Karl Marx is often referred to as the founder of the social conflict theory. Mar
ID: 1211135 • Letter: K
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Karl Marx is often referred to as the founder of the social conflict theory. Marx believed that equality in outcome was the only way to achieve "equality" in society. In other words, "equality in outcome" would mean that everyone equally shares in the earth's resources, everyone is equally paid regardless of the type of work they do, and all are equally valued. Furthermore, it could be asserted that everyone would have equal access to formal education if they wanted it, as well as, equal access to quality health care. Critically evaluate Marx's views.Explanation / Answer
Some critiques come from an economic standpoint. V. K. Dmitriev, writing in 1898, Ladislaus von Bortkiewicz, writing in 1906–07,and subsequent critics have alleged that Marx's value theory and law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fallare internally inconsistent. In other words, the critics allege that Marx drew conclusions that actually do not follow from his theoretical premises. Once these alleged errors are corrected, his conclusion that aggregate price and profit are determined by, and equal to, aggregate value and surplus value no longer holds true. This result calls into question his theory that the exploitation of workers is the sole source of profit.
Both Marxism and socialism have received considerable critical analysis from multiple generations of Austrian economists in terms of scientific methodology, economic theory, and political implications.During the marginal revolution, subjective value theory was rediscovered by Carl Menger, a development which undermined the British cost theories of value fundamentally. The restoration of subjectivism and praxeological methodology previously used by classical economists including Richard Cantillon, Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, Jean-Baptiste Say, and Frédéric Bastiat led Menger to criticise historicist methodology in general. Second-generation Austrian economist Eugen Böhm von Bawerk used praxeological and subjectivist methodology to attack the law of value fundamentally. Non-Marxist economists have regarded his criticism as definitive, with Gottfried Haberler arguing that Böhm-Bawerk's critique of Marx's economics was so thorough and devastating that as of the 1960s no Marxian scholar had conclusively refuted it.Third-generation Austrian Ludwig von Mises sparked the economic calculation debate by identifying that without price signals in capital goods, all other aspects of the market economy are irrational. This led him to declare "... that rational economic activity is impossible in a socialist commonwealth."
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