> And in conclusion, no, I do not think that Marx wrote the
> final word on capitalism then or now.
Discussions around the topic of whether the final word has been said on any topic tend to ignore two cases (or large categories of cases) in which the proposition is true but trivial.
The first is when what can be added are indefinite realms of detail or cataloging of marginal changes in the object of study. You can illustrate this simply for yourself by considering the object to be described as your residence.
The second is when major things remain to be said but there is no way, under given conditions, of discovering those "things." For example, *we* know that there were major modifications to be made in Newton's theory of gravity. But we also know that those modifications could not be made on the basis of any technology that existed prior to the late 19th century. During that interval statements that there was more to be said about gravity would have interfered with rather than carried forward the science of physics.
Fundamental to historical materialism is the premise that a given era can only be at all fully understood by looking back on it, by seeing it as history. That means the present can be understood at all deeply only so far as we can, at least hypothetically, see the major outlines of the future potentially there in it. The silliness of all attempts to draw detailed pictures of socialism (or to make any such detailed picture the goal of struggle) mark the limits of what we can know about the present.
Marx almost certainly did not say everything important to say about capitalism. It is possible that in its major features Marx's description of capitalism can only be expanded from the viewpoint of some actual post-capitalist social order of the future. Perhaps he has told us all we are going to learn of the fundamental dynamic of capitalism. And if that "all" proves insufficient (and only a religious perspective could guarantee its sufficiency), then the second of Rosa Luxemburg's alternatives names the future we can expect.
The last point can be put another way. If on some topic we don't at present know enough that is no guarantee that we are going to know any more. I would guess that there are in fact important questions that will *never* be answered.
Carrol