[kylestlb]

Marx wrote a gigantic book called Capital and it provides a thorough analysis of investment and risk. He wrote a great deal of words describing how investment relates to surplus value (hint: investment is simply a capitalist's way of generating surplus value - profit, which is then used to generate more surplus value, which is... you understand the systemic contradiction here, I hope). You should probably read it if you want to discuss it!

[nec4b]

From the same genre I like Grimms' Fairy Tales more. They seem more realistic.

[kylestlb]

You think the seminal work of the founding father of social sciences is a fairy tale? Says more about you, I'm afraid

[nec4b]

If you think Das Kapital is scientific work, you will have no problem providing a reference to any successful society or a company following the principles from it.

[WalterBright]

I enjoyed reading Toliken's fantasy LODR very much, but my attempts at reading Marx's fantasies felt like hammering a nail into my skull.

The attempts at implementing Marxism all ended in misery and famine. What more would anyone need to know about it?

BTW, a capitalist investing money also entails risk. How it works is the more risk, the more potential reward. Does Marx account for risk? I ask that because the Marxists I hear never mention the essential role risk plays, they usually just assume there is no risk.

[Apocryphon]

I haven’t read Marx, nor do I particularly care to, but this seems like an endorsement for intellectual incuriosity.

[WalterBright]

There are so many interesting things to learn that are reality (like reading history books), why waste the precious remaining few years of my life reading books promoting nonsense?

I read historical accounts about the Kennedy assassination, but don't waste my time on the conspiracy theory books. Nor do I bother with treatises on ancient aliens or UFOs. Or books on astrology, kirlian photography, ESP, flat earth, religions dogma, etc.

If Marxism worked, I'd be more interested in it. But it doesn't, so why bother?

[Apocryphon]

If you’ve spent your entire life building an identity around opposing something, the least you can do is try to understand it.

[WalterBright]

I understand it well enough by reading history books on what happened in them. Have you ventured out of academic theories and read any histories of Marxist attempts?

Why should I waste time on a theory that has been proven false every time it was tried?

It's up to you to justify it, not me.

[Apocryphon]

I'm not a Marxist so I have no interest in justifying their theories. However, if I made my personal brand all about being what a staunch anti-Marxist I am, I would hazard an effort to try to understand their position, if for nothing else but to understand why so many others have bought into it, and to be a more effective opponent against it.