According to socialists, private property increased which problem in society?

Correct answer: Exploitation and inequality

Many socialist thinkers criticised private ownership of the means of production because it concentrated economic power in the hands of a small owning class. Factory owners and other capitalists could control resources and employ workers for wages, while workers had to sell their labour to survive. This relationship was seen as producing exploitation and widening inequality: profits accumulated with owners, whereas workers often received limited wages and had little control over production. Option D is correct because it states both consequences emphasised in socialist criticism. Equality was a goal that socialism sought to increase, not a problem created by private property. Religious tolerance and an independent judiciary are political or social principles, not the central economic problem described here.