Foreign Affairs: The Failures of Capitalism

Wages for the poorer half of the population in Europe and the United States have had sluggish growth over the last 50 years, while corporate profits have soared. Karl Marx, philosopher and economist, had predicted that the nature of capitalism would lead to inequality, unemployment, stagnant wages and oligopolistic firms. While communist revolutions did occur in countries like Russia and China, the political system failed to take hold in the richest economies like the United States and Western European nations as Marx had predicted. Marx’s ideas were widely dismissed during the 20th century, yet are useful in analyzing the ills of the world today, explains Robin Varghese for Foreign Policy. Marx recognized that that capitalism “may be the most dynamic social arrangement ever produced by human beings,” Varghese notes, and the desire for larger corporations to accumulate capital, reduce wages, dominate sectors, and more policies that are contrary to egalitarian goals is essential for finding the solution to “revitalize social democracy.” – Yale Global