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The most widely read political tract of all time, at less than 50 pages. I think you owe it to yourself to see what the fuss is all about. My understanding is
by mahmud 14y ago
The most widely read political tract of all time, at less than 50 pages. I think you owe it to yourself to see what the fuss is all about.
My understanding is that Marx, and op, sees this constant training as a negative. Workers sell their skills and time; constant obselesence of works' skills to keep up with the Capitalists' automation of the job, in persuit of higher efficiency and lower costs (i.e. salary), is, in my understanding of Marx's ideas, a Bad Thing(TM).
This is not because Marx is a luddite and the workers anti-intellectuals, but because constant training weakens the labor guilds and unions. Workers cannot form any sort of long-term professional union if their skills are being obseleted constantly. This destruction of independent labor renders us all subservient to Capital and Capitalists, who are the only ones afforded the luxury of being in charge of their future and destiny.
- philwelch 14y agoSo innovation is a capitalist plot. Got it.
- mahmud 14y agoWhat a cheap way to oversimplify what I wrote. Do you seriously think Socialist societies are not capable of technological advances? Marxism is an economic framework, and there is no way avoiding technological advances in an economy. It's just that in Marxism, innovation comes from workers and joint stakeholders of the means of production. Not owners of Capital. The software market is MUCH closer to the Marxist ideal than a Capitalist free market, specially in Free Software. But I don't expect to get an intelligent conversation here,so, alas ..
- philwelch 14y ago"Do you seriously think Socialist societies are not capable of technological advances?" Construct one and we'll see. Previous attempts basically turned into murderous oligarchies. To me, that places Marxism outside the realm of practical consideration, since it seems impossible to actually implement. Less flippantly, it's always been engineers and inventors rather than investors (capitalists) who are responsible for innovation.
- chm 14y agoPedantically: Marx never called himself a Marxist. When he co-wrote (with Engels) the Manifesto, it was to consolidate the contemporary Communist thought into a distributable, available pamphlet. It would help if more people read the Manifesto, as you obviously have, but other commenters avoided.
- myth_drannon 14y agoThanks! You got me interested.
- chm 14y agoI was just referring to the pamphlet, not taking sides :)