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Marxism made sense after all

Marxism made sense after all

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sergebeauchamp Posted: Thu, Nov 5 2009 6:36 AM

I was reading Rothbard critique of Marx in his History of Economic though, and Mises' in his Theory and History.

One point that was raised is how Marx can expect the state to 'wither away' while the communist mean is the maximization of the state.

And it struck me, that actually the egalitarianism of Marxian communist and the abolition of the division of labour will actually accomplish that:  the withering away of the state.

This is because with the eradication of the division of labor, and its subsequent collapse of productivity, mass starvation and death, the state will not survive the destruction of the civilization it feeds upon.

So I'm not sure if it's a point that Marxists understood, but I think it's true that under the final stage of Marxian communism, the state will wither away, but so will society too.

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Conza88 replied on Thu, Nov 5 2009 11:16 AM

Have you read Rothbard's, 'The Deathwish of the Anarcho-Communists' ? Smile

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Daniel replied on Thu, Nov 5 2009 1:22 PM

So why aren't the Cubans, the North Koreans, half the African countries, the Chinese and the Russians living in the communist utopia yet? 

My favorite online shop: www.cafepress.com/libertyphile Big Smile

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sergebeauchamp replied on Thu, Nov 5 2009 3:23 PM

Conza88:

Have you read Rothbard's, 'The Deathwish of the Anarcho-Communists' ? Smile

I didn't, but just did.  It's a great article, thanks for pointing it out :)

 

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The Late Andrew Ryan replied on Thu, Nov 5 2009 3:27 PM

Lol truth win

All the statists and Keynesians will look up and shout "Save Us!" and I'll wisper "No." 

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sergebeauchamp replied on Thu, Nov 5 2009 3:28 PM

Daniel:

So why aren't the Cubans, the North Koreans, half the African countries, the Chinese and the Russians living in the communist utopia yet? 

I'm not sure to understand your question, it seems to me you read the title but not the content of my post.

 

Anyhow, if the question is why those countries aren't living the marxist communist utopia (i.e. mass starvation and death), well they are at some level (thinking about the millions of death in north korea), but they are not following the radical egalitarianism of Marx either:  they still have a non negligible division of labor.

If their government were truly marxist,  then they would really be in a marxist utopia: a complete wasteland devoid of civilization as we know it.

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