Why is Marxism so Attractive?

[Jason78]

Some issues are easier with a socialist mindset, like road building, schools and health care.   You want your poorer neighbours to have access to good healthcare because it directly affects you.

[Hijiri Byakuren]

Because Marx-chan is a fucking cutie.

[Hakurei Reimu]

Capitalism also assumes a perfect man just as imaginary as communism's perfect man. Capitalism is proven to distribute goods and services 100% optimally in every case, but only if you assume the perfect consumer, who is able to evaluate and weigh all costs and benefits (And I do mean all of them, including ones we don't normally put a dollar cost on.) and choose the one, unique prefect action that is uniformally best in all situations now and forever. It is only this ideal man who is able to balance out capitalism and make it work without intervention.

Humans aren't perfect economic engines. Far from it. We just have to face the fact that we're not suited to any ideal, because we ourselves aren't an ideal. Any system we live under is just going to have to be constantly tweaked and adjusted and sometimes outright changed as we go along as the scenario changes.

[Munch]

Because Marx-chan is a fucking cutie.

yes but don't forget, everyone loved Duck Takes.



they even made a remark.

[Jason Harvestdancer]

Capitalism also assumes a perfect man just as imaginary as communism's perfect man. Capitalism is proven to distribute goods and services 100% optimally in every case, but only if you assume the perfect consumer, who is able to evaluate and weigh all costs and benefits (And I do mean all of them, including ones we don't normally put a dollar cost on.) and choose the one, unique prefect action that is uniformally best in all situations now and forever. It is only this ideal man who is able to balance out capitalism and make it work without intervention.

Speaking as an advocate of the free market, I wasn't aware that I believed that.

[trdsf]

Of course, if you have actually read Marx, it's obvious that so-called "communism" as practiced by the old Eastern Bloc, by the Asian "communist" states, et al., bears no resemblance to communism as actually defined by Marx.  The behavior of the state in Stalin's Russia and Hitler's Germany were essentially indistinguishable -- either way you had a cult of personality atop an oppressive, intrusive police state with forced-labor and death camps and state control (directly or indirectly) of industry.

As for myself, I think pure communism is as impossible a dream as pure libertarianism -- they both make the same fatal flaw of assuming that people will act in the interest of the community over the self.  Limited socialism, in the form of social democracy, appears to work quite well: the Nordic states of Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland are all social democracies, and lead the world in nearly all important quality of life measures.

[Baruch]

That is because NATO pays for their defense ... same as NATO pays for the defense of Switzerland.  They are freeloaders, whether in a world of the Soviet Union or Putin's Russia.  Let them pay for everything, then see how free stuff is.  And Norway doesn't count ... because of North Sea petroleum.  The others don't have that.

[Hakurei Reimu]

Speaking as an advocate of the free market, I wasn't aware that I believed that.

Making that assumption is the only way free market capitalism will have the performance you assure. If you believe that your average human being can make free market capitalism work, then you are simply a fool. We've seen free market capitalism operating at all levels in the real world, and its failures are rife and well-documented, because the basic cog in the machinery is held together with bailing wire and spit.

[Baruch]

Making that assumption is the only way free market capitalism will have the performance you assure. If you believe that your average human being can make free market capitalism work, then you are simply a fool. We've seen free market capitalism operating at all levels in the real world, and its failures are rife and well-documented, because the basic cog in the machinery is held together with bailing wire and spit.

That is why so many modern people are anti-social.  Their home life, work life or both ... sucks.  Doesn't matter if it is a boss or a commissar.  Same ape people either way.

[Jason Harvestdancer]

Making that assumption is the only way free market capitalism will have the performance you assure. If you believe that your average human being can make free market capitalism work, then you are simply a fool. We've seen free market capitalism operating at all levels in the real world, and its failures are rife and well-documented, because the basic cog in the machinery is held together with bailing wire and spit.

Again, as an advocate for the free market, I wasn't aware that I believed that.

[Shiranu]

Again, as an advocate for the free market, I wasn't aware that I believed that.

I don't see the logic in advocating a system you don't believe can actually work...

[trdsf]

Another point worth remembering.

Capitalism and Marxism are economic systems, not political systems.  Neither one presupposes democracy or dictatorship.  Bayer and BASF are doing just fine under Angela Merkel, and when united as I.G. Farben they did just fine under Hitler.  The Soviet rocket program started, and for the early years dominated, the Space Race; as RKAâ€"and especially since the retirement of the Shuttleâ€"they remain leaders in manned spaceflight, and the Soyuz and Progress craft are the most successful designs used in space travel.

[Hydra009]

Limited socialism, in the form of social democracy, appears to work quite well: the Nordic states of Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland are all social democracies, and lead the world in nearly all important quality of life measures.

Yeah, but you forgot one thing: American exceptionalism.  Numbers are for nerds!  Best by fiat!

[Baruch]

I have been waiting for 50 years, for all the socialists to move to Stockholm, so they can experience the Stockholm Syndrome first hand ;-)

[Munch]

I have been waiting for 50 years, for all the socialists to move to Stockholm, so they can experience the Stockholm Syndrome first hand ;-)