Richard. That is eminently true, but not very helpful in terms of where we go from here. Marxists have always argued that capitalism is doomed for roughly the reasons I've just outlined. IE., the only way that capitalists can compete with other capitalists and thereby stay in business, is by continually cutting the earnings of their workers; who then find they cannot buy the goods upon which capitalism depends for its existence.

Thus it goes, in a vicious downward spiral until the whole system crashes.

I am not a Marxist for quite a number of reasons. Not least among them is the fact that the experience of most of the the past 70 years has been one of a long sustained boom, which has ended up benefitting the worker as well as the capitalist.

However, given the size and scale of the present crisis, and the lack of alternative strategies for dealing with it, I can't help feeling that we are at last about to see Marx's prediction come true.