Marx’s Economic Forecasts: Over 150 Years of Failure, by Richard W. Fulmer

How has Marx, who’s been consistently wrong on everything, not sunk into deserved obscurity? From Richard W. Fulmer at mises.org

From atop the flawed foundation of the Labor Theory of Value, Karl Marx made a series of predictions about capitalism that time has proven incorrect. Among these are the immiseration of the masses due to capital accumulation, chronic overproduction, capitalist-driven imperialism, and the inevitable rise of monopolies.

Immiseration

Even during Marx’s lifetime, capitalism was already improving the material conditions of workers and raising living standards. The Industrial Revolution, along with advancements in technology and productivity, enabled even low-skilled workers to achieve a standard of living once unimaginable to even the wealthiest.

In fact, capitalism has delivered many of the promises socialism once made. Marx envisioned a future where the working class would achieve prosperity, leisure, and cultural development—goals largely realized under capitalist systems. Today, workers enjoy higher real wages, shorter workweeks, better working conditions, and greater access to healthcare and education than at any time in history. Innovations once considered luxuries—such as indoor plumbing, refrigeration, and instant global communication—are now standard for much of the world’s population.

Capital Equipment

Marx believed that new technology:

• Eliminated jobs and forced workers into lower-wage positions. He theorized that automation would create a permanent “industrial reserve army” of unemployed workers, driving wages down.
• Reduced workers to mere machine operators. He argued that specialization and mechanization would strip workers of their skills and bargaining power.
• Extracted more work in less time. He feared that capitalists would use technology to increase profits by lengthening shifts, reducing breaks, and intensifying production speeds.

Instead, technology has increased workers’ productivity, making them more valuable to employers, who, in turn, offer higher wages to attract and retain them. While some jobs have been eliminated, new industries and occupations have emerged, often requiring higher skill levels. Factory workers today perform fewer menial tasks and more complex functions, such as CNC (computer numerical control) machine programming,

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