Marxism and Keynes's Ideal World
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33834/bkr.v12i1.416Keywords:
Marxists, Soviet Union, Keynes's Ideal World, Planning, Zero UnemploymentAbstract
Keynes concurred with the central tenet of Karl Marx's Das Kapital (Volume 1): that capitalists excessively appropriate gains from entrepreneurial activities. Marx's ideas helped Keynes formulate a diagnosis of how a capitalist economy functions. Keynes, like Marx, also envisioned an ideal society. For Keynes, it was a society without unemployment and with a broad social security program. People would work a few hours per week, and all material needs would have been satisfied. The revolutionary Russia of Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky did not resemble the society Keynes desired. Keynes detested Josef Stalin's administration, characterized by political persecutions and assassinations in Russia. But Stalin organized the planning dreamed of by Keynes in the form of Five-Year Plans. Keynes did not envision either capitalism or Soviet socialism; his ideal society would be achieved without violence. It would be an economy with industries, public transportation, and urban spaces organized for well-being. Thus, it required planning, as Keynes observed in Russia. This paper presents Keynes' intellectual trajectory in relation to Marx, Lenin, Stalin and Trotsky.
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