The difficulty with Marx' and Engel's ideas imbedded in the manifesto could be that they were mistaken about which class would ultimately include all the others. They assumed that the proletariat would, in the end, assume the means of production and thus destroy the capitalism. They did not understand that production would become less costly as time wore on due to efficiencies in production. Workers would become entrepreneurs in free, not communist societies. The invention of computers, and the easy access to the tools of a service industry would make small business a driving force (Mattson, 2005).

In his book The Vital Center, Arthur Schlesinger believed this "mistaken analysis" was "responsible for the failure of" Marx's prophecies and the triumph of "bureaucratic collectivism" in the Soviet Union. Crucially, it neglected the possibility of liberal reform." The capitalist state has clearly not been just the executive committee of the business community"...
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