Marx’s Critique of Capitalism and the Concept of Basic Income

Abstract

The discussion of capitalism and its virtues and vices, its development and alternatives, its possible continuation and end, was stimulated by, and suffered from, Marx’s claim that capitalism is doomed. Even the concept of capitalism is under the spell of Marx’s critique, because both the defenders of capitalism and its critics explicitly or implicitly refer to Marx as a critical analyst of capitalism. Yet a reconstruction of Marx’s theory of capitalism that aims at being as true to Marx’s various assertions as possible is of historical value only.1 What is badly needed to orient theoretical and practical attitudes toward the present economies are judgments on Marx’s critique that unambiguously distinguish between what has withstood the critique of time and what has not. I contribute to this task by sketching what I think is the ingenious core of Marx’s theory of capitalism, contrast it with what I argue are his fallacious and politically fatal conclusions from this core, and propose a practical consequence.