ABSTRACT

This chapter argues that in the twenty-first century the moral aspect of income distribution should not be sidestepped through methodological artifice, as Marx did, nor avoided, as Sraffians have largely done. It addresses the moral aspect of income distribution head on, as do most modern philosophers writing about distributive justice, and as most citizen-activists do as well in a post-occupy environment. It would be a slight exaggeration to say that everything Marx ever wrote was a critique of capitalism, and everything he ever did was aimed at helping workers organize to replace capitalism – a system in which they were a subordinate class – with socialism – a system in which they become the new ruling class. Indeed, his unapologetic political advocacy is what prevents some economists from treating him seriously as a contributor to positive economics. The fundamental Sraffian theorem provides a more straightforward and compelling prima facie case that capitalists are parasites than does the fundamental Marxian theorem.