system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Economics] What, exactly, is wrong with Marxism?

I'm looking for something a tad more specific that "We tried it and it failed", bearing in mind I'm absolutely *not* a Marxist. I don't want to know about the applications of Marxism, so much as faults with Marxian theory and how such theory doesn't match up with our empirical information. 

Thanks!
gpt
Well your question sort of contains its own answer. Marxist theory is not a theory in the scientific sense; it is restricted to pre-scientific political theory. Marx was not so much interested in verification of a constructed theory or model; rather his book Capital was a logical or analytical rebuttal of the *arguments* posed by the other economists of his time, i.e. Ricardo etc. And what was influential and lasting about the work was the way he did this.

It's like saying Newtonian physics was wrong because it didn't contain a proper account for friction. Well that wasn't what he was trying to do; the whole point and power of classical physics was discovering that certain reductionism and abstractions can serve to enable a better understanding of the physical world. If you apply the standards of Einsteinian relativity, or modern particle physics, etc., you'd miss the point.

Of course the analogy breaks down in that Marx's ideas remain controversial and poorly understood to this day. Imagine if everyone who did not study the theory of relativity felt it was OK to opine on its scope and validity. For a decent exposition to the political economics of Marx, I'd suggest David Harvey's lectures which are on youtube.