ABSTRACT
Professor Schumpeter takes his stand on a highly original and personal point of view. Most of those who advocate or expect the supersession of capitalism by socialism have a strong sympathy with the idea of socialism and, indeed, call themselves socialists. Professor Schumpeter, as many tart phrases reveal, has little love for socialism, and none at all for socialists. His natural sympathy is all with the heroic age of expanding capitalism. But yet he regards capitalism as doomed and socialism as inevitable. Professor Schumpeter treats Marx primarily as a great economist: 'It is easy to see why both friends and foes should have misunderstood the nature of his performance in the purely economic field. Professor Schumpeter does not accept Marx's diagnosis. Nor does he agree with the usual run of contemporary analysis. Monopoly is not a blemish in capitalism, but an essential factor in its development.
