The answer is reason.
Philosophers of the Enlightenment believed that answer can be found
through reasoning. There were two types
of reasoning during that time. You have
rationalism that relies on deduction and Empiricism which deals with
experience. It took root due to the liberal atmosphere at the time.
The true vision of Karl Marx about communism is something that objectively would never work in practice. The problem is that the human nature and the Marx's vision of communism are not going very well together. According to Marx, all people should be in the same hierarchical level, thus horizontal hierarchy. Everyone should be paid equally, no matter the type of job, and everyone should get the same services. There's no private ownership and the economy is totally controlled by the government in a manner to be self-sustaining. Big problem in these things is that the humans stride toward progress and success, so by putting everyone in the same basket the creative minds and the successful people are destroyed, while the lazy ones, and the ones that do not have great potential get the benefits without deserving them. The economy can simply not function in a manner to be self-sustaining, and it will always be on the verge of collapse, and there will always be huge problems with lack of food and products.
There was a recession when Nixon took office. He essentially came in and helped clean up the economy. To answer your question the condition, of the American economy, was poor.
South of Egypt I think I just looked at the map
