Karl Marx schools Russel Norman and David Shearer

It’s often forgotten that Karl Marx was an economist.  He got the wrong end of the stick on most occasions, but sometimes hit the nail right dead centre on the head.

For example, he said in the Communist Manifesto  that:

“The cheap prices of its commodities are the heavy artillery with which [ the profit system]…compels all nations, on pain of extinction, to adopt the [ profit]… mode of production.”

Russel Norman  and David Shearer evidently missed that passage of their bedtime reading when they claimed in their attempt to spike the Mighty River Power share float  that the government could provide power more cheaply because it did not have to earn a profit. The truth, as even Marx understood, is that  the search for profit  drives prices down.

He also schools every opponent of privatisation who thinks “we” already own these assets:

“The only part of the so-called national wealth that actually enters into the collective possessions of modern people is– their national debt.”

See, even a real communist can get things right twice a day.

[Hat tip Circle Bastiat]