HIS109Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Scientific Socialism, Middle Ages, French Revolution
Document Summary
Marx believed he was a little crazy, which he was. Proposed a model of small communities, with fixed number of people chosen for specific reason. Believed that if people lived in a cooperative environment, their natural goodness would bubble up. Humans are naturally good but can"t come through in capitalism. Put together model community in new lanark, scotland. Business is served better when owners treat their employees as well as their machines. Tried to set up a community in the us, in harmony in indiana. Move away from purely theoretical and idealistic to something more practical. Social problems can be solved through government assistance. We need the state to be involved to alleviate the problems of the working class. Competition is the main source of societal problems. Workshops should be owned and operated by the workers and funded by the government. They were socialists because they were interested in the social question.
