I sat down with economic historian Phil Magness to give Karl Marx the fairest hearing we could, and then find out how his ideas took over half the world and most of modern academia.
We get into:
The historical context of Karl Marx’s writings
Why surplus value theory made intuitive sense and why it’s wrong
How the iPhone launch disproves Marx’s labor theory of value
The unlikely story of how Lenin and the Bolsheviks took over Russia
Stalin, Trotsky, and the “real communism was never tried” folks
How Soviet propaganda helped resurrect Marx in the West
Why Marx is read in every academic field… except economics
How to minimize cost and Marxist indoctrination in college
Follow Phil Magness on X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/PhilWMagness?s=20
Learn more about Phil’s work: https://philmagness.com/
Outline:
[0:00] The “best” of Karl Marx
[11:21] What was Marx’s actual vision?
[15:24] Socialism Before Marx
[24:50] Is “capitalism” a slur?
[28:54] What’s the moral argument for land ownership?
[35:23] Labor theory vs subjective value
[46:07] Why Marx was left behind
[52:53] Marx’s math doesn’t work
[1:01:10] Why did the Bolsheviks pick up Marx?
[1:09:49] How Lenin conquerors Russia
[1:20:29] Was Lenin “not as bad” as Stalin?
[1:23:30] What did Lenin actually think?
[1:27:41] “Real communism has never been tried”
[1:30:24] Why academia loves Marx
[1:49:16] Does socialism have anything to offer?
[1:56:28] Is Marxism a religion?
[2:09:38] Modern Marxism is just woke mad libs
[2:13:41] “Cracks in the Ivory Tower”
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