Marx believed that in a capitalist system the wealthy exploited the poor. Yes – I agree with that.
Marx believed that people should be equal. He wanted to do away with class, racism, sexism and poverty. Yes – I like that.
Marx envisaged a society that was fair and where everyone worked for the common good. Yes – I like that too.
Marx wanted to do away with religion. Well I regard religion as a superstition that does more harm than good but I don’t think I’d ban it.
Marx wanted production to be owned by the state so everyone worked, everyone received free education, healthcare. That all profits went to the people. I like that too. I don’t like the wealthy creaming off a large share of the profits for themselves. I want more equality and fairness. I think the state can produce better services, more cheaply.
To define Marxism in simple terms, it’s a political and economic theory where a society has no classes. Every person within the society works for a common good, and class struggle is theoretically gone.
Marxism sees capitalism as contradictory and exploitative in its focus on the individual and claims that class struggle will ultimately overthrow the capitalist society and create a Communist Society, where production is focused on the collective good.
The problems that arise with Marxism are difficult to resolve:
It tends to remove incentive and so people become lazy and the economy suffers. I certainly wouldn’t want that. There must be a way of incentivizing without creating gross inequality.
It tends to get taken over by a new elite who create a totalitarian control (rather defeating the initial aims) resulting in tyranny. That is a nightmare. Surely there is a way of creating a system where that does not happen?
Well, at the final count, I’m a socialist, not a Marxist. I believe in a fairer society but not a communist society.
What do you think?