I do hope Davidf, particularly, will read the article I've provided the link to.

It beggars belief that in the 21st century people stil get sucked in by Marxism.
Marx is inextricably tied to suffering in exactly the same way as Hitler, is it socially acceptable to say "Well Hitler had some inspiring ideas but I don't agree with what went on in the camps"?
No way, so why is it acceptable to praise Marx, the inspiration for the most brutal, genocidal ideologies ever devised?
Marxism=Mass Graves, 100 million dead and counting, Commies aren't cool.
The backbone of Marxist Socialism has always been slavery, the Gulags were the spine of the Soviet economy, no more needs to be said about how evil Marxism really is:
http://reasonradionetwork.com/downloads/ton/MRJ_20091022.mp3

Bazz

I don't know. It's a counter-factual historical contingency isn't it?

People use what they can, and will prefer something that costs them less (ie gives more output per units of input) over something that costs them more.

The rise in living standards was based on the use of oil. But that doesn't mean that, in the absence of oil but in the presence of modern capitalist relations of production, living standards would not have risen to higher than those of former ages.

JOM,

As Squeers has pointed out, Marx was not a "Marxist".

Dear Squeers,

I read the article. In it, "The truth is that Marx was no more responsible for the monstrous oppression of the communist world than Jesus was responsible for the Inquisition."

Jesus and Marx were both responsible for the misdeeds of their followers.

Bishop Spong has cited some of Jesus' statements:

http://johnshelbyspong.com/sample-essays/the-terrible-texts/

RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY:
“No one comes to the Father but by me” (John 14:6)
This text has helped to create a world where adherents of one religion feel compelled to kill adherents of another. A veritable renaissance of religious terror now confronts us and is making against us the claims we have long made against religious traditions different from our own.

ANTI-SEMITISM:
And the people answered, ‘His blood be on us and on our children’” (Matt. 27:25)
No other verse of Holy Scripture has been responsible for so much violence and so much bloodshed. People convinced that these words conferred legitimacy and even holiness on their hostility have killed millions of Jewish people over history. Far more than Christians today seem to understand, to call the Bible “Word of God” in any sense is to legitimize this hatred reflected in its pages.

As I pointed out in a previous post:

The Communist Manifesto recommends:

5. Centralization of credit in the banks of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.

6. Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the state.

7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.

The manifesto prescribed totalitarianism - state ownership of means of production and state control of expression and transportation.

Jesus prescribed bigotry, Marx prescribed tyranny. Their followers filled the prescription. Original sin is moving from primitive communism by the advent of private property. The class struggle is a struggle between good and evil. The millennium is the eventual classless society. Marxist nonsense isn't too different from Christian nonsense. Examine their words!

Dear Squeers,

I have read Marx's "On the Jewish Question." It was the work of a hate-filled bigot, and you simply cannot erase those words. He wrote the words and never apologised for thdm. He remains scum.