Marx and Economics
Karl Marx (1818-1883) thought human history was not a random series of events but followed a pattern. The idealist philosopher Hegel had suggested all people are part one Universal Spirit and history is the Spirit’s attempt to overcome the oppositions which of have opened up between people. Marx did not believe in this Spirit but did accept people were ‘alienated’ from themselves, others, even their own work. He thought the sort of change needed to overcome human alienation is not philosophical but violent: economic slavery and private property should be abolished by political revolution.
Marx insists that underlying all other strife is class struggle over the Earth’s resources and the means of economic production. Religions, nations, laws and politics are not the real drama of human history: history is the whittling down of what is returned to the labourer from his work until the present capitalist era in which he is bitterly exploited. The only option is a socialist state with strong government which will prepare the way for a genuine communist state with, literally, no ‘them’ and ‘us’. The Catholic critique of this is well known: Leo XIII, like John Paul II, argued for private property, though against unrestricted consumerism and laissez-fairism.
Karl Marx (1818-1883) thought human history was not a random series of events but followed a pattern. The idealist philosopher Hegel had suggested all people are part one Universal Spirit and history is the Spirit’s attempt to overcome the oppositions which of have opened up between people. Marx did not believe in this Spirit but did accept people were ‘alienated’ from themselves, others, even their own work. He thought the sort of change needed to overcome human alienation is not philosophical but violent: economic slavery and private property should be abolished by political revolution.
Marx insists that underlying all other strife is class struggle over the Earth’s resources and the means of economic production. Religions, nations, laws and politics are not the real drama of human history: history is the whittling down of what is returned to the labourer from his work until the present capitalist era in which he is bitterly exploited. The only option is a socialist state with strong government which will prepare the way for a genuine communist state with, literally, no ‘them’ and ‘us’. The Catholic critique of this is well known: Leo XIII, like John Paul II, argued for private property, though against unrestricted consumerism and laissez-fairism.
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