Reading Marx is like Reading the Economic News Now

Karl Marx and Capitalism Now

I have been reading Karl Marx’s, Capital: Volume 1 over the past year.  I’m using some great resources for my studies.  Most valuable of all is an online course “Reading Marx’s Capital with David Harvey.”  The web where this can be found is: http://davidharvey.org/.  The site contains a video lecture course that was delivered by Harvey to his classes at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York.  Harvey is a scholarly radical.  In addition to lectures dealing with Volume 1, David Harvey has delivered complete courses on Volumes 2 and 3 of Capital that can be found on the web as well.  Harvey has written A Companion to Marx’s Capital that tracks the course on Volume 1.  These tools have made Capital: Volume 1 more accessible to me.  It might help you as well.

I’m nearly to the end of Capital: Volume 1.  Last evening I was reading the chapter entitled, The General Law of Capitalist Accumulation.  I could not help relate the treatment of agricultural workers in England in the 1860’s to those of Walmart associates today.  The “agricultural proletariat” was not provided a living wage by the farmers and estate owners who employed them.  Therefore, it became the responsibility of the parish to make good the deficit.  Walmart, likewise, does not provide a living wage to its employees.  Associates look toward the federal government to  make up the deficit in the form of Medicaid and food stamps.  Thus the tax payers pick up the difference.  This “difference” becomes pure profit to Walmart heirs and stock holders.  This capitalist accumulation seems even more bizarre when it is understood that the Walmart CEO, Shelley G. Broader, earns 717 times that of the “associates.”  Moreover, the six Walmart heirs, in 2011, had a combined net worth equivalent to that of the bottom 30% of US citizens. 

This is only one example from my reading of Marx where he is more than contemporary.  Marx wrote about capitalism.