Functional socialism

126 FUNCTIONAL SOCIALISM

plenty. In case of plenty it may even disappear; a superabundant good will be valueless if one has no use for it”. With scarcity gone, what remains of that definition? The first sentence; for, unlike the other definitions, it comprehends natural as distinct from effective demand.

Il KARL MARX

To gain a true perspective of the growth of economic thought in regard to capitalist development, it may be well to keep in mind some dates. Adam Smith was born in 1723 and died in 1790. The Wealth of Nations was published in 1776. Ricardo was born in 1772 and died in 1823. His Principles of Political Economy was published in 1817. Karl Marx was born in 1818 and died in 1883. The first volume of Das Kapital appeared in 1867, the second and third volumes coming after his death in 1885 and 1894. hey were published by Engels. As a matter of interest but of no consequence we may note that both Ricardo and Marx were Jews turned Christian; but the overlapping of the ages of these three is more than interesting: it is significant. For the periods they represented and reflected equally overlapped. And the economic continuity thus implied is, almost with scientific precision, disclosed in their writing. How many are there who realize that Marx’s whole argument is grounded upon the classical tradition? We may affirm that had there been