Difference between revisions of "Talk:capitalism"

Revision as of 09:54, 3 March 2014

Most of the information about "Capitalism" here is really about something like Monetarism or Mercantilism.. meaning, it is only thought of as Capital+State. But "Capitalism" is really just a theory that people trade with something that represents value. If pearls are most-used for trading, then the capital is pearls. If most people trade using gold, capital=gold. On the Anarcho-Capitalism page, this is not addressed but there's a relevant quote by Ghandi, where he mentions people will always use capital, so "Capitalism" isn't evil in itself, because it's just a way that people trade. He is not using a definition of Capital+State!

Maybe there can be a section that talks about Capital as separate from State (because people are free to choose anything they want as capital, if there is no state to force the opposite). -Rz

That's completely absurd and makes no sense. Capitalism, as we know it, is an economic ideology born in the late Renaissance, which gradually transformed from Feudalism, and that lead to the Industrial Revolution. It presupposes a conception and a particular interpretation of how to amass capital (read Marx's Das Capital). What you are talking about is simply selling and buying things with money, and humans have been doing that for 8,000 years. Therefore, you would stupidly conclude that capitalism has 8,000 years. Saying capitalism is buying and selling things, then socialism would mean getting things for free. Please, educate yourself before you make a fool of yourself in public. Its not that hard. - A true anarchist

This article is essentially a Wikipedia fork, here. Even the RationalWiki article on Capitalism seems more original].206.130.173.53 19:22, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

I would just like to chip in: at the beginning of the article it expresses that Capitalism is "also called free market economy," or "free enterprise economy." This is false. Capitalism is an economic system that does not necessarily specify a free market (e.g. Fascism as an ideology does not specify a free market). It is largely characterised by the accumulation private property and general capital (hence capitalism) as was described in the paragraph above the statement. Free market capitalism could be described as "laissez-faire capitalism" as an economic system (I must stress here that capitalism is an economic system, not a political ideology). Classical liberalism is a political system which endorses laissez-faire capitalism.

p.s. in regards to the above discussion, I agree with "A true anarchist" that capitalism is more than just a means of trade. Also, I am not familiar with the Gandhi quote but I believe that what he probably meant was that socialists do not wish to obliterate capital (being wealth, technology, land, natural resources, the product of labour, etc.) raher that we wish to obliterate capitalism (a system which endorses the private accumulation of capital) by socialising capital.

True anarchist is correct, and Gandhi was either misquoted or probably, mistaken. If the latter, he is in a large company-most people believe the same way. Capitalism is the belief that capitalists should profit from their contribution of capital alone, no matter how much work from how many other people is added. The resulting free market is both unorganized and unfair. If it were defined as the use of capital, then every economic system would be capitalism. It is this conflation of capitalism with capital, more than any other, that makes capitalism seem indispensable to the masses. Anarchangel 16:28, 30 October 2013 (UTC)