I thought you were an establishment liberal/market socialist! And now you’re posting a diary titled Marxist‑Curious?”
Well… yeah.
Marxism is a mixed bag. Setting aside its political program, the economic analysis within the Marxist tradition has proven remarkably durable. Its core critiques of capitalism — inequality, exploitation of labor, and the concentration of wealth and power — have generated so much intellectual mileage that even mainstream and conservative schools of thought have absorbed parts of them (Don’t believe me? see Notes below).
So, without further ado, here is my Marxist‑Curious Dictionary of Apologia Vocab for Turning Us All into Wage Slaves (If I left anything out, add in the comments and I’ll update the diary):
Finances and Policy
“Downsizing/Restructuring” → Mass layoffs disguised as efficiency. “The mill’s closed. There’s no more work. We’re destitute. I’m afraid I have no choice but to sell you all for scientific experiments.”
“Entitlement reform” → Gutting Social Security, Medicare, and safety nets under the guise of fiscal prudence.“Grandma, we’ve modernized your retirement. Instead of a check, here’s a voucher for a half‑priced casket.”
“Pro‑Growth Tax Policy” → Supply‑side economics in disguise: slash capital gains and corporate rates, watch inequality widen. “Growth is booming — in yacht sales, luxury condos, and offshore accounts.”[Formerly called “trickle‑down,” until the ridicule stuck and the benefits didn’t.]
“Private Equity” → Corporate Raiders. “We’ve acquired your company! We’ll load it with debt, fire half the staff, cancel your pension, sell the furniture, and call it ‘value creation.’ “
“Value creation” → Extracting wealth for shareholders while hollowing out the company. ““We created value by pivoting your pension fund into an exciting new blockchain‑enabled boba tea subscription service.”
Market Rhetoric
“Free markets” → Deregulation that benefits corporations while leaving workers and consumers exposed. “The factory dumped toxic sludge in the river, but don’t worry — the invisible hand will clean it up.”
“Free trade” → Noble exchange without barriers; in practice, coercion dressed up as liberty. “You refuse to buy the opium we seized from India to patch our silver deficit? Very well then — we’ll trade cannon fire. This means war!”
“Global competitiveness” → Justification for wage suppression and offshoring. “We moved your job to East Depradonia. But hey, you’re still globally competitive at delivering pizza.”
“Migrant labor” → Cheap, disposable workforce imported to keep wages low and profits high. “Congratulations! You’re essential enough to pick our crops but expendable enough to deny rights and a clean toilet.”
“Shared sacrifice” → Workers tighten belts while the wealthy keep loopholes and offshore havens. “We’re all in this together. You skip dinner, I skip, well, nothing.”
Innovation, and Efficiency
“Modernization” → Cutting benifits, outsourcing jobs, and automating labor to reduce costs. “We’ve modernized your pension. It’s now a QR code that links to a GoFundMe.”
“Innovation economy” → Tech monopolies consolidating power while gig workers scramble without protections. “Our app connects desperate workers to desperate customers. We call it disruption. You call it rent money.”
“Efficiency” → Layoffs, speed‑ups, and squeezing more productivity out of fewer workers. “Ten workers now do the job of fifty. The other forty are efficiently streamlined to the food bank.”
“Lean operations” → Cutting staff and resources to the bone. “Gee, you look emaciated. That’s synergy.”
“Corporate social responsibility” → Greenwashing and charity PR to distract from exploitation. “We donated $10,000 to a local school. Meanwhile, we dodged $10 million in taxes.”
“Resilience” → Workers absorbing endless shocks while executives absorb endless bonuses. “Resilience means you survive another round of layoffs. Congratulations, you’re resilient!”
And last but not least, the crème de la crème
“Political donations” → Legal bribery. Big Oil invested $445 million in Trump and GOP allies, and got back billions in tax cuts and subsidies. Nothing funny about that.
Notes
Yes, mainstream and conservative schools of thought have absorbed Marxist critiques:
Inequality and class conflict: Marx’s focus on how wealth and power concentrate has influenced mainstream debates. Conservative economists acknowledge that capitalism produces inequality, though they frame it as something to be managed rather than abolished.
Business cycles and instability: Marx argued capitalism is inherently crisis‑prone. Modern economics — including conservative schools — accepts that markets can fail and require stabilization policies. This is visible in the widespread acceptance of Keynesian tools after the Great Depression and more recently the Great Recession.
Monopoly and concentration of capital: Marx warned about capital consolidating into fewer hands. Today, conservative think tanks critique monopolies and oligopolies, recognizing that unchecked concentration distorts markets.
Alienation and labor exploitation (reframed): While conservatives don’t use Marx’s language, they acknowledge issues like stagnant wages, declining worker bargaining power, and the need for “labor market reforms.” These are essentially responses to dynamics Marx identified.
Globalization and trade imbalances: Marx’s analysis of how capitalism expands globally resonates in modern debates about outsourcing, trade deficits, and “global competitiveness.” Conservative economists frame these as structural challenges.
