On the occasion of Karl Marx's 200th birthday, the question of whether his theories remain valid today is passionately debated among economic experts. I read quite a lot, but my opinion is incompatible with any of those economists. It, instead, is a mixture of economic ignorance and life experience.
In an article in last Sunday's paper, three economics professors took a position on three of Marx's theses: the
concentration of enterprises, social impoverishment, and coming crises.
There is always a tendency for a
concentration of enterprises. Still, it is no longer the production of goods, although I just learned about the marriage between chemical giants Bayer and Monsanto. These days, it is the concentration of firms offering services. I am thinking, e.g., of Google, Facebook, and Microsoft. Over the years, these software, social media, and communication giants have swallowed smaller software developers to strengthen their position in a booming market.
Marx, who castigated the alienation of the worker vis-à-vis the hardware he has produced, would be shocked to see today's people's digital dependence on services they are presented with and cannot escape. The classic alienation is replaced by a fear of digital technology overstraining most users.
The people of Cologne are proud of their Basic Law. One article reads, "
Hammer immer esu jemaat" (We have always done it the same way), but this is no longer true for "
Nix bliev, wie et war" (Nothing remains as it was).
Despite efforts like the recent European General Data Protection Regulation to protect individuals' data, the man/woman in the street feels helpless and controlled. They develop angst about being overrun by self-driving cars or losing their non-digital jobs.
Populist parties stoke people's angst while governments somehow limit themselves to maintaining the status quo. The policy of just fixing defects follows another article of Cologne's Basic Law,"
Et het noch immer jot jejange" (Things have always worked out).
Today, the digital world dominates politics since politicians have neither the knowledge nor the insight to stand up to gurus like Mark Zuckerberg, as recent hearings in Congress and in the European Parliament have shown.
What follows is a hilarious sequence of photos taken during Mark Zuckerberg's "grilling" at the European Parliament, as commented by
Oliver Welke, Germany's Seth Meyers, in the
Heute Show (Today Show).
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| Mark Zuckerberg sitting next to Antonio Tajani, President of the European Parliament, ... (©ZDF) |
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| ... listening to Gabriele Zimmer's question (©ZDF) |
Gabriele cited three lines from Goethe's The Sorcerer's Apprentice* in German, "Master, I need Thee! From the spirits that I called, I can't get rid of ..." and ended Marc's education in German literature with the question, "Isn't it time to pull the plug?"
*Der Zauberlehrling. Herr, die Not ist groß! Die ich rief, die Geister, Werd' ich nun nicht los.
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| ©ZDF |
Marc's imagined reaction is plausible if the knowledgeable translator used the official translation, "Master, I need Thee! From the spirits that I called, Sir, deliver me! ...
You are welcome to read my conspiracy theory about Germany's digital situation
here.
It seems that Western societies do not have a classic Marxian proletariat. Nevertheless, poverty is a reality.
Although the promise is kept that no one has to starve or freeze, the gap between the poor and the rich is widening so that economists now talk about relative impoverishment. This is reflected in developing countries like India and Bangladesh, as well as in Western countries.
China is an exception, balancing Marxism and capitalism. In addition, out of pure necessity, the country actively participates in the fight against climate change by investing significantly in solar and wind energy. Due to the continued heavy use of coal and increased car traffic, the air in China's cities has become unbreathable.
In Western countries, relative poverty is politically explosive. Single mothers trying to combine child-rearing with holding a job often end up unemployed and on social welfare. With housing prices rising in most regions, young couples have to pay high rents with no hope of financing a condominium or a house of their own.
Will people who are being deceived by the capitalist system vote for the left or the right? Presently, populist parties have the wind in their sails, while left-wing parties still suffer from the past when they ran their socialist regimes into a brick wall.
Capitalism
can manage economic crises, albeit with government support, as the 2008 financial crisis has shown. According to economic experts, a great depression like the one in 1929, with massive unemployment and numerous bankruptcies, has become extremely unlikely.
Crises will surely come, but they will be of a different kind. A mix of overpopulation, competition for resources,* and climate change will lead to a massive migration of people. Just think of the inhabitants of Bangladesh, a country that will lose a large part of its land mass due to the rising tides of the Indian Ocean.
*in particular, clean water
Given all the specters of post-Marxism, shall we give up and state the Cologne way, "Et kütt, wie et kütt." (It cometh as it cometh)?
Hey, here is a better one, "Drinkste ene met?" (Why don't you have a drink with me?)
**
Krebs, associated with the Zentrum, the Catholic party in the Weimar Republic, was bitterly opposed to Vice-Chancellor Franz von Papen's treachery, which he called a putsch with Hindenburg's consent, the president of the Reich. Although Krebs named the Nazis somehow belittlingly Hitlerianer, they had already seized full power by June 1933. So it is strange when on July 21, Krebs was still referring to World War I hero Hindenburg, an old man of 86, when he writes, "The saber rules, the lie of betrayal - in the name of Hindenburg! The worst thing that has come over Germany since 1918! Oh, God! "
