Explain in some detail why Marx’s analysis of profit maximization, capitalist competition and the “laws of motion” of fully developed capitalist societies seriously disagrees with conservative arguments

Marx vs. Modern Conservative Economists Karl Marx’s analysis of the essential “laws of motion” of fully developed capitalism suggested that capitalism was an exploitative economic system filled with class conflict and characterized by limited mobility for the majority of working people. In sharp contrast, many modern mainstream economists argue that our economic system is a wide open system of equal opportunity for all. Indeed, in Edwin Mansfield’s introduction to the capitalist system, he notes that under capitalist economies, “you or I can own the means of production, we can own factories”. He also notes that workers are “free to work where, when and if they please.” (See Mansfield handout) Conservative economists like Milton Friedman also suggest that the combination of full employment and capitalist competition for workers will generally provide laborers with strong protection from abuses and will guarantee that workers will be paid fairly – according to their individual productivity. Moreover, as productivity rises across the economy, so will workers’ wages – automatically without any need for unions. In the end, if workers would like to move up the social ladder, all they have to do is get a good education, work hard and save a good deal of their earnings. It’s clearly up to them. ..In this essay your primary job is to carefully explain in some detail why Marx’s analysis of profit maximization, capitalist competition and the “laws of motion” of fully developed capitalist societies seriously disagrees with ALL of the above conservative arguments, and why he argued that workers would have to organize unions and struggle collectively in order to achieve a better standard of living within the capitalist system. Is there any historical evidence from the Laissez-faire period of American capitalism (1880 to 1935) to support Marx’s analysis of capitalism? Finally, as we have been moving to a more deregulated capitalist economy since the 1980s, do you see any evidence that supports Marx’s claims regarding the highly negative effects of unregulated capitalism on working people? Alternatively, is their significant counter evidence which undermines Marx’s argument? (For this final empirical piece, see my handout on the “State of Working America”, reading packet #1 on “Rising Inequality” (see Blackboard), and the Schwartz handout on the “Hidden Side of the Clinton Economy”.)