Marxism
Karl Marx has been very influential in the field of economics. Marx wrote four huge volumes called Capital. The books are about the relationships between commodities, the proletariat (common worker), and the bourgeoisie(wealthy elite).
Marxism has the main point of pointing out many of the flaws in capitalism. It does not purport to create a utopia. For one main reason, any utopia is easy to find flaws in. The main idea of Marxism is to find a way that is better than capitalism.
Societies that have embraced Marxism have been communistic. Marxists assert that these societies did not set forth a good example of what Marxism purports.
In true Marxism, there is an increase in democracy. People are free to choose as they will. One of the points of Capital is to point out the myth of freedom that is put forth by the capitalistic machine.
Any good economist can show you that there is mathematic certainty that communism will outperform capitalism mathematically. However, like any social science theory, human behavior can not be ignored.
One of the main problems of Marxist theory is the idea that they can plan the whole economy better than individual actors can. Of course, this is an impossible job. And, to have centralized planning, you must have centralized power. The system would work well if the politicians were God's agents, but what happens is the power corrupts the people and the centralized power exacerbates the problem. Without checks and balances the people on top of the society pretty much steal everything they can. The end result hasn't been pretty.
Some economists have another idea that they maybe markets can help alleviate this main problem. Indeed, some socialist countries have very high standards of living. Some of these countries, like Sweden and Switzerland, have been able to combine the good part about markets and the good part about government planning. Both nations have a great health care system and a high standard of living.
Is Marxism right or wrong? To answer that question, all you need to do is answer this, “Are you completely satisfied with Capitalism.” If you think Capitalism needs to be improved upon, then you are actually a Marxist as much as anybody else. In general, Marxists don't want communism. They want solutions to capitalistic problems. Like any group of people, there are extremists.
If you actually read the works of Karl Marx, you will find that he doesn't say one thing about taking away freedom and devoting ones life to the government. He talks about how the poor are exploited and need help.
In some ways, Marxism is a dangerous road. The reason is that people find problems with Capitalism and start doing crazy stuff that is even worse. The best choice is always to maximize freedom and limit government.
If you want a great Marxist School of Economics, you should look for schools that favor the words of Karl Marx. A look at university website faculty will indeed show you how the professors are aligned. You should be warned. Corporations will not want to hire an expert in Marxism. In fact, most government jobs won't want you either. If you do get hired, the pay will be much lower than a capitalistic economist.
| |
