What Elements of Marxist Theory are Relevant Today?

Introduction

Marx is a great scientist from an age that was considerably different from our own in the nineteenth century. Much of Marx’s work is beginning to take expression in the modern world. Marxist theory is very important in the modern world because it distinguishes between beliefs that have become obsolete and those that can develop in the modern world. Some of the concepts pertinent to today’s society in Marx theory include the labor theory of value, commonly known as the tendency of the rate of profit to fall. Both are formulated from the economic theories of David Ricardo and Adam Smith (Wolff, 2003). There is a relation to the present outdated version of capitalism characterized by the large agriculture sector, low rates of productivity increase under the pressure from population growth.

Relevance to the Current Society

The ideas that are relevant to the current society are the political movement and the intellectual conceptions, which are displayed as close tied to social structure and collective economic interests. The other element that is relevant to the current society is the voluntary market exchange found within the aspects of exploitation and domination. At the beginning of the period of industrialization in Britain, these elements were evident among the factory workers, working hard for about 14 hours in a day, starving handloom weavers, and dust-ridden textile mills. In the current society, such elements are discriminatory in most of the affluent countries; on the other hand, they remain quite distinct. But when examining these results of three decades of public policy extolling exchanges in the economy and ignoring the negative consequences, we could want to make Marx’s insight more important. Marx’s element is also relevant today in the understanding of the capitalist market economy which was not an automatically automatic system, but with time it entered in periods of self-generated breakdown. These years were known as crises according to Marx; they are referred to as recessions in the current society (Hayashi & West, 2005).

Description of the Internal Logic of the Marxist Economic Theory with Examples

Marx’s theory of internal logic includes analysis of the crisis in capitalism, the distribution and role of surplus value and surplus product in various types of economic system, the origin and nature of economic value and the influence of the class struggle on political processes, economic and commercial evolution. Capitalism is an economic formula prone to crisis. It is directed by forces which make it anarchic, unstable, and self-destructive. Marx puts capitalism in a society full of great means of production and exchange and he lacks the power to control the forces of the world (Knapp & Spector, 2014).

Examples of Internal Logic of Marxist Economic Theory

An example today is the world trade stock market which grows rapidly and slumps, long-term unemployment, recurring layoffs, power blackouts and corporate scandals that describe them better. Another example involves the US which is today in the middle of the longest time of employment losses since the Great Depression. Currently, the United States market economy has been hit with the reduction of jobs places in 2.6 million ones compared to two years earlier. Another example is that about 2 million people lost their medical insurance cover in the number of personal bankruptcies on the increase. Depression and economic crises-recession were part of capitalism at its origin, which continues to plague the economy of today despite promises to compact it (Dahms, 2011).

Conclusion

In conclusion, Marxist theory is relevant in the current society through the contribution of ideas such as labor theory of value, voluntary market exchange, and the capitalist market economy. The internal logic theory of economic majorly describes the crisis in capitalism.

References

Dahms, H. F. (2011). The vitality of critical theory. Bingley, UK: Emerald.

Hayashi, H., & West, R. (2005). Marx’s labor theory of value: a defense. New York: iUniverse.

Knapp, P., & Spector, A. J. (2014). Crisis and change today: basic questions of Marxist sociology. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Pub.

Wolff, J. (2003). Why read Marx today? Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press.