Some of Marx's predictions have indeed come true. Others are not so clear-cut. For example, profits do tend to fall within a business cycle, but they do not fall as steadily outside the business cycle. Some have risen instead. Most significantly, even though indicators reflect Marxist philosophy, capitalism continues to thrive in the United States, Japan, and Great Britain, even if it has partly disappeared in Western Europe.
Russia, the communist bloc countries, and China are another matter. During the most intensive rule of communism, capitalism has remained suppressed except for a trickle of imports from the West, such as Coca-Cola, drilling equipment, medicines, and computers. However, with the 1989 thaw in Cold War tensions, capitalism was one of the first aspects of Western democracy to penetrate the Iron Curtain as McDonald's brought "burgers and fries" to Moscow.
Obviously, Marx's vision of the future has proved too inflexible. Like the laws of gravity, he expected the weakening of capitalism to fall into place without the slightest deviation. However, he failed to predict many mitigating factors, such as improvements in the lives of workers. Further, in no case where communism has triumphed has the revolution taken place in an industrialized nation at the hands of the workers themselves. Russia, China, and Cuba were all primarily agrarian economies when the revolutions occurred. The same could be said for the satellite nations of Eastern Europe, except for Czechoslovakia.
Another worthy consideration is the fact that each Communist country was taken over from without and during wartime. These nations did capitulate according to Marx's predictions, but largely from the work of professional revolutionaries. On the other hand, Germany and Italy, which chose fascism over communism during the late 1930s, today exhibit both state capitalism and private capitalism working in partnership.
