Reply #222: It is incumbent on an economic theory to explain the most salient economic phenomenon.

[eallen]

Marxism isn't just a political viewpoint. It pretends also to be an economic theory. And not just a small economic theory, but the economic theory. The most salient economic phenomenon is the sea change in the economy concurrent with modern times. It was the question that Adam Smith started pondering: what was making some modern nations rich? An economic theory that cannot explain that historical fact is much like a biology theory that cannot account for the diversity of life, and the nature of that diversity. The Marxists here who need that rather huge piece of world pointed out to them are very much like the creationists who also respond, "explain what?"

If you're interested in explanations for language, read on linguistics. If you're interested in economics, read some economics texts. Real ones, not Marxists ones. But perhaps you're not that much interested in either, if you're content with the notion that both language and economic advance just "happen."

:hippie: