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Showing Original Post only (View all)How’s that Marx-is-mostly-wrong stuff workin’ out for ya? [View all]
Yesterday, Brad DeLong confidently posted the text of his 2009 talk on where he thinks Marx went wrong. But, four years hence, even Matt Yglesiaswho confidently claims his own identity as not a Marxisthas to admit DeLongs claims look a lot weaker.
In particular, DeLong says that Marx the political activist was too pessimistic about the idea that the ruling class would agree to make economic growth pareto optimal within the context of a market economy:
That even though the ruling class could appease the working class by using the state to redistribute and share the fruits of economic growth it would never do so. They would be trapped by their own ideological legitimationsthey really do believe that it is in some sense unjust for a factor of production to earn more than its marginal product. Hence social democracy would inevitably collapse before an ideologically-based right-wing assault, income inequality would rise, and the system would collapse or be overthrown. The Wall Street Journal editorial page works day and night 365 days a year to make Marxs prediction come true. But I think this, too, is wrong.
To me that unquestionably looked wrong as of 2009. But in the interim, those Wall Street Journal editorial page tendencies have grown much stronger. You see a rising tide of Rand-inflected moralism about market outcomes and a reduced emphasis on Friedman-style pragmatism. You also see a sharply reduced emphasis on belief in any kind of macroeconomic stabilization policy, in favor of a let them eat cake slash move to North Dakota moralism about unemployment. Last but by no means least, it really has become the conventional wisdom among American elites that the appropriate policy response to fiscal imbalance in a time of high and rising income inequality is to restore balance by reducing the scope and generosity of social insurance programs.
In the end, I guess you just cant trust those capitalists to prove Marx wrong.
http://anticap.wordpress.com/2013/05/02/hows-that-marx-is-mostly-wrong-stuff-workin-out-for-ya/
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Ha! Ha! As has been said for 100 years, Charlie Whiskers made a lot of mistakes, but he got
byeya
May 2013
#7
Utterly ridiculous that people STILL believe this religious bullshit about a benevolent upper crust.
HughBeaumont
May 2013
#8
Let's see if you can get past kindergarten level name-calling and specifically tell us which
TBF
May 2013
#10
Yes, Marx never could disassociate his thoughts from Hegel. Fortunately, he was able to wall
byeya
May 2013
#16
the attempt of the other to hide its difference from the self, and the self's attempt
HiPointDem
May 2013
#51
I'm not talking about the programming, but the intended function and Babbage's economic theories
Starry Messenger
May 2013
#38
that person doesn't know anything about marx or even history. pretty obvious from his comments.
HiPointDem
May 2013
#43
I don't get the 'marx couldn't have forseen computers' thing anyway. I don't see how computers
HiPointDem
May 2013
#93
that makes sense. the 'we're all entrepreneurs now!' argument that accompanies the destruction
HiPointDem
May 2013
#122
Especially when we consider that for most people the computer is a consumer good, not a capital good
JVS
May 2013
#117
marx was racist? according to world net daily, free republic, and town hall.
HiPointDem
May 2013
#44
And his disparaging comments about the "negroid charactetistics" of some critics?
Recursion
May 2013
#46
1) check out those comments in the marx-engels archive & if you find them read the entire
HiPointDem
May 2013
#48
actually, he wasn't 'just as steeped in' those things at all, because someone who was steeped
HiPointDem
May 2013
#65
nothing to do with whether i 'like' marx. it's what the historical record shows.
HiPointDem
May 2013
#67
it's my opinion based on reading everything he wrote about race and every comment in his
HiPointDem
May 2013
#71
don;'t even know what gish gallop is. why so snarky? is it because you don't like to have
HiPointDem
May 2013
#75
Yeah, because "Marx was a racist" was not in your post, but your mind...
Democracyinkind
May 2013
#100
He was. That's an opinion too, yes? He has lots of flaws, just like anybody. nt
bemildred
May 2013
#102
HiPoint demonstrated poor reading skills and a propensity to think quantity beats quality.
bemildred
May 2013
#106
Indeed it is, it speaks well of him too, but it does not mean he is not a racist. nt
bemildred
May 2013
#112
Which is a vast mountain of opinion and interepretation built on a molehill of fact.
bemildred
May 2013
#99
please link me to the part in his work where he discusses this new system of control.
HiPointDem
May 2013
#32
"Marx's ideas on how to build a government and run and economy." = which 'ideas' are those,
HiPointDem
May 2013
#31
"His positive comments on the role of merchants and industrialists in overthrowing monarchies"
HiPointDem
May 2013
#36
good point. all those formerly revolutionary demands are now commonplace, thought of as
HiPointDem
May 2013
#94
So you're going to argue that capitalism could appease the working class......
socialist_n_TN
May 2013
#54
Any system that is hanging on due to a sense of morality is bound to fail, as the human capacity...
JVS
May 2013
#55
Marx was wrong about the worker's revolution. It's never happened and never will because they're too
craigmatic
May 2013
#57
oh i don't know....i think it was marx and engels' position that the revolution would be global
HiPointDem
May 2013
#61
This is one of those threads where indeed, Marx's vocal words were 100% correct
graham4anything
May 2013
#78
You mock salad while drinking 48 ounce sugar drinks.Salads are wellness.Wellness saves money.
graham4anything
May 2013
#80
I am not an Ayn Rand or Rand Paul or Ron Paul fan. That's what Marx is.It don't work.
graham4anything
May 2013
#89
don't you know it's the other way around. It is the basic tenet of the Paul racist libertarians.
graham4anything
May 2013
#96
yeah antique ideologies like democracy, constitutionalism, liberal economics....
HiPointDem
May 2013
#126
What Marx didn't grasp was the power of television and I-Pads to opiatize the masses.
leveymg
May 2013
#127
Just thought I'd mention that the The Communist Manifesto is available on Librivox
War Horse
May 2013
#130
Well, the western capitalist societies are the best, most decent and most prosperous ever.
Donald Ian Rankin
May 2013
#135