Title: Acceptance Speech for World Marxian Economics Award (I)
Abstract: I am honored to receive the World marxian Economics Award from the World Association for Political Economy.marxist economics has two aims, as marx noted: to understand the world and to contribute to changing it.Indeed, if we wish to create a more humane world than that of global capitalism, we must understand how capitalism works, in general and today.Unless we can develop an understanding of contemporary capitalismits main tendencies and contradictions-we cannot hope to devise strategies to overcome it and replace it with socialism.the dominant economic theory in the world today, neoclassical economic theory, also has two aims.One is to understand capitalism (a market economy as they call it), not to replace it by another system, but to determine the policies required to preserve capitalism.the second aim of neoclassical theory is to make it appear that capitalism is an ideal economic system that assures optimal efficiency, income distribution, economic growth, and technological progress, as well as guaranteeing individual freedom.marx referred to the second aspect of neoclassical economics as "vulgar economy."In his day this was represented by Nassau Senior and Jean-Baptiste Say, a tradition carried on in recent times by the neoliberal economists such as milton friedman and robert lucas.