Marx in 21st Century Wall Street, and the Pentagon

I am hardly unique in thinking that Marxist analysis of capitalism provided us with some very worthwhile insights.

That it was the watering down of the more extreme results of capitalism by Roosevelt and the Western European Social Democrats which led to the great prosperity of the late 20th century.

And that the untrammelled capitalism of the 19th century and 1920s resulted in disaster not just for the poorest, but for society as a whole.

And the idiot anti Keynsian Neo Conservatives who sought to elevate the market to some sort of religion are ultimately responsible for the mess we find ourselves in today.

So, Marx I thought, was absolutely right about what was wrong with Capitalism, but his vision of the future was just plain wrong.

To recap Marxist theory of history predicted that capitalism would implode when the politically conscious proletariat rose up to take control of the state. The state would be the mechanism for the common ownership of the means of production (everything) until perfect communism took hold, when the state would wither away.

Unfortunately we never got to the 'withering away of the state' part. Never mind.

My point here is, that I never thought we would reach a stage of the all encompassing state. Where society is run by a bureaucratic apparatchik class rather than by a capitalist class.

But look at where we have arrived. The public sector has taken over large chunks of our productive capacity. Generally close to 40% in Western Democracies.

For generations food production has been directed and subsidised by central governments, along with generous tax credits for industrial investment.

Now the whole financial system looks like a state dependency. In the US the private mortgage market was underwritten by the federal government, and the UK looks to follow suit.

Post 2001 the state has advanced not just in the economic, but also the security sphere. To the point where hardly a human interaction can be held in guaranteed privacy from intrusion of the state.

Even where government does not intervene, production is organised not in the small entrepreneurial units described in Adam Smith's theory, rather in large bureaucratic institutions. Called corporations. The owners of these corporations are ordinary people. Ownership via pension schemes and investment funds. But it is the.managers of these corporations who control them.  These managers come from the same class as the politicians. They form a bureaucratic elite. A revolving door takes these people from one side of the public/private divide and back again. The rest of us are generally excluded.

Indeed we are, as Marx envisaged now ruled by bureaucratic apparatchiks rather than by the owners of capital.

It just doesn't smell like socialism to me.

The only challenge to this bureaucratic elite comes from the tiny numbers of super wealthy. But that is another story.