[MTVN]

Originally Posted by The Slim Reaper

I guess the current strength of capitalism is decided by the perspective of the individual, because the speed at which wealth disparity is increasing, isn't healthy or the basis of a strong economy in any way.

He was correct about entrefemdung, about insecurity for workers, wealth disparity. As an example, Jeff Bezos has just under 900,000 employees, and if he gave them all a $100,000 bonus tomorrow, he'd have as much money left over as he had at the start of the pandemic, whilst workers are being abused on zero hour contracts, and he was on the money when it came to taxing corporate wealth to benefit society.

He was absolutely bang on when he wrote about capitalism lurching from crisis to crisis and I could go on. I would also argue that class consciousness is still an on-going endeavour, especially when highlighted by the fact that working class people who have achieved upward mobility, are equally liable to look down their noses at the remaining working class. A glance at the Rashford thread will highlight what I mean.

There's definitely problems but imo capitalism has been the most effective tool at lifting people out of poverty globally and that's why Marxist movements have mostly faded now. 'Class consciousness' was surely much higher in the early-mid 20th century than it is now

Some of that is fair though, but I think Marx underestimated capitalisms ability to adapt and the ability of technology to completely change the circumstances, I mean the working class has never been a homogenous group but is much less so now than when the majority of the population worked in manual industries. Marx should always be studied but I think the world today is totally different to how he expected it to be