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the corpus is incomplete or outdated in regard to certain aspects of economic political or social theory they may therefore combine marxist concepts with the ideas of other theorists such as max weber the frankfurt school provides one example of this approach conservative historian paul johnson in his 1988 book intellectuals wrote that marx developed traits characteristic of a certain type of scholar especially talmudic ones a tendency to accumulate immense masses of half assimilated materials and to plan encyclopaedic works which were never completed a withering contempt for all non scholars and extreme assertiveness and irascibility in dealing with other scholars virtually all his work indeed has the hallmark of talmudic study it is essentially a commentary on a critique of the work of others in his field he continues the truth is even the most superficial inquiry into marx s use of evidence forces one to treat with skepticism everything he wrote which relies on factual data for example johnson stated the whole of the key chapter eight of capital is a deliberate and systematic falsification to prove a thesis which an objective examination of the facts showed was untenable 5 page needed paul johnson s criticism of marx has itself been subject to criticism by marxian economist richard d wolff in a 1991 academic paper wolff describes johnson s book as criticism as malicious gossip a right wing tirade of rage is vented against left wing social critics intellectuals in general jews women and most of the others who compose the usual targets of such mentalities 6 historical materialism edit historical materialism remains one of the bases of marxism 7 8 it proposes that technological advances in modes of production inevitably lead to changes in the social relations of production 9 this economic base of society supports is reflected by and influences the ideological superstructure which encompasses culture religion politics and all other aspects of humanity s social consciousness 10 it thus looks for the causes of developments and changes in human history in economic technological and more broadly material factors as well as the clashes of material interests among tribes social classes and nations law politics the arts literature morality and religion are understood by marx to make up the superstructure as reflections of the economic base of society many critics who have argued that this is an oversimplification of the nature of society and claim that the influence of ideas culture and other aspects of what marx called the superstructure are just as important as the economic base to the course of society if not more so however marxism does not claim that the economic base of society is the only determining element in society as demonstrated by the following letter written by friedrich engels marx s long time contributor according to the materialist conception of history the ultimately determining element in history is the production and reproduction of real life more than this neither marx nor i ever asserted hence if somebody twists this into saying that the economic element is the only determining one he transforms that proposition into a meaningless abstract senseless phrase 11 according to critics this also creates another problem for marxism if the superstructure also influences the base then there is no need for marx s constant assertions that the history of society is one of economic class conflict this then becomes a classic chicken or the egg argument as to whether the base or the superstructure comes first peter singer proposes that the way to solve this problem is to understand that marx saw the economic base as ultimately real marx believed that humanity s defining characteristic was its means of production and thus the only way for man to free himself from oppression was for him to take control of the means of production according to marx this is the goal of history and the elements of the superstructure act as tools of history 12 marx held that the relationship between material base and ideological superstructure was a determination relation and not a causal relation 13 however some critics of marx have insisted that marx claimed the superstructure was an effect caused by the base for instance anarcho capitalist murray rothbard criticized historical materialism by arguing that marx claimed the base of society its technology and social relations determined its consciousness in the superstructure 14 historical determinism edit marx s theory of history has been considered a variant of historical determinism 15 linked to his reliance on dialectical materialism as an endogenous mechanism for social change 16 marx wrote at a certain stage of development the material productive forces of society come into conflict with the existing relations of production or this merely expresses the same thing in legal terms with the property relations within the framework of which they have operated hitherto from forms of development of the productive forces these relations turn into their fetters then begins an era of social revolution the changes in the economic foundation lead sooner or later to the transformation of the whole immense superstructure 17 the concept of the dialectic first emerged from the dialogues of the ancient greek philosophers but it was revived by georg wilhelm friedrich hegel in the early 19th century as a conceptual framework for describing the often opposing forces of historical evolution historical determinism has also been associated with scholars like arnold toynbee and oswald spengler but in recent times this conceptual approach has fallen into disuse 18 terry eagleton writes that marx s writings should not be taken to mean that everything that has ever happened is a matter of class struggle it means rather that class struggle is most fundamental to human history 19 academic peter stillman believes marx s status as a determinist is a myth 20 friedrich engels himself cautioned against interpreting marxism as strictly deterministic emphasizing that while economic factors are foundational they are not the sole forces shaping history 21 on another occasion engels remarked that younger people sometimes lay more stress on the economic side than is due to it 22 in an effort to reassert this approach to an understanding of the forces of history prabhat ranjan sarkar criticised what he considered the narrow conceptual basis of marx s ideas on historical evolution 23 in the 1978 book the downfall of capitalism and communism ravi batra pointed out crucial differences in the historical determinist approaches of sarkar and marx sarkar s main concern with the human element is what imparts universality to his thesis thus while social evolution according to marx is governed chiefly by economic conditions to sarkar this dynamic is propelled by forces varying with time and space sometimes physical prowess and high spiritedness sometimes intellect applied to dogmas and sometimes intellect applied to the accumulation of capital p 38 the main line of defence of the sarkarian hypothesis is that unlike the dogmas now in disrepute it does not emphasise one particular point to the exclusion of all others it is based on the sum total of human experience the totality of human nature whenever a single factor however important and fundamental is called upon to illuminate the entire past and by implication the future it simply invites disbelief and after