Corner Stone Introduction on the Meaning of the Marx Criteria by Anthony Campos, PhD
The Karl Marx criteria is explained here showing his actual verbiage accompanied by its implications. Realizing the implications may be more important than the words printed in his book. The first ten issues come directly from his list while the other five can be extracted from within his literature.
1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
This first criteria is obvious. It means that all land belongs to the government (state) and that all revenue created by the land belongs to the government. Of course, the government and the public are synonymous. Marx advocated the right of the state to own all land property and revenue created by the land.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
It is obvious that the purpose of this rule is to prevent individual wealth. No one needs to be rich because the government will allow the citizen to exist in a comfortable life. Equality within the population in matters of monetary and physical possessions is a requirement. A liberal party will always tend to desire a high rate of taxation to spend on the liberal agenda. It is a fact that the Democrat Party of the United States tends to advocate higher taxation.
3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.
Nothing can be inherited that is of any major value. This will insure that wealth cannot be accumulated within a family. This rule can be associated with current death tax laws, only more extreme. Karl Marx envisioned a system where only the collective entity of the proletariat could accumulate wealth. The Democrats have supported the death tax while the Republicans have merely gone along. President Trump has advocated that this tax be eliminated but the leadership in the Republican Party has done nothing.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
This Marxist rule is interesting because of its implications. Anyone moving from another nation must give up their possessions and abide by the rules of the communist government. The issue of rebels is of major interest. It means that anyone that opposes the central government should forfeit all of their possessions as a penalty. Therefore, there can be no protest of government policy. In essence, there can be no free speech. This regulation becomes a tool to control dissent within the population. It seems that Karl Marx was perfectly okay with control for the purpose of preserving the system.
5. State controls credit with nationalized banking and bank monopoly.
Marx advocated that the bank industry be nationalized and completely under government control. According to his statement, he leaned toward one central bank that would dictate the level of interest rates. There would be no banking competition. Under these regulations, the central authority would be able to manipulate the economy without obstruction.
6. State controls all means of communication and transportation.
Marx believed that the central government should control all media in order to maintain order within the population. Furthermore, all forms of transportation should be under firm control in order to control the movement of people and materials. We are looking at the control over free speech and freedom of movement. These regulations would create efficiency in the operation and security of the government. The central authority can easily control the mentality of the population and manipulate opinion. Karl Marx held that this was for the good of the proletariat population.
7. State owns factories and instruments of production.
Marx believed that competition was destructive and that it took away from the direction of the policy desired by the central authority. In other words, a business bankruptcy would be considered disruptive to the overall desire of the state. Competition was simply a distraction from the policy of achieving a common goal. He believed that industry should concentrate on production instead of wasting resources to beat the competition. The problem with this remains if whether or not innovation suffers. However, Karl Marx would argue that the central authority would be so intelligent that it could direct industry to perform and that those in the industrial complex would somehow possess the incentive to create and innovate without monetary reward. Instead of monetary reward, the reward would come by way of advancement to a more powerful government position.
8. Everyone has an equal liability to work.
Marx believed that each citizen should be obligated to work if able to contribute to the welfare of the collective proletariat. This regulation would be dictated by the central authority. In other words, every citizen should contribute to the welfare of the state by whatever means possible. Under these conditions, unemployment would be at a minimum.
9. Abolish distinctions between town and country.
This criteria becomes really interesting because it does relate to the politics of the United States. Marx is saying that there should be no borders within a nations and that the whole nation is under the strict authority of the central government. This implies that there should be no electoral college for voting purposes and that the presidency should be decided by popular vote. The Democrat Party would favor this implication by Marx. It seems that Marx believed that territorial division within a nation was divisive. The central authority would have full control over the entire nation without obstruction from any particular region. The Soviet Union may have failed to observe this rule by allowing a union of the various territories to exist without forcing those populations to mingle. As a result, each Soviet state began to succeed from the union of the USSR.
10. Free education for all in public schools and combine education with industrial production.
While Marx contended for free education in public schools, he could very well be saying that state operated universities would also be free. Under these conditions, education would be free for colleges that are supported in any way by the government. He further stipulated that the education would be tied to industrial production. In other words, the education would need to be related to a vocation or to a job related objective. However, there are several liberal politicians that are openly advocating free education for all. The money to pay for this would initially come from the rich and later from everyone else.
11. Abolish class distinctions.
According to Marx, the main objective of the communist movement was to rid society of the wealthy. The idea was to achieve distribution of wealth so that there would be only one single class of people. The purpose of this objective was to get rid of power that the rich may exert on the poor. This equalization would also lend more power to the central authority away from any one individual possessing wealth. Wealth distribution has been entered as a serious issue worthy of debate within the U.S. Congress.
12. All production is ruled by the association of all citizens in the nation.
According to Marx, the citizens and the state form one entity. The proletariat is the official title of this association. The catalyst of the communist movement was to get the working class to revolt against the rich who took advantage of the poor. There may be some politicians that may believe that labor unions should have power over those companies that hire people. The movement to unionize the worker force was really originated from the Marx criteria. Karl Marx attempted to influence people by openly advocating a revolt against the rich by forming a union of workers.
13. Curtail the influence of religious belief.
Marx contended that people should place their faith on the authority of the proletarian government. Therefore, religious belief was a distraction that did not foster the objectives of the state. There are many politicians that now believe that the word "God" should not be shown on any form of government issued money. However, in his book, Marx merely hinted at this idea because he did not want to turn the religious sector against his plan. It can be speculated that the abolishment of religious belief would come much later in the communist movement.
14. Abolish countries and nationality and curtail the importance of borders.
This criteria becomes very relevant in the politics of the present era in the United States. Marx believed in open borders. The theory was to form a new world order where there would be no conflict between the various nationalities and cultures. Under these conditions, a policy of fusion would create a single collective force of unity for the proletarian regime. In the United States, there are many Democrat politicians advocating open borders. The globalist movement is real and is fostered by people such as George Soros. In other words, the expression of powerful influence over the whole planet is more dynamic than being restricted by national borders.
15. Curtail the influence of family.
In a communistic society, a citizen's family was to be considered the collective mass composing the proletariat entity. In essence, the proletarian state would have priority over family members. A further implication would be that the proletariat has priority over all relatives and friends as well. For the communist authority to prosper, each citizen must swear allegiance to the people of the proletariat over all else.
Conclusion
Now that the reader can observe exactly what true communism may be, according to Karl Marx, the reader can now make judgment and assess the issue. There may be positives and there may be negatives. The problem comes with human motivations. A plan may look good on paper. However, the plan has to be carried out by humans. The problem with humans is that humans crave power and to attain more power humans will twist the plan to accommodate their motivations. In the end, the communist system ends up with a class distinction that is separated by those that have political power against those that have no power at all. However, those that have political power will always have more monetary wealth than the population. People in poverty are the pawns that are manipulated by a few that happen to be very wealthy.