With the onset of another presidential election, the people of Southeast Volusia, and for that matter, the whole country should be aware of how much the rotten ideas of Karl Marx have influenced our politics, even to this day. Many like Grace Bark, 79, who lives on the beach-side, don’t recognize the extent of Marx’s influence on our politics, except they have a negative impression of him, even without knowing or understanding his principles.
“I know Marx’s ideas don’t work very well.” Bark said and when asked to give an example of Marx’s bad ideas, she responded, “Please don’t test me on that.”
Likewise, a group of New Smyrna ’s professionals and businessmen agreed his ideas were bad, but begged off on giving any specifics.
Most New Smyrnans appear to be aware of the fact that Marx’s ideas are bad but they don’t have a clue as to what they are. As a consequence they don’t recognize them when American politicians of both parties offer them as solutions to our problems.
Probably the most rotten idea of Marx is that property ownership should be abolished. To this end he advocated a sharply graduated tax on income and that there should be no inheritance. The property of foreigners and enemies of the state should be confiscated.
Notice that we have a graduated income tax and will return to a confiscatory tax on estates if the Bush Tax cuts are allowed to expire.
Note that while both of these taxes are not as extreme as Marx would have liked they are in line with his philosophy and both are bad for the economy.
The next concept of Marx is that the country’s banking should be under the control of the state. Both political parties seem to agree with this concept.
However, leaving the money supply in the hands of the state can be a recipe for disaster. In this country the Federal Reserve will continue to create a boom and bust cycle because they have no way of telling how much money and credit should be created.
Even if they knew, they might let political pressures rather than economic necessity control their actions.
In other parts of the world, government control of the money supply has led to terrible inflation.
Another bad Marxist idea is that the government should control education. Again neither party is willing to fully recognize what a bad idea that is.
However, some political leaders are trying to wrest some of the control of education from the governments.
Another bad Marxist idea we hear from some of our leaders is that profits are evil.
They either don’t know or won’t admit that without the profit and loss there is no way we can have an efficient economy. Profit and loss is the only complete natural measure of economic efficiency.
If we were to confiscate all of Exxon’s profit we would suddenly find ourselves without gasoline. The Marxist idea some politicians have of the government taking over the oil companies and running them is absurdly bad.
Another bad Marxist idea is that of eliminating income inequality. If incomes were truly equalized there would be little incentive for people to work and produce anything.
The idea that no one should be rewarded for working harder or smarter than other people has made a substantial contribution to poverty wherever it is implemented.
One last bad Marxist idea worth noting is that the price or worth of something should be determined by the cost of the labor and raw materials that go into it.
Americans have learned lately from the housing market that the value of something is determined by what people are willing to pay for it.
The cost of an item is important because your production cost determines whether or not you can produce it for the market.
It is amusing to hear people complain that the price of something such as gasoline has shot up suddenly.
They think that the gas should stay at the same price it was when it was delivered to the filling station rather than a new higher price that may suddenly prevail if news breaks that gasoline supply has been sharply reduced by some event.
The rotten ideas of Marx should be laughed at and ignored. Tragically, however, these rotten ideas greatly influence our thinking and policies.
Most candidates embrace Marxist ideas to some extent, perhaps without even realizing it. You have to determine which one uses them the least and vote for him or her.