# Why was Marx wrong about capitalism? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [May 1, 2022, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-marx-wrong-about-capitalism/963744 "2022-05-01T00:27:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TedBaiamonte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a698b9/32.png) [@TedBaiamonte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TedBaiamonte)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2022, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-marx-wrong-about-capitalism/963744/21 "2022-05-01T01:16:16Z")
if his critique is ok and not dead obviously wrong please tell us why you think that ---
**Author:** ![TedBaiamonte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a698b9/32.png) [@TedBaiamonte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TedBaiamonte)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2022, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-marx-wrong-about-capitalism/963744/22 "2022-05-01T01:18:16Z")
??? I just bought a beyond meat or something there. They are always trying to find new stuff to please customers to stay ahead of competition and bankruptcy ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2022, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-marx-wrong-about-capitalism/963744/23 "2022-05-01T01:18:33Z")
> [@TedBaiamonte](#): > > Under capitalism workers must get the highest pay possible. You canNOT be typing this with a straight face. I have a friend who makes $4 an hour. Paid by a successful business owner, so they see no need to increase wages. ---
**Author:** ![TedBaiamonte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a698b9/32.png) [@TedBaiamonte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TedBaiamonte)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2022, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-marx-wrong-about-capitalism/963744/24 "2022-05-01T01:22:15Z")
yes walk around store and so does the competition always looking for a way to get a slight edge on you and drive you into bankruptcy. This is exactly how we evolved from the universal subsistence poverty in the Stone age to massive QD Oled TV wealth today ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2022, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-marx-wrong-about-capitalism/963744/25 "2022-05-01T01:22:57Z")
> [@digs](#): > > I have a friend who makes $4 an hour. Paid by a successful business owner, so they see no need to increase wages. How does that old joke go? My boss drove up in a brand new Maserati, and I said to him, “Wow! That’s a nice car!” He took me aside and said, “Son, if you work hard, cut costs, and sell, sell, sell, then I can get another one next year, too.” ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2022, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-marx-wrong-about-capitalism/963744/26 "2022-05-01T01:23:08Z")
Have you ever been a capitalist? I don’t mean making the claim that you believe in capitalism, I mean have you taken your money, time, and resources to build a business that makes products and hires people? ---
**Author:** ![TedBaiamonte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a698b9/32.png) [@TedBaiamonte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TedBaiamonte)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2022, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-marx-wrong-about-capitalism/963744/27 "2022-05-01T01:25:23Z")
$4 hour??? In America you can make $15/hour right off the boat with no English education or experience while half the world lives on $5.50 /day or less without capitalism. Capitalism pushed wages up to 60 times more than most of the world makes! ---
**Author:** ![TedBaiamonte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a698b9/32.png) [@TedBaiamonte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TedBaiamonte)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2022, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-marx-wrong-about-capitalism/963744/28 "2022-05-01T01:26:19Z")
yes, And? ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2022, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-marx-wrong-about-capitalism/963744/29 "2022-05-01T01:27:37Z")
> [@TedBaiamonte](#): > > This is exactly how we evolved from the universal subsistence poverty in the Stone age to massive QD Oled TV wealth today So how does slavery fit into your capitalists must provide the best jobs schtick? Company stores? Sweatshops? Child labor? ---
**Author:** ![TedBaiamonte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a698b9/32.png) [@TedBaiamonte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TedBaiamonte)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2022, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-marx-wrong-about-capitalism/963744/30 "2022-05-01T01:29:44Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > Harris _may_ be to the left of Sanders (I honestly don’t know) but she’s not a Marxist. Well she may not be smart enough to be a Marxist but she has figured out she is for every imaginable measure to shower money down on her constituents much like a Santa Claus . ---
**Author:** ![TedBaiamonte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a698b9/32.png) [@TedBaiamonte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TedBaiamonte)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2022, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-marx-wrong-about-capitalism/963744/31 "2022-05-01T01:34:18Z")
1. slavery existed 20,000 years before capitalism was invented 2. company stores are fine as long as they are capitalistic and must offer the best price and quality to stay in business 3. sweatshops were the best possible at the time and so people moved up to sweatshops mostly from manual dirt farming 4. child labor still exists over much the world today mostly were it is a safe step up from scavenging in a garbage dumb all day or renting your body for sex, ---
