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Saturday, January 17, 2009

Marx's Prediction of Capitalism Collapse

Karl Marx must be saying in his grave, "I told you so".

Is a revival of socialism on the cards? Or democratic socialism as some would have it.

Whatever happens, unbridled capitalism has had its day?......

"Owners of capital will stimulate working class to buy more and more of expensive goods, houses and technology, pushing them to take more and more expensive credits, until their debt becomes unbearable.

The unpaid debt will lead to bankruptcy of banks, which will have to be nationalized, and the State will have to take the road which will eventually lead to communism."

Karl Marx, 1867

Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818 – March 14, 1883) was a German philosopher, political economist, historian, sociologist, humanist, political theorist and revolutionary credited as the founder of communism.

Marx summarized his approach to history and politics in the opening line of the first chapter of The Communist Manifesto (1848): “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles”. Marx argued that capitalism, like previous socioeconomic systems, will produce internal tensions which will lead to its destruction. Just as capitalism replaced feudalism, capitalism itself will be displaced by communism, a stateless, classless society which emerges after a transitional period, the 'dictatorship of the proletariat'.

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Karl Marx: The Comeback Kid

In 1857 Wall Street experienced a serious financial meltdown which soon spread to all sectors of the fledgling American economy and then led to economic collapse in London and Hamburg. An excited Karl Marx wrote to his friend Engels (pic left): "Der American crash ist herrlich und noch lange nicht vorbei (The American crash is wonderful and and nowhere near over).") Just as he predicted, capitalism appeared to be collapsing under its own inherent contradictions. But Wall Street soon recovered and so did capitalism.

For the past 150 years Marxism has been pronounced dead many times, but now - with Wall Street in a downward spiral and neo-liberal free market theology completely discredited - Marx's critique of capitalism is making a huge comeback.

Will Karl Marx's prediction of the Capitalism collapse come true soon? We shall see in due course...............