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Marx, Our Contemporary

Smith, Tony
http://solidarity-us.org/atc/195/marx-smith/

Publisher:  Against the Current
Date Written:  01/07/2018
Year Published:  2018  
Resource Type:  Article

Marx’s analysis uncovers essential features and defining tendencies of capitalism far better than alternative frameworks. Smith outlines five examples in how Marx remains our contemporary.

Abstract: 

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Excerpts:

1. Most social theorists assume that the purpose of the capitalist economy is to meet human wants and needs. Those on the right assert that this happens automatically, while "progressives" insist that nudges from governments are often required.

In sharp contrast to both, Marx ex-plained that as social relations are mediated by the production and sale of commodities, an impersonal force, capital, emerges over society. Its goal - the ceaseless augmentation of money capital from some amount (M) to a greater value, M' - predominates over human goals.

Marx's critical concept of capital makes visible what other theoretical frameworks occlude: in capitalism, human well-being necessarily tends to be sacrificed to the valorization imperative, M must become M'!

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