Karl Marx and the current economic debacle!

It is fascinating watching the wheels spin and fall off the United States economy. The tragedy is that Canada will be affected by this situation.

Karl Marx, and John Maynard Keynes and George Soros, predicted these kinds of situations because Capitalism is inherently unstable! It is an economic system that can be ruthlessly productive but is also one of wheels within wheels-internal contradictions Marx called the-that can and regularly do, spin out of control. How many people study the first two thinkers? Most are too busy getting MBA's or degrees in Engineering and science in order to make the big bucks.

Marx, a German philosopher, saw these contradictions as opportunities, he figured that capitalism's self-destruction would lead to a better world. That would be nice but has not happend so far. Did not work after the great depression. We had WW II and then things settled down for awhile and the prosperity of the past few decades allowed everyone to become very complacent and watch let the heads of economic institutions line their pockets at the expense of others not so fortunate.

Keynes, a British economist saw the problems and felt that they could destroy the world he rather liked. The welfare state edifice that bears his name was designed in the post-1945 period to literally save capitalism from itself.

Banks would be regulated to keep financiers from scamming the economy to the ground. Labour unions would be encouraged, in order to give workers a stake in the status quo and inoculate them against radical politics.

The rich would agree to government tax-and-spend politics knowing that-in the end-it's always better to feed the poor than have them slit your throat.

Unfortunately, the leaders of the Capitalist nations under Regan, Thatcher and Bushes forgot or ignored these lessons and now we are in a serious mess. European countries that did not buy into this capitalist philosophy and accepted that we must look after everyone are now watching this debacle in amazement and able to point their fingers and say maybe a serious lesson has been taught. Let us hope that the 1930s are not here again.