the benefit of all, ultimately aiming for a classless and stateless society where private property is abolished.145236