Marxism

I saw and read the September '06 thread and posts about Communism. I agree with what I read about Communism but thought maybie since I didn't see Karl Marx mentioned in that discussion that the subject might be expanded some. I for one (in theory anyway) differentiate between Marxism and Communism. Does anyone else? Karl Marx (I thought) was a social worker advocate in favor of workers rights and dubious about the benefit of religion to society. I believe that Marx-Engels (sp?) did call for a restructuring of the social classes but not on the order that modern day communist regimes have done. Modern day Communist regimes (in my way of thinking) have both perverted and subverted a philosohy which had both some good and genuine intentions. I question whether true Marxism was ever really attempted or realized. Any thoughts?

If the workers control the means of production they will serve the needs of the workers at a cost to the health of the production entity. Because of the inefficient nature of such a setup and its' need for protection from competition this setup must be protected by the government leading to centralized control of all production. If the purpose of the production entity is anything other than competition for profit situations will arise that require favoring that purpose over the efficiency or competitiveness of the organization and a downward spiral of inefficiency ensues. Without a culling mechanism such as bankruptcy to weed out the inefficient there is no sustainable motivation for innovation and efficiency. All this leads to a hierarchical, centralized,economy that is prone to corruption which leads to a centralized, corrupt, totalitarianism. There is no perfect political/economic system and socialism fails to acknowledge this. Pure or laissez faire capitalism leads to much the same thing in the end because once an entity becomes dominant in its' specialty it will seek to create and enforce rules and means that exclude competitors thereby undermining the very system it grew out of. What is needed is something of a compromise between the two with an emphasis on balancing of forces and the utilization of competitive self interest. Infrastructure , education , law enforcement, judicial system, national defense,regulation of commerce and other functions need to be handled collectively and it should be understood that there is no pristine solution to societal organization that does not take advantage of the creativity, productivity, and moderation of extremes gained through the balancing of opposing forces.

"Communist regimes (in my way of thinking) have both perverted and subverted a philosohy which had both some good and genuine intentions. I question whether true Marxism was ever really attempted or realized. Any thoughts?"


It was attempted and in every case subverted. This is what will happen every time. If you put all the resources under the the control of one entity---the government---that entity will be controlled and it's mission corrupted by some group motivated by self interest. It has been this way from the beginning of civilization. The same thing happens within capitalist societies it's just that the power is less concentrated because of the creative nature of the system and the ever changing new opportunities empowering more individuals. It doesn't expect that the "pie" will be divided equally, it makes the pie much bigger for everyone.

JJ,

Those are some well thought out responses from someone who is obviously well versed in history and economics. Kudos.