I just realized I need to read Marx's Capital

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We are always told that Marx’s economic analysis is obsolete and not worthy of consideration but in truth, it is as current as ever. just very very ignored.

I have already realized how important it is to be able to undestand Capitalism before you can argue for the need for socialism. That is because one needs to be able to show that Capitalism is flawed, breeding exploitation and inequality and against that Economists Engineers Capitalism proponents will be more than glad to argue.

One of the most classic and basic arguments I hear to this regard is that the Labour Theory of Value is obsolete and irrelevant. That Marx got it all wrong and that Neoclassical economics and especially the Austrian school have shown that it’s all about the Subjective Value. I have already made a small attempt to prove that the LTV still plays a role (imho the most important) and that have actually a dualist system with both Subjective and Objective values.

I was truly under the impression that Marx has somehow missed the subjective value of the equation and thus his argument seemed easy to refute and dismiss. That was, and I’m ashamed to admit, due to neoliberal propaganda. We’ve had it shoved into our heads by modern economists that Marx has already been proven wrong and he didn’t even get the basics right and the like.

It’s all bullshit. Marx understood very well the existence of the Subjective Value and that too was a very crucial part of his explanation of Value. I only realized this by watching an introduction to The Capital by prof. David Harvey who has been teaching the first volume of it for 40 years(!). Just from introductory session I understood that Neoclassical economics did not disprove Karl Marx, they simply ignored him.

This course is also the incentive I need to actually get down and read The Capital for myself and I believe that with the help of these lectures, I will be able to understand and digest the content much better.

I also suggest that many of you take the time to at least watch the introductory session. It clocks at around 2 hours but I believe it’s worth it at least to hear about it outside from the usual derogatory and propagandistic descriptions. Capitalism is the system that is affecting our lives day in, and day out and yet, so very few of us actually bother to understand how it works. The Capital is not a propaganda piece, it’s a attempt to find the rules that govern our current socioeconomic system, you can read it and make up your own mind on if a socialist alternative is required or not.

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6 thoughts on “I just realized I need to read Marx's Capital”

  1. Heh, when I saw the blurb on your front page I was going to suggest you check out Harvey's video course. I confess I'd have never gotten through Capital without it, and I still didn't entirely grasp it, but I was left with enough basic understanding to know that most of Marx's critics are fucking ideologues who almost certainly understand him less well than I do.

    Anyway Harvey's course is fucking brilliant. I just love the guy. It's hard to determine how long the entire course is because you can't see the length of each video until it's fully loaded, but it's got to be over 20 hours. I watched a little bit every night for what seemed like a month.

    Enjoy the rest of it. I followed along with the Marxists.org copy of Capital, which didn't jive perfectly but I managed to limp along.

    1. I followed along with the Marxists.org copy of Capital, which didn't jive perfectly but I managed to limp along.

      You mean that it doesn't fit with the page numbers and the like? Does the content differ by much?

      But I agree that Harvey is going to be a great help and I already think that he's a good lecturer

  2. The world might keep on trying to bullshit Marx, but he was the most realistic and cynical of all thinkers. We studied Marx in my 1st semester and I must say that he got one thing right, and that one thing was Economic Determinism. Its this economic determinism that forms the core of all his theories.

  4. Thanks for putting this up. It's given me a real kick up the arse. When I retired 5 years ago, I did so with the clear intention of re-reading Marx's work. And then something cropped up… and then another…and another……

    Now i'm comletely re-incentivised and I'm going to use the classes on David Harvey's website as I go through Vol1 and the Grundrisse after a 40 year gap.

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