When one weighs the positive moments of a free market system and individual accumulations of wealth, status and power, along side of the more negative moments, one is forced to go outside the logics of the system to invent a political economy which retains some of the more helpful features while minimizing its more harmful effects. In this sequel to the Sunday posting, I will conclude with the marxist critique of capitalism and try to give a fair appraisal of the Immiseration Thesis as we head into the 21st Century. From there I will go to a marxian theory of Alienation, on to an overview of Market Socialism and conclude this series with an overall appraisal of Marxian Social Theory. The Immiseration thesis is particularly important to those who study social problems and the shape of social institutions in that a basic tenet of marxian theory is that the political economy shapes both material and cultural patterns of social life. The story goes that dollar by dollar, pound by pound, mark by mark and yen by yen, rich firms gather the wealth into ever fewer firms.
Big companies buy up or drive out small companies.
The list goes on. These are the years that most academics came of age. It well may be the case that, over the past 400 years of industrial capitalism, and over a more global view, the Embourgeoisement Thesis has important truth value. Compared to feudal, slave, and tribal economies of the 16th centuries, capitalism looks good. Since we have not yet reached the end of history, the question remains for your generation to consider.