**Author:** ![TedBaiamonte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a698b9/32.png) [@TedBaiamonte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TedBaiamonte)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2022, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-marx-wrong-about-capitalism/963744/32 "2022-05-01T01:37:53Z")
well he is inviting competition isn’t he? All the new competitor has to do is make do with one Maserati and use the savings to lower his price and drive the greedy guy into bankruptcy. Capitalism is a race to the top. This is how we evolved from Stone Age to here. ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2022, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-marx-wrong-about-capitalism/963744/33 "2022-05-01T01:38:43Z")
> [@TedBaiamonte](#): > > 1. slavery existed 20,000 years before capitalism was invented That is irrelevant. > [@](#): > > 1. company stores are fine as long as they are capitalistic and must offer the best price and quality to stay in business I’m not sure you know what a company store is. > [@](#): > > 1. sweatshops were the best possible at the time and so people moved up to sweatshops mostly from manual dirt farming There are still sweatshops today. > [@](#): > > 1. child labor still exists over much the world today mostly were it is a safe step up from scavenging in a garbage dumb all day or renting your body for sex, A safe step up? I’m also not sure that you know the history of child labor. Given your answers here, there’s little point in continuing the conversation with you. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2022, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-marx-wrong-about-capitalism/963744/34 "2022-05-01T01:40:07Z")
> [@TedBaiamonte](#): > > 1. company stores are fine as long as they are capitalistic and must offer the best price and quality to stay in business How do you feel about companies that paid their employees in scrip, which could only be used at the company store, where prices were often inflated over what real dollars could buy elsewhere? ---
**Author:** ![TedBaiamonte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a698b9/32.png) [@TedBaiamonte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TedBaiamonte)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2022, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-marx-wrong-about-capitalism/963744/35 "2022-05-01T01:42:13Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > Better jobs does not enter into the Capitalist equation. ???most of the world lives on $5.50/day or less. Starting wages in USA are 60 times higher because better jobs is the capitalist equation. ---
**Author:** ![TedBaiamonte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a698b9/32.png) [@TedBaiamonte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TedBaiamonte)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2022, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-marx-wrong-about-capitalism/963744/36 "2022-05-01T01:43:16Z")
lots of crooks around but they just invite competition don’t they? ---
**Author:** ![TedBaiamonte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a698b9/32.png) [@TedBaiamonte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TedBaiamonte)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2022, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-marx-wrong-about-capitalism/963744/37 "2022-05-01T01:45:10Z")
even the New York Times has supported child labor where it exists because often it is the best alternative. Do gooders have in some cases got it banned and the kids died in the streets as a result. _New York Times_ ‘ columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote a column in which he claims that in some cases having children working in a sweatshop is a good thing [“[Where Sweatshops Are a Dream](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/opinion/15kristof.html),” 14 January 2009]. He submitted his column from Cambodia. > In 1993, when Congress proposed the U.S. Child Labor Deterrence Act, which would have blocked imports made by children (if it had passed), garment factories in Bangladesh fired 50,000 children. Many ended up in worse jobs, like prostitution ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2022, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-marx-wrong-about-capitalism/963744/38 "2022-05-01T01:48:20Z")
Demonstrably it’s Marx’s theory of alienation keeping me from investing interest in this thread, or my woeful lack of a proper Praeger University education. ---
**Author:** ![TedBaiamonte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a698b9/32.png) [@TedBaiamonte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TedBaiamonte)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2022, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-marx-wrong-about-capitalism/963744/39 "2022-05-01T01:51:08Z")
so you think alienation was more of a factor than low wages?? Why? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2022, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-marx-wrong-about-capitalism/963744/40 "2022-05-01T02:16:54Z")
> [@GreysonCarlisle](#): > > That is irrelevant. No, it isn’t. It is an excellent business practice, and various companies try to keep it going. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-marx-wrong-about-capitalism/963744.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-marx-wrong-about-capitalism/963744.md?page=3)