

Was Marx Right? - pier0
http://blogs.hbr.org/haque/2011/09/was_marx_right.html

======
mindcrime
Maybe, but even a broken clock is right twice a day. The thing about this
article is... you can take almost any prediction(s) from the past, map them
onto current day events, stretch logic and semantics in torturous ways, and
come up with a seemingly compelling argument that "X was right, see!" You
could do it for Nostradamus and have an article that is as enlightening as
this article.

Are there issues with our current economic and political situation? Yes. Do we
need Marx to fix them? I personally say "no." We need to think hard about what
the proper role of government is, create a truly free market, and then allow
whatever individuals, organizations, collectives, etc. that emerge, to layer
on top of that base and build the social structures that they see fit. IMO, of
course.

~~~
lrenn
I don't think it's fair to compare Das Kapital and The Communist Manifesto to
the quatrains of Nostradamus.

~~~
mindcrime
Fair enough... I wasn't really trying to compare the two, just using a
pointedly over-the-top example to illustrate a point. And the Nostradamus
stuff is something that everyone is familiar with. And it's the first thing
that came to mind. :-)

------
userulluipeste
I've lived in communism, and something that one should not forget is that
communism is the home of the mediocrity. The things that pushed the society
forward and from wich resulted a multiple field development were not communist
at all.

------
jameskilton
Communism IS the perfect society. Everyone working for the betterment of
everyone else, of society as a whole. NO selfishness, NO greed, NO evil.
However if a _single_ person does something selfish, the entire system falls
apart.

In this world, it doesn't take very long to find that one selfish person, and
I'd argue it's harder to find someone who won't eventually do something
selfish, intentional or not, and bring the system down.

So of course Marx was right, in a perfect world that isn't ours, he's right.
But in our world, we simply can't live up to those ideals so we have to work
for a system that better accommodates how society actually is. Right now,
that's government-regulated Capitalism. If someone can find a better one, I'm
all ears.

------
derBaumstamm
This is a strange discussion. The topic of this article is not communism but
Marx's predictions that industrial capitalism would become unsustainable. The
author clearly states he does not see communism as the solution.

