run (hence a bigger total pie), b) big wealth differences, and c) capital markets (especially debt markets) that
become overextended and then break down and, when there is a capital market/economic breakdown at the same
time, there are big wealth and values differences, which will lead to some form of revolution (i.e., there can be
harmonious productive ones, though most have great conflict and are destructive before they are productive). So,
thus far the way Marx appeared to see things and the way I see things isn’t radically different, though what we
would choose and what we would think should be done is probably radically different. If you asked me a) whether
I’d rather have what capitalism has delivered or what communism had delivered, and b) if I think the capitalist
path we have seen is more logical than the communist path we have seen, I’d say yes to both questions. On the
other hand if you asked me a) if both the capitalist and the communist systems need to be reformed to make the pie
grow better and to have it distributed better, and b) if Marx’s dialectical materialism approach to evolving and my
5-Step Process to evolving are broadly similar and the best ways of evolving well, I would also say yes to both
questions (without getting hung up on how exactly these two approaches are different). In other words I believe,
and it sounds like Marx believed, that evolving from conflicts, mistakes, and the learning from having these is the
best approach. Also, as far as the wealth gap goes, we both see that it has been a big issue throughout history that
can threaten all systems. Lenin built on what Marx said to create a two-step process of building the state in which
there is at first dictatorship by workers through “democratic centralism” in which there is a voting process of
members of the party which would eventually lead to a higher communist state in which greater prosperity would
exist, which is the second stage. Mao liked the Marxist-Leninist approach in which the party represents the
working people who rule over a socialist state that will achieve higher levels of development and eventually
achieve communism in which there is common ownership of the means of production and social and economic
equality. In other words they believe that achieving the ideal of communism of “the distribution of wealth from
each according to their abilities to each according their needs” comes at the end of a very long evolutionary
process. Deng Xiaoping reiterated this view that communism and the capitalism he was employing were not at
odds in an interview with an American TV journalist when he said, “According to Marxism, communist society is
based on material abundance…Only when there is material abundance can the principle of a communist society—
that is, ‘from each according to his ability to each according to his needs’—be applied. Socialism is the first stage
of communism…We permit some people and some regions to become prosperous first for the purpose of achieving
common prosperity faster...The first stage of socialism takes a long time…Despite the rich/poor divide, wealth in
China is more evenly distributed than in any time in history…The CPC can see the gap widening and is taking
action…” Maybe that’s true and maybe it’s not. Time will tell. To me thus far capitalism—in China or anywhere
else—is winning the competition. However, nobody can argue that the Chinese mix of communism and capitalism
has not produced remarkable economic results over the last 40 years.
[16]https://www.jstor.org/stable/652030?seq=2#metadata_info_tab_contents
[17]Estimates of the death toll of the Cultural Revolution range from hundreds of thousands to 20 million.
[18]As quoted in Henry Kissinger, On China, 211.
[19]Ji Chaozhu was raised in the United States until he was a junior at Harvard. His brother was close to Zhou
Enlai and sent the brother and Ji Chaozhu to the United States to try to build good relations with Americans. When
the Korean War broke out he returned to China, became Zhou’s interpreter, and later served in the first Chinese
delegation to the UN and later as China’s ambassador to England. While he told me a lot that I won’t discuss to
respect his privacy, I don’t believe that this is sensitive information.
[20]China started with market-based reforms and then moved on to what has been called “state capitalism” in
which the state controls capitalism. Capitalism means private ownership of the means of production. It flourishes
when there are well-developed capital markets that allocate resources, people are allowed to save by investing in
these markets to make money, and users of the capital have access to it through the markets. The bigger the capital
markets are and the more people are making money through ownership of the means of production, the more
capitalism there is. However, unlike in many classic capitalist countries where state has very little ability to direct
the activities of companies, in China the government has a lot of control over the companies which is what makes
it “state capitalism.”
[21]Deng gave a speech in which he said, “Although I realized that it would be a tough job to be in charge of
scientific and educational work, I volunteered for the post. China’s four modernizations will get nowhere…if we
don’t make a success in such work.”