MARX AND SOCIALISM Hobbes Rousseau People are basically

MARX AND SOCIALISM • Hobbes • Rousseau People are basically selfish and violent. The State of nature would be nasty, brutal, and filled with conflict People are basically cooperative. Civilization – with its “haves” and “have nots” – has created violence, greed, and conflict. The state of nature was a peaceful world where we shared all things.

ROUSSEAU VS LOCKE Private Property is essential. Government exits primarily in order to protect it. • Private Property is the very root of all evil

CAPITALISM • A system in which a some people privately own the means of production, while others work for them. The workers are paid a small percentage of the owner’s profits, called a wage.

LIBERTARIANS AND CAPITALISM • Everything that possibly can be privatized should be privatized. • Markets should have the absolute minimum of Government oversight and regulation (laissez faire)

SOCIALISM • A system in which there is only public and never private ownership of the means of production. • Communism goes further in advocating the abolition of all private property

MARXISM • Karl Marx 1818 -1883 • Class Conflict – A ruling class harmfully controls a ruled class • Oppression – A moral, political, social and economic system in which some groups are held down so others can benefit • Exploitation – treating people like things • Alienation – When an oppressed group does not seem themselves authentically, but as the oppressor defines them

MORE MARX • Materialism – The means of running the economy determine the structure of social relationships, which always results in a conflict between two classes, making the decisive conflict of every age “class struggle. • History of Class struggle: a) the primitive communal society (remember Rousseau!), b) the slave society, c) the feudal society, d) the capitalist society, e) the communist society that is yet to come. • Capitalist class struggle: The Bourgeois, who owns the means of production, and the proletariat who works for the Bourgeois.

THE WORLD MARX WANTED 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Abolish all private property A heavy tax on income of the wealthy Abolition of all inheritance Nationalization of the banks All means of production publicly owned (run by the state) Free education for all children. Abolition of child labor Socialists would agree with 2, 5, 6 &7; but, they would not require 1, 3, or 4.

MARX VS THE PROGRESSIVES Marx 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Progressives Abolish all private property A heavy tax on income of the wealthy Abolition of all inheritance Nationalization of the banks All means of production publicly owned (run by the state) Free education for all children. Abolition of child labor 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Keep private property A heavy tax on the income of the wealthy Keep inheritance, but tax very wealthy inheritance heavily (estate tax) Carefully regulate the banks, but don’t nationalize. Some production publicly owned (by state), others privately-but regulated by government (mixed economy) Free education for all children Abolition of child labor