When I say liberal values are the ‘basis’ of Marx’s work, I am not suggesting he was a ‘liberal reformer.’ I am arguing that Marx’s work is a dialectical sublation of liberalism. He takes the some of the liberal achievements (rationalism, the end of feudal bondage, and the Labor Theory of Value) and shows that they can only be fully realized by moving beyond the capitalist mode of production. He doesn’t reject the ‘Individual’ out of hand; he rejects the liberal version of the individual (the abstract citizen) to make way for the real individual (the species-being).

Only when the real, individual man re-absorbs in himself the abstract citizen, and as an individual human being has become a species-being in his everyday life, in his particular work, and in his particular situation, only when man has recognized and organized his “own powers” as social powers, and, consequently, no longer separates social power from himself in the shape of political power, only then will human emancipation have been accomplished.

– On The Jewish Question

I don’t disagree with any of this and I’m not sure what I said that would have made you think I did.

Buses are useful because they can change based upon demand. If s neighborhood grows, more buses can be added. If a neighborhood shrinks, you can remove buses.

By ‘liberal values,’ I’m referring to the core Enlightenment goals of individual autonomy (Descartes), secularism and rationalism (Spinoza), labor theory of value (Locke/Smith/Ricardo) and universal human rights (Kant). Marx rejected the liberal state, private property, and the capitalist mode of production. But I’d argue he did so because he believed they were obstacles to those very values. Who is an individual when you’ve been commodified?

By socializing production, the individual doesn’t dissolve into the collective; but the material security is created for the individual to freely development themselves and provide to a social order.

Marxism is also in favor the individual and their liberty, but not the liberty to dispossess another of those liberties. He doesn’t see the individual as a natural object, but a creation of social and historical conditions. By destroying the class system, it liberates the individual to pursue their aims when they wish.

[I]n communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic.

For Marx, the ‘Individual’ is not a finished product to be protected from society, but a potential to be realized through an equitable society.

PS… Dig your username

“Liberalism is a word that means different things to different people, especially from country to country.”

Liberal values are the basis of Marx’s work. He, rightly in my opinion, thinks the liberal state cannot bring about those values for all people.

1. They are willing to work for less than a normal American living wage. This reduces the amount that an American can work for for the same job. Globalists love this.
2. They bring and establish a different culture eroding a way of life that is considered American.

Those are two things I think someone might say about immigrants. Additionally, there’s general disdain for the poor and many immigrants come here to escape worse poverty.

Poor… And not normal poor, but wartime poor. It was invented by Heinz to sell beans in England.

Capitalism, (needlessly) increases competition for resources, access to markets, and even results in fierce competition over abstract things.

Because there is an increased competition for resources, resource hoarding increases as well. Managed release of those resources along with who deserves access to those resources is a political endeavor. Not at the level of the state, but when you end up having a laissiz-faire system, there is no state to prevent hoarding of necessities. And now a situation can emerge where one company hoards a necessary resource and manages its release to some and not others. They will have become the state.

God dammit Donut!

Lol

I didn’t know there was a titular line in Star Wars.