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Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Activists Call for Marxist Revolution at Northwestern U, Decry Evils of Toothpaste


Barnes also called for a revolution in America in which workers would overthrow the “capitalist class” and “create a genuine workers’ democracy.”

And a call for "People's Toothpaste."

In the workshop “The Meaning of Marxism,” Socialist Worker journalist Eric Ruder explained basic Marxist theory to a filled classroom.

...

Towards the end of the lecture, Ruder used toothpaste as an example of capitalism’s inefficiencies.

“If you no longer have one section competing against another, you start to eliminate all kinds of waste,” he said, referencing toothpaste brands Colgate and Crest.

Ruder then described the “wastefulness” of toothpaste’s price: “About 90% of the price you pay for toothpaste goes into packaging, advertising, and profit, and 10% is the actual contents of the toothpaste.”

The cost of attending Northwestern exceeds $60,000 per year.  The cost of a tube of toothpaste is $3 for a large tube.  For one year's attendance at Northwestern you can get a 20,000 tubes of Crest that would last you about 20 lifetimes.  I think I see where the waste is.

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