Marx's Anti-Capitalist Movement

We've all heard of Karl Marx at some point in our lifetime, and most people regard him, negatively or positively, as the creator of modern communism and its associated practices. However, I had never read his economic and philosophical manuscripts. I found this reading to be very enjoyable and informative because, removing any presupposed opinions about Marx, its logic follows the trend of other works we've read: although it may go against my economic/social beliefs, it's hard to discredit Marx's views.

To be honest, the first thing that struck me was how much Marx's economic evaluations reminded me of the Econ 100 class here at Rhodes. Marx states on page 37 that  "the lowest rate of ordinary profit on capitals must always be something more than what is necessary to compensate the occasional losses to which every employment of capital is exposed." This essentially expresses modern economist's rule that a business must earn at least as much to cover their daily operating expenses. It's clear Marx is anything but ignorant when discussing capitalistic views. However, he quickly turns to the opposite side of this view, basically stating that profits are greatest when the wages payed to earn a profit are as low as possible (and which, I think, Marx clearly recognizes as the source of worker exploitation).

So, I've been thinking about today's American society which is ruled by capitalistic values. Marx claims there are only two classes, the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. The proletariat is always being abused and taken advantage of, while the bourgeoisie is always free to use the proletariat. The problem with this argument today is that we have a substantial middle-class. Marx paints a picture of a struggling, suffering proletariat, but I wouldn't say, coming from the middle class myself, that the middle class is suffering. Do I feel that my parents and I are being exploited so that businesses can earn the biggest profit they can? Not at all. On the contrary, the fact that in the US we are able to afford so much more than just the necessities to survive shows that many business practices today actually treat their employees fairly, not to mention the many benefits that come with so many of the positions today. Do you think that Marx's views only apply to the society he could observe in his time? Is there still widespread exploitation in the US today, or has the working class already prevailed in the sense that it now has many protections from exploitation? I know that Marx's idea of the proletariat "winning" would be that they take control of the means of production, but is our modern economic structure the best realistic result?