According to Karl Marx what was the basis of exploitation in capitalist society?

Correct answer: Capitalists taking profit from workers' labour

According to Marx, capitalist production is based on a class relationship between people who own the means of production and workers who must sell their labour to earn wages. Workers create goods and value during production, but the capitalist controls the factory and keeps the profit after paying wages. Marx viewed this difference as the basis of exploitation: the worker’s labour produces more value than the worker receives as a wage. Option B expresses this idea.

Option A describes a religious conflict, not Marx’s central explanation of capitalist exploitation. C is unrelated to class relations, and D reverses the normal wage relationship by claiming that workers pay wages to owners. Marx connected exploitation with private ownership, unequal control, surplus value, and class struggle. Therefore B is the correct choice, even though the option gives a simplified school-level formulation of his theory.