Back in the USSA.

Dennis Dale should go to the head of the class for mentioning the "Sovietization" of the U.S. economy ("Endless Summers," September). Twenty years after the "fall" of communism, the ideas of Karl Marx are more alive than ever.

Leaders of so-called democratic countries don't recognize their intellectual currency as Marxian. They think it's just part of the natural growth of capitalism. (And, in a certain sense, it is.) Most of today's politicians assume that Marxism can be preempted by an expertly managed welfare state. They are wrong. Once the Marxian ideas on bigness (read: "too big to fail") and central planning (read: national healthcare "reform" and Federal Reserve as super regulator) are accepted, then "Sovietization" has arrived. The revolution may not be in Marx's name, but the ideas behind it are his.

JAMES MOSHER

Ledyard, Conn.