Criticisms of Marxisms Flashcards
Marxists seem to ignore all of the benefits that exist currently in some Capitalist systems
> Free education, free healthcare, welfare, minimum wage, workers’ rights and shorter working hours make social mobility possible.
Western Europeans enjoy the highest living standards in the world as a result, are often the happiest countries in the world and some have the lowest level of wealth inequality in the world.
Marxists have certainly identified flaws in the Capitalist system, however their solution (communism) is wholly unrealistic
> Countries that experimented with Marxism (the USSR, The GDR, and SFRY for example) failed in their goals. >This suggests “managed capitalism” is a far more realistic goal.
Marxists to some degree ignore human psychology
> Capitalism is reliant on the desires of greed and ambition to power it, which many humans do have- obesity (caused by greed of food), is now an epidemic for example-.
> Marxism relies too heavily on the rational and altruistic elements of humanity to succeed; these are not as overriding as greed and ambition.
There is no ability to create a system of equality
> In the USSR, under Stalin a “Nomenklatura” or bureaucracy elite appeared. According to the historian Robert Service, the “Little did the Proletariat know that the tables of the Kremlin creaked under the weight of caviar.”
In China a network of 3,000 elite party schools determine who the country’s most powerful people will be.
Not enough focus is given to other factors that influence the Patriarchy, especially cultural
> Women’s fashion could be considered subjugating as currently the trend is to wear revealing clothes (although Feminists may disagree whether this is good or bad).
This ignores Gramsci’s Cultural Hegemony argument, however!
