Centrist (left center) economist Brad DeLong presents a magisterial wrap on the 20th century.
The big picture is vast, almost unimaginable, increase in the human material capacity to produce goods and services to meet human needs, but marred by so much inequality and alienation that people are no less unhappy. (This is, essentially, a Marxist critique.)
As always, he includes Marx and Engels quotations, only partly to criticize them, and also showing them in some ways ahead of other economists of the time. (Though even JS Mill was well aware of capitalist alienation.)
He points out that Marx's thin descriptions of life after the socialist revolution and reach to the "higher phase of communist society" deliberately echo Christian descriptions of how people who have attained the Kingdom of Heaven behave, in which each will contribute "according to his ability" (Acts of the Apostles 11:29) and to each "according to his needs" (Acts of the Apostles 4:35). I had alluded to these passages less precisely just a few days ago, and here DeLong provides the exact references. Wonderful!
Sadly, it's unclear if we are closer to communist society, or headed to doom first, as regular and excellent commenter Graydon suggests.
He points out that Edward Bellamy did not like being called a Socialist, though in fact what he was describing in Looking Backward was a higher phase of socialism, virtually "communism."
The big picture is vast, almost unimaginable, increase in the human material capacity to produce goods and services to meet human needs, but marred by so much inequality and alienation that people are no less unhappy. (This is, essentially, a Marxist critique.)
As always, he includes Marx and Engels quotations, only partly to criticize them, and also showing them in some ways ahead of other economists of the time. (Though even JS Mill was well aware of capitalist alienation.)
He points out that Marx's thin descriptions of life after the socialist revolution and reach to the "higher phase of communist society" deliberately echo Christian descriptions of how people who have attained the Kingdom of Heaven behave, in which each will contribute "according to his ability" (Acts of the Apostles 11:29) and to each "according to his needs" (Acts of the Apostles 4:35). I had alluded to these passages less precisely just a few days ago, and here DeLong provides the exact references. Wonderful!
Sadly, it's unclear if we are closer to communist society, or headed to doom first, as regular and excellent commenter Graydon suggests.
He points out that Edward Bellamy did not like being called a Socialist, though in fact what he was describing in Looking Backward was a higher phase of socialism, virtually "communism."
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