Bill James’s post on revolutionary changes needed to our economic system certainly has some interesting ideas, ideas with which I am pretty much in complete agreement. We live in an obscene system where so many people do without even the basic necessities of life, while others inordinately profit from the labor of those who are even ABLE to find a job. A system which loses its justifications every day, whether it’s the good old “bootstrap” theory, or any of the other theories people find to explain away what is just plain and simple greed.
Marx was right in more ways than he was wrong. Marxism, however, or the perversion of it called Marxism-Leninism, has its problems. What Marx did was take a look around, in the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution, analyze what he saw, and predict what its future effects might be. True, he did have what could be called a political plan of action too, but what he proposed is far, far from what became of his ideas under the autocratic Soviet system. His analysis of what happens to surplus labor value, though, was at the time, and remains, spot on. Surplus labor value is what is allowing the dictators of industry to accumulate their ridiculous fortunes, fortunes which keep growing. It’s a systemic change which is needed, and what James proposes is a good start. We ARE the 99%, and if enough of us rise up and start to demand change, they will have to answer eventually.