• Garbagio@lemmy.zip
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    2 days ago

    I love the meme, but, no, even Marx didn’t predict the economy we have now. He correctly identified all the players at the table, but his worst predictions were reminiscent of pre-Reagan. His worst fever dreams were the “best” the economy has been for the working class in 50 years. That’s how fucked we are.

    If you went back and explained how we implemented supply-side economics, he’d look at you expectantly like “finally, their final move; then revolution, right?” If you continued with the housing crash, I’m pretty sure he’d collapse from terror. God, if you explained the modern finacialization of the economy, he’d probably kill you, if not himself.

    • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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      7 hours ago

      Capitalism in Marx’s age was far worse for the average laborer than the current western labor aristocracy feels. Child workers were packed like sardines into tiny rooms and forced to work over 10 hours a day, Capital Volume I describes this vividly. However, Marx only lived to see the beginnings of imperialism, which Lenin observed, and watched the imperial core export suffering to the global south and bribe its proletariat into complacency with the spoils. That’s why Imperialism, the Current Highest Stage of Capitalism is listed in the meme alongside Capital.

      Further, Lenin did not live to see the consolidation of the world’s competing imperialist power into one unified international dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, helmed by the US Empire, with subservient vassal states. This happened post-World War II, and the decay in this “super-imperialism” is what is driving present conditions forward.

      • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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        7 hours ago

        He didn’t predict it, but he did begin to analyze imperialism, which is why it has lasted longer than he thought it would, and which Lenin continued on. Capitalism in Marx’s age was far worse for the average laborer than the current western labor aristocracy feels. Child workers were packed like sardines into tiny rooms and forced to work over 10 hours a day, Capital Volume I describes this vividly. However, Marx only lived to see the beginnings of imperialism, which Lenin observed, and watched the imperial core export suffering to the global south and bribe its proletariat into complacency with the spoils. That’s why Imperialism, the Current Highest Stage of Capitalism is listed in the meme alongside Capital.

        Further, Lenin did not live to see the consolidation of the world’s competing imperialist power into one unified international dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, helmed by the US Empire, with subservient vassal states. This happened post-World War II, and the decay in this “super-imperialism” is what is driving present conditions forward.