It can't be denied that twentieth century capitalism was certainly more benign than its nineteenth century predecessor. Part of this was due to popular pressure from democratically elected parliaments. Another factor was the media of the times, sparked by people like Dickens and the muckrakers in this country. Reforms like labor unions, social welfare, child labor laws, anti-trust regulations, compulsory education, job safety and consumer protection legislation all played a role; as well as the competition for skilled labor which prompted employers to offer job benefits as well as wages to their workers. All of these reforms were bitterly resisted, and often gained only through prolonged struggle and political strife, even street violence, but they eventually became an accepted part of the economic environment.

None of this was anticipated by Marx, who could only see progress coming as a result of violent revolution and establishment of a dictatorship of the proletariat and abolition of the very class that the proletariat aspired to join. But I believe there was another factor at play, as well. Competition is good for any market, even the market-place of ideas. As long as socialism existed as an alternative to laissez-faire capitalism, both sides had to compete for legitimacy against the other. We all know who won that battle, and why, in the final decade of the twentieth century.

Now we are embarking on a new century, one in which the political and economic landscape excludes socialism as a failed and discredited philosophy and nothing remains to take its place as an alternative to the status quo. Can we make any predictions as to how these events will play out now in the New World Order?