Exploring Marxist Economics Part 1

Marx’s analyses and thoughts are relevant for all, not just those that lean communist or socialist

(More thoughts after reading The Worldly Philosophers by Robert L. Heilbroner.)

Today we know Karl Marx as the father of communism. But he was a lot more than that — he was also an incredibly sharp historian, sociologist, and economist.

Marx hailed from the age where economists were more philosophers and historians than mathematicians. And Marx used his deep and profound knowledge of history, economics, politics, and sociology to deepen our understanding of why societies are structured the way they are and why large-scale changes are often so painful and stressful.

Marx observed that the way people produce the things they need to live (e.g. food, shelter, etc.) is by necessity linked to the way society chooses to structure itself. For example, a hunting and gathering community’s ideal societal structure looks very different from that of a more modern industrial city. And the critical factor that determines societal structure is social classes. For example, in feudalistic society, knights and peasants were the two classes — and this structure worked because the peasants needed land to farm (which the knights owned) and the knights and nobles needed the foodstuffs produced by the peasants. The peasants also needed the military protection that the knights provided them (thanks to the knights monopolizing all the weapons, armor, and warhorses) to prevent brigands and other knights from taking all their stuff.

And when the social classes that comprise society becomes significantly misaligned from the economic structure (as the economy evolves), stresses form as the classes that were previously on top attempt to prevent the inevitable social reorganization. Marx observed that that was exactly what was happening with 19th century capitalism.

European capitalism during the time of Marx was driven by factories and the workers in them, i.e. industrial production. Manufacturing economies, in Marx’s eyes, needed central planning to function effectively. Without planning, the economy would flit from one crisis to another as bad planning led…

Related posts:

In my decade of experience with photography, I had never attempted to create a photograph without the use of a camera or any sort of paper before this assignment. I have had the deepest infatuation…

Sesuai dengan janji Harley untuk mengajak Chlara jalan-jalan, di sinilah ia sekarang, di depan sebuah rumah yang sepertinya pemilik rumah tersebut belum ada tanda-tanda membuka pintu. Harley lantas…

Artificial intelligence has made its way into a number of areas. Here are six examples.. “AI Applications” is published by Ar Shiq.