Karl Marx, We Need You
It's not a mainstream story yet, but there seems to be growing tolerance, even enthusiasm, for socialism in the U.S. An argument can be made it has been caused by capitalism.
Capitalism is blamed for interest in socialism when it drives a class of people to the point where they started shopping for something different. Maybe they start shopping for new political representation or maybe for an entirely new economic system. If they conclude their fortunes will be better, or cannot be worse, their minds open up to something new.
More than once in history people have started down a path of a new economic system. Once it was recognized society was moving toward something new the political parts of societies quickly moved the accommodate the public.
Karl Marx of the mid 1800's has been called one of the most influential people in the world. He recognized the power the working class could have on European politics if it became a class alienated from the rest of society. In his book, Das Capital, he explained how the working class would overthrow the wealthy capitalistic class and take over society. Governments of Europe were alarmed at his prediction and began to alter the economic structure of thwart this prediction.
Something similar happened in the United States in the 1930's. So desperate were farmers and labors during the depression they resorted to violence to make their point. They were ready to try a new economic system. More liberal politicians were elected, policies changed and capitalism survived.
For socialism to make inroads a large set of the public needs to believe they have nothing to loose by trying something new. It might be they are ready.
You chose the title of today's blog, "Karl Marx, We Need You". How many millions of lives were lost, how many millions of lives were wasted, how many millions lived in abject poverty under Marx? No freedom of religion or speech or assembly. The press? Ha ha. One can't have fake news if one has no news.
ReplyDeleteA true patriot would steer people as far away from failed ideologies as Marxism. Instead, you proclaim we are ready to try it again.
Matt 4:55 "How many millions of lives were lost, how many millions of lives wasted, how many millions lived in abject poverty under Marx?"
DeleteNone. Marx never held a government position of any kind. He tried to organize people during his lifetime but was not the least bit successful. Maybe you are getting Marx mixed up with Russia. He never set foot in Russia. His writing was about what would happen to end capitalistic governments, not what would happen afterwards. He did not say much about how the economy would be organized and how it would be run. Marx's writing is still at the center of our debates, what is the engine of our economy? Is it the labor that produces things or those with money who own the companies.
Marxist apologetics would be hilarious had every single attempted implementation of the man's philosophy not resulted in oppression, starvation, and mass murder. That the so-called "educated" in academia so willfully overlook this reality is damning critique of academia itself.
DeleteLance "..had every single attempted implementation of the man's philosophy not resulted in oppression, starvation and mass murder."
DeleteI'm not sure you will find an "attempted implementation of the man's philosophy..." He was not much interested in the nuts of bolts of running a nation. You will not find, so far as I know, essays on how to make decisions about rural vs urban, how much more to pay people to do undesirable work (mining) versus more desirable (clerk). His writing was about what happens and why in class struggle and why revolutions take place. Now, others put his name on forms of government that followed revolutions and you correctly noted many were unsuccessful. They are variations called "market socialism" (Hungary, etc.) that are very successful economies today.
lmao Matt Noah do you claim that capitalism has saved everyone ever from abject poverty? both economic systems have left people to die in poverty, please don't act like capitalism is perfect in every way. How many millions have died under capitalism, because CEO pay rates have went up 500% since the 1980's, and yet the median income has continued to hover around 40k. Reform, Matt, is what you would say to us, 'oh, but its gotten better, capitalism isn't as bad as it was in the 1880s and early 1900s, we have standards now' but, when someone like Jon would imply that, maybe, just maybe, socialism or marxist capitalism could ALSO reform and get better , you would brush that off. norway, sweden, are just glimpses into what could be achieved by socialism. Perhaps you should read a book about all the deaths of american capitalism, OR, perhaps you should move past what you're teachers told you in the old days about the big bad USSR, and learn that there are other socialist models around the world, some with higher rates of quality of life than us! can you believe it, socialists have a higher quality of life than americans, in 2018?!?! But, i'm sure you'd rather be wrong than be a 'socialist'. Ignorance is bliss. Good article btw Jon, as always
ReplyDeleteI understand why you remain Anonymous. Norway and Sweden? America could be 5 times worse than it is now and it would still be 5 times better than Norway or Sweden.
DeleteAmerica is far from a purely capitalistic model. While founded on capitalism, we have MediCare and MedicAde, Social Security, the State Bank of North Dakota, PBS and the CPB and a tax code that defies explanation. If someone wants to die under capitalism, they really would have to want to die. This is not to say that some don't receive different tiers of healthcare. The rich will always be able to live in better homes, have better cars, boats, airplanes, healthcare, etc. This is the price of freedom. Without it, Man would not be motivated to better himself and his causes. Socialism saps and steals the ambition out of Man.
"Norway and Sweden? America could be 5 times worse than it is now and it would still be 5 times better than Norway or Sweden."
Delete-says who? your unfounded anecdote still does not refute that they have an OBJECTIVELY better quality of life, as objective as those studies can be albeit. Also, have you been to an urban area stricken by poverty? I would love to see you go tell one of the many homeless children or veterans that 'it could be 5 times worse'
And, all of your examples of how America isn't a purely capitalistic model only proves Marx's points. He writes extensively on the problems of capitalism, with a few suggestions for how to fix it. A lot of those suggestions are what you describe. Now, you have admitted that the capitalistic system we have now DOES have some down falls, which is all Mr. Jon is trying to say, we can do better. 'The price for freedom' isn't a good enough excuse to keep business as usual. How about instead of letting the rich continue to have better homes, cars, boats, healthcare, etc., how about maybe we continue to pursue other 'socialist' methods like pension, state banks, and medicare? You are right that it is not a black and white issue of socialism/capitalism, with no areas of mutuality, which only suggests that we can continue to pursue the worthwhile aspects of socialism, ALREADY in place in our society.
Once again, keep at it Jon
Blaming Marx for the murders of Stalin and Mao is like blaming Jesus for the untold butchery from millennia of Christianity. Hardly seems fair, don’t it?
DeleteAmerica has had the greatest measure of free market capitalism of any nation in history and has enjoyed the greatest prosperity for the ordinary man. What we have now is a hybrid of highly regulated, heavily taxed, central bank, debt based "capitalism" and socialism. Debt based in that every $ in circulation has been borrowed. The debt must keep expanding or the whole system collapses. The greatest economist that ever lived (with the exception of Jon, of course) put it this way:
ReplyDelete"There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved."
~Ludwig von Mises
Your response reminds me of the Christian Distributism. It completely avoids the groundwork laid by Adam Smith, and especially David Ricardo’s Labor Theory of Value. Marx’s breakthrough, the discovery of Surplus Value, relies heavily on these two classical economists.
DeleteMichael 2:54 Thank you for finding your way onto to new blog format. I know it takes a little patience.
DeleteYou raise an old and interesting question by quoting von Mises. So old is the question the Bible warned against debt. I don't think the Bible warns against a debt based money supply. At that time coins were the money and I suppose there was some way of knowing that a coin was legitimate and not a counterfeit.
If never heard a solution to credit based money from those who don't like it. Our early "paper money" was not issued by the government but was issued by individual banks. People put their gold in a bank and left with a receipt. They then bought things with the receipt. Soon, bankers realized they themselves could buy more things if they just issued receipts even when no gold was deposited. It seems likely the market would find a way to develop a credit based money system even if the country passed a law the were from now on "are on the gold standard."