Robert Clegg’s Reviews > The Communist Manifesto > Status Update

Is capitalism perfect? Certainly not. Is communism the solution? Certainly not. The authoritarian state proposed in the manifesto is trusted to dissolve on its own, a utopic belief at best. In actuality, the state will likely prop up its own bourgeois class and continue the oppression against the proletariat. Centralized power leads to centralized oppression. The calls to abolish the family and religion are calls against humanity and thought itself. The justifications of these calls also show the logically unsound nature of the communist manifesto as well. The logic overly pushes universal claims in spaces where they can be easily refuted with counterexamples.



However, despite this, the ideas shared in this book must not be dismissed. Capitalism has faults that must be addressed and are laid plainly in this manifesto. Capitalism dominates the world, creates wants to satisfy itself, and exploits natural resources and workers. It is true that the owner of capital can likely be found using it as leverage against the proletariat. But the solution against capital being used for oppression can also reside in a change of how capital is handled rather than the absolution of capital ownership itself.

At the end of the day I cannot envision a communist society working as laid out. I am inclined to side with the Austrian economist Hayek, who writes that socialist (and also communist) planning cannot work because no data will exist for planning since the market creates the data. This also forces me to not side with socialism as well. Though their quests are noble to free people who are really oppressed, their end goal will lead to oppression itself when scaled to large society.

In the end I find that the ideas are best applied to capitalism itself via restrictions and I tend to agree with Universal Basic Income. Both capitalism, communism, and socialism require a strong legal system to achieve their means (even if for communism, it is in the period before they claim that a stateless society will self-form).



Overall, everyone should read this book and learn from it. If you cannot read a book and learn while disagreeing, then that is a fault in yourself. This book should be common knowledge, and I am sad that it isn't.