This article makes it sound like the author suddenly found a new light in Communism, but from the way it leads it seems like they haven't wandered to these beliefs any time recently. That aside, it paints it as if Marx "predicted" anything about the world today. The world when he wrote the manifesto was a much darker place than it is today. Child labor, frequent industrial accidents, etc. were very real issues at the time and that's part of the reason they are the "Workers Party". The world is not perfect today, but automation and technology have done many things to change this problem. If anything, Marx failed to predict the fact that capitalism would help the workers. There is much that can be said about the world today, but painting it as a Marxist nightmare worse than Marx's own environment is not really one of them.
> If anything, Marx failed to predict the fact that capitalism would help the workers.
Well said. And yet, I wonder whether capitalism would have helped the workers as much as it did without the challenge of communism. That is, I suspect that part of why the capitalists started treating their workers better was because they didn't want the workers to start believing Russian propaganda - and therefore did their part to make the propaganda untrue.
Meh - the mostly capitalist world is doing quite well. 3.9% growth, people living longer, less in poverty and so on. One of the few bits in genuine crisis is Venezuela where Marx's duff ideas are doing their usual stuff https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Marx-Ideas-Deeply-Roo...
"Thousands flee Venezuela daily as humanitarian crisis intensifies" and similar headlines.
"Economic anxiety Americans" are still some of the richest people to ever walk the planet. We should be aware of their very real problems, but it's important to remember that this level of prosperity is not, and has not really ever been normal.
Humans don't gauge wealth on an absolute scale, they measure it relative to those nearby. Someone in a trailer park isn't saying "gee, I'm glad I don't live in a slum in India." They're angry at all of the young, wealthy professionals in New York or San Francisco.
I wasn't really politically aware in this time, but does anyone have an idea of how economic liberalism was able to take such a strong hold on the US in such a short period of time?
The most glaring example to me is that in about 20 years the core parts of what would become the ACA went from the Heritage Foundation plan[1] to prevent the democrats from instituting a single-payer system to reform that the democrats were barely able to pass.
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[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 21.3 ms ] threadWell said. And yet, I wonder whether capitalism would have helped the workers as much as it did without the challenge of communism. That is, I suspect that part of why the capitalists started treating their workers better was because they didn't want the workers to start believing Russian propaganda - and therefore did their part to make the propaganda untrue.
"Thousands flee Venezuela daily as humanitarian crisis intensifies" and similar headlines.
The most glaring example to me is that in about 20 years the core parts of what would become the ACA went from the Heritage Foundation plan[1] to prevent the democrats from instituting a single-payer system to reform that the democrats were barely able to pass.
http://healthcarereform.procon.org/sourcefiles/1989_assuring...