James Donald wrote... "Despite the fact that the trend has been in the other direction for the past two hundred years, despite the fact that what Marx wrote was obviously false then, and has become more obviously false in the 150 years since he wrote, Marxists repeat Marx's prophecies with the more confidence, the more obviously the facts contradict them." A lot of people living in the US make this kind of mistake. Actually, developed nations make up a minority of the world's population (though with China and India this may change wihtin our lifetimes). When one considers the abverage living standard for the entire world its been debated that it may actually be going down. I'd argue that in some ways the real standard of living in the US has certainly gone down since the 1950s. Although technology has made things more affordable, the numbers of hours per week has increased steadily since the 1970s, and the number of homes where both parents must work has increased greatly. So "obvious" it ain't. (However, if China and India's standard of living continue to increase, within our lifetimes I think its quite clear that the world's standard of living will certainly be higher, on average, than its ever been.) -TD

From: "James A. Donald" <jamesd@echeque.com> To: cypherpunks@lne.com Subject: Re: Capitalism and monopolism Date: Sun, 04 May 2003 13:57:27 -0700

-- On 3 May 2003 at 21:03, Andy Lopata wrote:

...

Simply put, markets lead to consolidation.

So said Marx. He also said that markets would make the workers poorer and poorer.

Despite the fact that the trend has been in the other direction for the past two hundred years, despite the fact that what Marx wrote was obviously false then, and has become more obviously false in the 150 years since he wrote, Marxists repeat Marx's prophecies with the more confidence, the more obviously the facts contradict them.

--digsig James A. Donald 6YeGpsZR+nOTh/cGwvITnSR3TdzclVpR0+pr3YYQdkG Ic1xAeCT1HkM0xATi9N8p+jTR40FPoz4Ej6T5Oep 4hL/SG1g6h/sdIbk/IJWPDxc3E/XmQj/f3wE3EYS1

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