patrick.net

Whats next?...are we socializing as Marx predicted?

Crisis theory has been the subject of much debate within the history of the Marxist critique of political economy. Its few perceptive exponents faired very badly during the vagaries of Stalinist orthodoxy. It is concerned with explaining the business cycle, recession and crises in capitalism, drawing particularly on Karl Marx's achievement in articulating the Law of the Tendency for the Rate of Profit to Fall arising out of the consequences of value relations.

Here are his critiques of our society. He makes some very eery points.

The dialectical and materialist concept of history — Humankind's history is fundamentally that of the struggle between social classes. The productive capacity of society is the foundation of society, and as this capacity increases over time the social relations of production, class relations, evolve through this struggle of the classes and pass through definite stages (primitive communism, slavery, feudalism, capitalism). The legal, political, ideological and other aspects (ex. art) of society are derived from these production relations as is the consciousness of the individuals of which the society is composed.

The critique of capitalism — In capitalist society, an economic minority (the bourgeoisie) dominate and exploit the working class (proletariat) majority. Marx uncovered the interworkings of capitalist exploitation, the specific way in which unpaid labor (surplus value)is extracted from the working class labor theory of value, extending and critiquing the work of earlier political economists value. Although the production process is socialized, ownership remains in the hand of the bourgeosie. This forms the fundamental contradiction of capitalist society. Without the elimination of the fetter of the private ownership of the means of production, human society is unable to achieve further development.

Advocacy of proletarian revolution — In order to overcome the fetters of private property the working class must seize political power internationally through a social revolution and expropriate the capitalist classes around the world and place the productive capacities of society into collective ownership. Upon this material foundation classes would be abolished and the material basis for all forms of inequality between humankind would dissolve.

I liken Marx to Peter Schiff or Nouriel Roubini. People who were DEAD-ON accurate about what was going to happen and why. When they moved on to what would happen next and what you should do about it, is where they went off into the weeds.

Marx critique of the failings of capitalism are many times accurate and often ignored. The reason is, his cure is worse than the disease, and most people can never make it past this point. If Marx had stopped with his criticisms and left it to others to work out solutions he would not be so viscerally reviled. It fascinates me when people toss about the term "Marxist" as an epithet when they have no knowledge of whether it even applies or not.

he surely pointed out a capitalist government does not represent the working class

why Marx is ignored? because ruling class controls what the working class can see and hear.

do people really have freedom of speech? yes we do, the problem is we cant be heard.

define the ruling class...

I guess that would be those who voted for McCain and not Obama... or is Obama part of the ruling class
since he won the election.

"because ruling class controls what the working class can see and hear."

So 'they' allow the internet to exist without 'china filtering servers'.

Cubans say access to online market site is blocked

HAVANA (Reuters) -
A popular website of classified ads that has given Cubans a taste of the free market has been blocked on the communist-run island, Internet users said.

Cubans trying to access Revolico.com, which says it has more than 1.5 million page views a month, are being diverted to the search engine Google.com.

"If I type the address and press 'enter,' I get redirected. If I Google it and click, I get redirected. What is going on?," asked Sandra a 30-year-old government employee who, like several others interviewed, did not give their full names.

Cuban computer experts say an Internet content filter is preventing access to the Craigslist-like site, which has emerged as a booming virtual free market in the socialist nation with a tightly controlled economy where consumer goods tend to be scarce and expensive.

On Revolico.com, Cubans with access to the Internet can buy and sell anything from computer memory sticks to a 1950 Plymouth.

"There you can find all the things the government sells you at brutal prices and freely pick exactly what you want," said Alberto, who recently used Revolico.com to buy a computer that was not available in the stores.

The Internet in Cuba is controlled by the state monopoly ETECSA, a joint venture between the Cuban government and Telecom Italia.

LandShark says

why Marx is ignored? because ruling class controls what the working class can see and hear.

Is this joke? The primary places where the ruling class controls what the working class can see and hear is in the Marxist countries themselves.

I think he was referring to the point if Marx had not promoted communism. In an earlier post, Vincente had mentioned that most people do not look at Marx for guidance on how to improve capitalism because "his cure is worse than the disease, and most people can never make it past this point. "

...meaning why move to a communist society where very few elite enjoy the life of luxury while the remaining stiffs work all day.