Economic class analysis

The false Marxist theory of economic class analysis is better know today, however, it was derived (in the mid-1800's) from a correct theory of economic class analysis originated by the French intellectuals of the late 1700's.  This correct analysis was emulated by James Mill in the English speaking world of the early 1800's in England. 

Mill's analysis saw the economic classes as the state rulers and those exploited by them.  In other words, what American statesman John Calhoun later called the taxpayers and the tax consumers. 

Marx took the valid theory and (misapplied) it to the relations between employers and the employed.  The Marxian version suggests an inherent antagonism between the interests of the owners of the means of production and those who sell their labor to those owners.  The truth is that there is a symbiotic relationship between employers and employed--each specializing in their own chosen pursuits (savers and investors in the means of production and laborers selling their labor for current income).

 

• Hoppe, Hans-Hermann
  "Marxist and Austrian Class Analysis" in Requiem For Marx edited by Yuri N. Maltsev,
  (Auburn, Alabama: The Ludwig von Mises Institute, 1993)
  pp. 51 - 73.

 

• Mises, Ludwig von
  The Clash of Group Interests and Other Essays,
  (New York: Center for Libertarian Studies, 1978)
  pp. 1 - 12.

 

• Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels
  The Communist Manifesto,
  (New York: Pocket Books, 1964)
  pp. 57 - 79.

 

• Raico, Ralph
  "Classical Liberal Roots of the Marxist Doctrine of Classes" in Requiem For Marx edited by Yuri N. Maltsev,
  (Auburn, Alabama: The Ludwig von Mises Institute, 1993)
  pp. 189 - 220.

 

• Rothbard, Murray N.
  Classical Economics,
  (Brookfield, Vermont: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, 1995)
  pp. 75 - 78, 385 - 391.

 

• Rothbard, Murray N.
  Conceived in Liberty, Volume III,
  (New Rochelle, New York: Arlington House Publishers, 1976)
  pp. 350 - 356.