Karl Marx Was Right
b'We can\\u2019t say Karl Marx didn\\u2019t warn us: capitalism contains the seeds of its own destruction. In their chase for ever higher profits, the capitalists shed workers for machines. The higher return on capital means that the share of profits rises and the share of wages falls, and soon the mass of the population isn\\u2019t earning enough to buy the goods capitalism produces. And that\\u2019s exactly what\\u2019s been happening over the past four years of the Great Recession: ever increasing income inequality, leading to ever weaker aggregate demand \\u2013 temporarily disguised by an unsustainable credit binge \\u2013 leading to collapse. You don\\u2019t have to be a communist to see that this is so. We should all be Marxists now. Or should we? Every time capitalism hits an inevitable bad patch, Marx\\u2019s name is invoked with wearisome regularity. But no serious economist or political thinker \\u2013 with the possible exception of Gordon Brown \\u2013 has ever suggested capitalism can break free of booms and busts. Once bust, as we\\u2019ve seen time and again, the...\\nSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/intelligencesquared.\\n\\nSee acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.\\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices'