Scott Alexander reviews Singer's book on Marx, finding Marx's ideas deeply flawed, particularly his refusal to plan for communist governance and his belief in infinitely malleable human nature. Longer summary

Scott Alexander reviews Peter Singer's 'Marx: A Very Short Introduction', finding Marx's ideas even more problematic than he initially thought. He criticizes Marx's refusal to plan for communist governance, his belief in the non-existence of human nature, and his naive assumptions about coordination. Scott does acknowledge one insightful aspect of Marx's thought related to collective irrationality, but notes this wasn't original to Marx. The review ends with Scott suggesting that the real challenge for Marxist intellectuals should be developing systems that solve coordination problems better than capitalism. Shorter summary