Marxism/Socialism, A Sociopathic Philosophy Conceived In Gross Error And Ignorance, Culminating In Economic Chaos, Enslavement, Terror, And Mass Murder: A Contribution To Its Death

by George Reisman

For its size, this essay is the most powerful, comprehensive, and in-depth critique of Marxism/Socialism and defense of capitalism ever written. Socialism is government ownership of the means of production. My essay explains why its establishment requires armed robbery and murder on a massive scale, acts which communists are willing to commit, but not social democrats, who therefore should stop calling themselves socialists. My essay demolishes the attempt of Marxism/Socialism to portray the free workers of capitalism as only nominally free and in actuality slaves. It demolishes the belief, introduced by Adam Smith and then serving as the starting point for Marx, that profits are a deduction from wages. It shows instead that profits exist prior to wages, by virtue of workers producing and selling products in exchange not for wages but for sales revenues, which are initially all profit. My essay shows that when capitalists appear, and pay wages and buy capital goods for the purpose of earning sales revenues, their expenditures show up as costs of production to be deducted from sales revenues, thereby reducing the proportion of sales revenues that is profit. Thus capitalists, instead of stealing their profits from wage earners, create wages and reduce profit margins, as well as lay the foundation for continuing economic progress and rising real wages through their purchase and employment of capital goods. My essay also shows, among many other things, that when it comes to economic planning capitalism is as rich compared to socialism as it is in the production of material goods. This is because, under capitalism, all participants in the economic system engage in economic planning, with their separate, individual plans being harmonized, coordinated, and integrated by means of the price system. In sharpest contrast, under socialism economic planning is the monopoly of no more than a relative handful of people, the members of the socialist “central planning board.” Thus, as I remarked in my essay, “The alleged economic planning of socialism is in fact not economic planning at all, but the forcible suppression of economic planning—the forcible suppression of the economic planning of everyone in the economic system outside the membership of the central planning board.” Absent the economic planning of capitalism, the result is economic chaos, declining production, and starvation. Just as my essay presents the truth about socialism, so too does it present the truth about capitalism. For example, it shows how, under capitalism, a willingness of workers to work for minimum subsistence, rather than die of starvation, is irrelevant to the wages they actually need to accept, which are set at a far higher level by the competition of employers for labor. It shows that the actual self-interest of employers is not to try to pay wages that are as low as they might like, but rather the lowest wages that are simultaneously too high for any other employers who would otherwise obtain the labor that these employers want to employ. The position of employers under capitalism is essentially the same as that of a successful bidder at an auction. His successful bid must be too high for his next nearest competitor. Capitalism not only continually raises real wages, it also operates to reduce the hours of work, abolish child labor, and improve working conditions. It does this by virtue of the fact that once real wages have increased sufficiently, workers can afford to accept the comparatively lower wages that accompany shorter hours, can afford to keep their children home longer, and can afford to accept the comparatively lower take-home wages that enable employers to provide them with improvements in working conditions that do not pay for themselves through increases in efficiency.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Economics

138 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 19, 2018

About the author

George Reisman, Ph.D., is Pepperdine University Professor Emeritus of Economics, and the author of Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics (Ottawa, Illinois: Jameson Books, 1996; Kindle Edition, 2012), The Government Against the Economy; Warren Buffett, Class Warfare, and the Exploitation Theory; The Benevolent Nature of Capitalism and Other Essays; Labor Unions, Thugs, and Strom Troopers; and, most recently, Piketty's Capital: Wrong Theory/Destructive Program. His website is capitalism.net. His blog is georgereismansblog.blogspot.com. See his Amazon.com author's page and follow him on Twitter @GGReisman.

Dr. Reisman is married to Edith Packer, J.D., Ph.D., a clinical psychologist, with whom he lives in Laguna Hills, California.

He was personally a student of Ludwig von Mises, whose NYU seminar he attended for eight years and under whom he obtained his doctorate in economics in 1963. He is the translator of von Mises's Epistemological Problems of Economics (New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1960). From1957 until her death in 1982, he was an associate of Ayn Rand.

Reviews

[TheQueensBooksII · Rating 5 out of 5]

This small volume packs undeniable, unquestionable and factual punches. Prof. Reisman takes no prisoners in his quest to educate the world about the horrifying truth of Marxism, socialism and communism. Devised by liars and the ignorant, Reisman has no problem calling a moron a moron and a sociopath a sociopath, as the shoes fit those who should wear them. Sorry (not sorry) if you don't like it; the truth hurts sometimes.

Every person who loves freedom and mankind should read this. Every Marxist argument finds its annihilation in this small book. If anyone reads this and still thinks that Marxism-socialism-communism is awesome or cool, or heck, even functional, he or she is living in a world of deliberate self-delusion.

I salute and applaud Reisman for his courage, intelligence and forthrightness. Knowing this information could save the world from economic (and other) destruction. Let him who has ears to hear, hear.

[Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

155+ years of economic misunderstanding leading to structuring political and economic systems in a way that doesn't serve thriving human lives. This book goes to the economic calculation level along with the principle level to understand the source of those errors. What system leads to the unlocking of the human mind to solve problems and create abundance (wealth)?

The title is incendiary yet clear. Socialism is a system that makes success impossible mathematically and it's one where force is used top-down to fake the planning of human minds which does not work.

If you're used to hazy, reluctant acceptance of Capitalism or an uncontested moral high ground of socialism you will be defensive even reading the title. Don't lose your critical evaluation, read it and understand it, don't just dismiss this solid challenge to your ideas.