Marx's Communist Manifesto is often read in college. I haven't read the Communist Manifesto myself but last semester I read, studied, and discussed the views of Marx in three different courses. We covered Marx in Anthroplogy 160, Bussiness Ethics 186, and Philosophy 12. From my limited knowledge here are what I understand about Marx and his manifesto.
Many of the measures proposed by Marx in the Communist Manifesto have been implemented in modern capitalist countries, including the United States. This of course may be surprising with some Americans who were brainwashed to believe that Marx and Communism where evil, godless, and anti-American. It is also important to remember that Marx was an academic philosopher and not a politician. As a philosopher, Marx believed that workers are alienated from the work they do, and when they are alienated they cannot be truly free. To the common man, the average worker, labor is just a commodity up for sale. Because the labor of the worker is a commodity, bought, traded, streamlined and maximized for the benefit of others, the worker is alienated to his labor. When the worker is alienated from his labor, he is also alienated to the process, the product, his fellow workers, and ultimately to himself.
Marx believes that alienation of the worker prevent him from being truly free. Freedom, such as that promised by United States, is a myth according to Marx. For although, we have certain freedoms, such as to pray according to ones religion, the average worker does not have social-economic freedom or freedom from alienation, exploitation, consumption, and assimilation. And because workers are alienated from the their work, there is nothing that they can do for them to have fulfilling jobs. Workers from stockbrokers to day laborers and between all pay ranges all feel the alienation from their labor.
Marx views are revolutionary and have inspired a few revolutions. But it is also good to remember that in his time the world was going through the Industrial Revolution. Then, as it is now, a piece of machinery was out of the reach from many workers, so they have nothing but sell but their labor. The bourgeoisie were, and are, able to exploit them by paying them much less than the true value created by the worker. This of course still goes on and is more obvious in the sweatshops that litter Central American and Southeast Asia and in the maquiladoras found throughout Mexico and other developing countries.
Because in our capitalist society you need money to make money, those that don't have any money used as commodity or cogs in the industrial machine. But Marx noted that the machine often gets better treatment than the worker. If a production machine breaks down, technicians immediately attend to it. But if a worker breaks down, he is out commissioned, downsized, off shored, or outsourced altogether. I think that the philosophy of Marx is very pertinent even in our modern digital times.