Living as I do in a communist country, I have paid attention to Karl Marx’s work.  Apparently he was a brilliant man.  Have you heard of him?  In 1848, with Engels he wrote The Communist Manifesto.  Although many American professors are thoroughly Marxist, few students study Marx himself, or read the Manifesto. Few Americans under the age of 40 have heard of him.

I asked a Chinese professor about Marx and his ideals.  I asked how China reconciled those ideas with the current capitalist policies.  I asked how people saw their own country.  He said, “China——is just China.”

In my travels here, I have seen many tourist shops.  These typically offer for sale items such as ash trays, book bags, and tee shirts showing a picture of Mr. Obama wearing a revolutionary soldier’s cap, holding his head in that classic Mao pose, and printed with the word,  “Obamao.”  Chinese people say they love Mr. Obama.  In China we love our leaders, the sky is blue and the water is clean, everyone is living harmoniously.  It is a happiness thing.

Take a close look at that Manifesto, if you haven’t already.  Scan through the first parts and get down to the ten point platform.  You will see that the USA has fully accepted at least half of the points, and partially accepted most of the others.  Rights of inheritance, for example, are so complicated by tax laws that the average person finds it difficult to pass down property to his descendants. We haven’t totally abolished inheritance, but it’s on the way out.  Certainly we have a “heavy progressive income tax” far heavier than China’s.  With the new executive order, points 7 and 9 of the Manifesto are now in place.  One of the points we’re missing,however, is “an equal obligation of all to work.”

So, when I go home, it will be to a somewhat different country than the one I left.  But, I have learned how to live in a communist country.