closer inspection rejection marx committed that folly and to some extent so did toynbee they both offered an easy prey to the critics and the result is that today historical determinism is regarded by most scholars as an idea so bankrupt that it can never be solvent again 24 suppression of individual rights edit various thinkers have argued that a communist state would by its very nature erode the rights of its citizens due to the postulated violent revolution and dictatorship of proletariat its collectivist nature reliance on the masses rather than individuals historical materialism and centrally planned economy citation needed these points have also been debated by various thinkers who argue that we currently exist in a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie 25 and that marxism is not deterministic 26 the american neoclassical economist milton friedman argued that the absence of a free market economy under socialism would inevitably lead to an authoritarian political regime friedman s view was shared by friedrich hayek who also believed that capitalism is a precondition for freedom to flourish in a nation state 27 28 david harvey has responded to such claims by suggesting that socialism enables individual freedom stating that the achievement of individual liberties and freedoms is i argued a central aim of such emancipatory projects but that achievement requires collectively building a society where each one of us has adequate life chances and life possibilities to realize each one of our own potentialities 29 in contrast jonathan chait writes that marxist governments trample on individual rights because marxist theory does not care about individual rights marxism is a theory of class justice unlike liberalism which sees rights as a positive sum good that can expand or contract for society as a whole marxists and other left wing critics of liberalism think of political rights as a zero sum conflict either they are exercised on behalf of oppression or against it 30 anarchists have also argued that centralized communism would inevitably create coercion and state domination mikhail bakunin believed marxist regimes would lead to the despotic control of the populace by a new and not at all numerous aristocracy 31 even if this new aristocracy were to have originated from among the ranks of the proletariat bakunin argued that their new found power would fundamentally change their view of society and thus lead them to look down at the plain working masses 31 economic edit marxian economics have been criticized for a number of reasons some critics point to the marxian analysis of capitalism while others argue that the economic system proposed by marxism is unworkable 32 33 34 35 there are also doubts that the rate of profit in capitalism would tend to fall as marx predicted in 1961 marxian economist nobuo okishio devised a theorem okishio s theorem showing that if capitalists pursue cost cutting techniques and if the real wage does not rise the rate of profit must rise 36 labor theory of value edit main article labor theory of value the labor theory of value is one of the most commonly criticized core tenets of marxism 37 38 39 40 41 the austrian school argues that this fundamental theory of classical economics is false and prefers the subsequent and modern subjective theory of value put forward by carl menger in his book principles of economics the austrian school was not alone in criticizing the marxian and classical belief in the labor theory of value british economist alfred marshall attacked marx saying it is not true that the spinning of yarn in a factory is the product of the labour of the operatives it is the product of their labour together with that of the employer and subordinate managers and of the capital employed 42 marshall points to the capitalist as sacrificing the money he could be using now for investment in business which ultimately produces work 42 by this logic the capitalist contributes to the work and productivity of the factory because he delays his gratification through investment 42 through the law of supply and demand marshall attacked marxian theory of value according to marshall price or value is determined not just by supply but by the demand of the consumer 42 labor does contribute to cost but so do the wants and needs of consumers the shift from labor being the source of all value to subjective individual evaluations creating all value undermines marx s economic conclusions and some of his social theories 43 shimshon bichler and jonathan nitzan argue that most studies purporting to show empirical evidence of the labor theory of value often make methodological errors by comparing the total labor value to total price of multiple economic sectors which results in a strong overall correlation but this is a statistical exaggeration the authors argue that the correlations between labor value and price in each sector are often very small if not insignificant bichler and nitzan also argue that because it is difficult to quantify a way to measure abstract labor researchers are forced to make assumptions 44 45 however bichler and nitzan argue these assumptions involve circular reasoning the most important of these assumptions are that the value of labour power is proportionate to the actual wage rate that the ratio of variable capital to surplus value is given by the price ratio of wages to profit and occasionally also that the value of the depreciated constant capital is equal to a fraction of the capital s money price in other words the researcher assumes precisely what the labour theory of value is supposed to demonstrate 46 distorted or absent price signals edit the economic calculation problem is a criticism of socialist economics or more precisely of centralized socialist planned economies it was first proposed by austrian school economist ludwig von mises in 1920 and later expounded by friedrich hayek 47 48 the problem referred to is that of how to distribute resources rationally in an economy the free market solution is the price mechanism wherein people individually have the ability to decide how a good should be distributed based on their willingness to give money for it the price conveys embedded information about the abundance of resources as well as their desirability which in turn allows on the basis of individual consensual decisions corrections that prevent shortages and surpluses mises and hayek argued that this is the only possible solution and without the information provided by market prices socialism lacks a method to rationally allocate resources the debate raged in the 1920s and 1930s and that specific period of the debate has come to be known by economic historians as the socialist calculation debate 49 in practice socialist states like the soviet union used mathematical techniques to determine and set prices with mixed results 50 reduced incentives edit some critics of socialism argue that income sharing reduces individual incentives to work and therefore incomes should be individualised as much as possible 51 critics of socialism have argued that in any society where everyone holds equal wealth there can be no material incentive to work because one does not receive rewards for work well done they further argue that incentives increase productivity for all people and that the loss of those effects would lead to stagnation in principles of political economy 1848 john stuart mill said it is the common error of socialists to overlook the natur...