Brad Alles

Continuing this series of blogs on the future according to worldviews, we turn our attention to Marxism, and the issue of economics.   In the Marxist idea of economics, socialism is better than capitalism.  Yet Dr. David Noebel points out that capitalism has raised more people out of poverty than all other economic systems combined. On the other hand, the historical track record of socialism made a former Marxist economist change his mind: “The Soviet Union, China, and Eastern Europe have given us the clearest possible proof that capitalism organizes the material affairs of mankind more satisfactorily than socialism.”

To illustrate the failure of Marxist economics, take Cuba. When Jeffrey Goldberg, writer for The Atlantic magazine, asked Fidel Castro, former president of Cuba, if his Communist economic system was still worth exporting, Castro answered frankly, “The Cuban model doesn’t even work for us any more.” The United Kingdom’s The Guardian newspaper wrote, “That the island’s economy is a disaster is hardly news… Agriculture has been a big disappointment…central planning and state-run co-operatives have produced chronic shortages, prompting an old, bitter joke that the revolution’s three biggest failures are breakfast, lunch and dinner.”

Why did Castro bluntly admit his economic model didn’t work? Since it is based on the incorrect assumption that man is good, and that if we have “central planners” control the society, we can produce the perfect world. Believing as the Secular Humanists do in the goodness of man, the authority of experts, and the need for an all-powerful state to coordinate life at every level, Marxists want to address all issues and control them. Whether it is speech, religion, or economics, if the right people are in charge, utopia is not far away.

Take economics: don’t allow innovators to produce things in a free market, with supply and demand dictating success or failure. (An example is the late Steve Jobs and Apple, with all the popular innovations produced by that company: iPods, iPhones, iPads, etc.) Instead, trust the government to know what to produce, how much, and what to charge for it. Reality proves them wrong in numerous Communist nations. Castro admitted it.

Yet today people still want to use Marxist economics, just without the slaughter of the bourgeoisie. Called “interventionism”, this is socialism by redistributing income. Rich people create wealth, and the government takes it by taxation (rather than execution). The government is then free to distribute this money among the poor, or whomever they see fit. Rather than a capitalistic society, where skilled people can produce more wealth, thereby producing a wealthier society, socialism and income redistribution is desired. Yet this merely spreads the wealth around, encouraging consumption rather than production. In other words, the motivation becomes, “How can I get more?” rather than, “How can I produce more?” Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher put it bluntly: “Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They always run out of other people’s money.”

The problem with humanity isn’t economic; it is spiritual.  We are sinners in need of a Savior.