Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:
>>In many ways, his vision came true. For one thing, the mergence of the
>>executive class - highly paid employees that took over the control of the
>>firm putting owners (stockholders) to the back seat - or ESOP is consistent
>>with Marx's prophecy of the producers taking the control of the means of
>>production. It may lack the populist appeal and revolutionary romanticism -
>>but it is a form of workers' control of the means of production nonetheless.
>>
That's way too weird Woj. The execs are not workers or producers of
anything except of privileges for themselves. The stockholders are still
making money.
>>Or take the emergence of social welfare state in Europe that significantly
>>improved the living conditions of the working class beyond anything that any
>>other political system achieved. It may not abolished the sale of labour
>>power but it significantly increased its "exchange value" i.e. social work
>>needed to reproduce it from bare survival minimum to the highest standards
>>of living known to humankind.
>>
But that had something to do with the expansion of capitalism through
expanded consumption and with the threat of the soviets...???
>>
>>So Marxism, if taken literary is far from being dead - many of its
>>predictions came true and today are taken for granted. Not a bad thing for
>>a social scientist.
>>
I disagree as far as it's possible to disagree. You're just playing with
words here Woj, to claim that Marx's vision was realized.
Joanna