Noah Smith:
“In other words, real socialist success has been of the gradual, incrementalist kind, more in line with the visions of thinkers like Eduard Bernstein than to the dramatic, violent prophecies of Marx. …
“So although Marx was far-sighted in identifying some of the problems of capitalism, he got the solution very wrong. Remembering this is the best way to commemorate his birthday.”Let me paraphrase Brad DeLong, self-proclaimed neoliberal freak who flies his flag high on the benefits of globalisation, bona fide genius, central planner extraordinaire and greatest of all experts on Marx, whose authority Smith invokes (I'm not kidding, he really does: check DeLong's post, particularly the third paragraph, and compare it to Smith's article): Anybody think that Noah Smith actually read Marx or Bernstein, and set out to fairly summarize their views to his readers? Anybody? Anybody? Matt?
What about DeLong?
This was Noah Smith four years ago:
(source)
The guy read a lot since then, it seems. Either that or he read my posts on Bernstein and, predictably, took his side.
I was just about to start my observations about Bernstein’s empirical argument. Now that can wait a little: Noah, pretty please with sugar on top, give us a precis of Bernstein’s empirical case. What exactly was he trying to show? Use his numbers, his data.
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I’ve never been particularly humble, but I never dared to hope having such illustrious characters among my little band of anonymous readers. That exceeds my wildest expectations! As a bonus, I might have guessed Matt’s secret identity!
Is the little Aussie battler punching above his weight? As the late Big Kev used to say: "I'm exsoited!"
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