What is capitalism ?

What is capitalism ?


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carniflex

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Capitalism is the worst system we could have, except for all the rest.
 
For a period after WW2 the European capitalism wasn't primarly about the profit of the shareholders. Times are changing though...
 
Capitalism is an economic system based on the freedom to buy and sell.

Unchecked it will lead to a form of Feudalism, but with enough checks and balances it currently seems to be the economic system best suited to human nature.
 
the system don't work.

EDIT: Even if capitalism is based on free trade. Whatever we have now shouldn't be aloud. We can do better than selling one another for petty profit.
 
Capitalism is an economic system which is part of a free society.

In its purest form, it is regulated only by its own forces.
 
May I suggest the formal debate thread on Capitalism for a few interesting views on the issue?

Anyway, here goes my definition, straight from the thread:

“Capitalism” is a system where the right of ownership, and the disposition of such ownership, to commercial or personal purposes, are the primary guidelines for the civilian relations. This system is powered by drives that encourages the individuals to acquire even more ownership, what creates wealthy from the accumulation of value derived from the commercial exchange, enriching society as a whole. Mere mitigations of the ownership status (such as redistribution by welfare) does not disnature capitalism, for the basic premises remain the same. Also, dictatorial tyrannies that tends to create large “states” don’t disnature a capitalistic system, because the ownership of one (the dictator, over the entirety – or almost – of the wealthy of society), is still a “personal ownership system”, even if with the creation of an artificial monopoly, and hence fundamentally different from any kind of non-individualist approach where the disposition of wealthy is collective.

I believe the system should persist, if for no other good reason, for the lack of a viable alternative. However, it should be altered to avoid the ebullition of a class conflict between the excluded and the benefited – potentially harmful to both classes.

The implementation of these changes is something tricky, and I believe a better man then me would be required to actually develop a functional system. However, the way I see things, exactly like, when the capitalism arose, a mentality of ownership was grown in the culture of the people in Europe – through the argument (and demonstration) that owning things would mean taking steps further in the search of personal happiness – a new humane mindset should be pursuit, one where the importance of the “social body” as a tool for making personal wealthy possible becomes more clear, and tangible, in the heads of the population. This would allow for the effective, intelligent, planning of the goals in economy, and history shows that the application of reason over natural processes tends to increase their efficiency. The problem with the attempts so far to rationalize economy – masquerading it as hopelessly depended of the natural dynamics of the market – is that such mentality was never set on a population, and the competition for exclusive ownership and immediate privileges – the political legacy of this systemic idiosyncrasy – tends to null any of it’s possible benefits, decreasing efficiency instead of increasing it.

Hence implementation is dependent of an actual reassessment on the immediatism that men have in the pursuit of their goals, and the acknowledgement that individualism can and should benefit from collectivism – for united we prevail, separated we fall.

Regards :).
 
cap·i·tal·ism ( P ) Pronunciation Key (kp-tl-zm)
n.
An economic system in which the means of production and distribution are privately or corporately owned and development is proportionate to the accumulation and reinvestment of profits gained in a free market.
 
dominus romae said:
Capitalism is the worst system we could have, except for all the rest.

Or is it democracy ?

Cheetah said:
Capitalism is an economic system based on the freedom to buy and sell

Or is it free market ?
 
kronic said:
For a period after WW2 the European capitalism wasn't primarly about the profit of the shareholders. Times are changing though...

Capitalism was not different.
Europe was different: Europe was less capitalist.

Communisto said:
the system don't work.

... for the profit of all.
 
Capitalism is a system where u make ur money work for u, not working for the money.

I agreed with Fred on the ownership part.
 
Capitalism is about survival of the richest.

To elaborate -

Bascially, Capitalism is about making money. The more money you have, the better off you are. People talk about capitalism as the rights of an individual to make profit...whilst that it is true to an extent it is also equally about companies/corparations.

If you can't get on 'the ladder' in capitalism, then your chances of making decent money are very minimal.

Capitalism is the art of humans making money from other humans and the other humans expense.
 
It is both. Of course it is option 1, duh, but several places it is also option 3. My work for an example.
 
Capitalism is a variation of the free market where the emphasis is on the capital : the production of wealth comes more from the money invested than from the work of people itself. An striking example is stock exchange, where huge amount of money can be gained or lost with virtually no practical work done.

So obviously, I chose the "both" answer.
 
Capitalism is what you use to justify that feeling soulessness at night after a hard day at the office doing something that doesn't make you feel good inside...
 
The first option naturally causes the second. I voted the first though since it makes sense to define it as a free market and take things from there.
 
In the real existing capitalism there is not a free market,at least not for the possessing classes, since they are under the protecting wings of the state (key-words: corporate welfare, government bail-outs).

Option 2 is as far as I can see obviously right; capital is as Marx observed, a social phenomena;

[---]Private property, as the antithesis to social, collective property, exists only where the means of labor and the external conditions of labor belong to private individuals. But according as these private individuals are laborers or not laborers, private property has a different character.[---]

[---]Self-earned private property, that is based, so to say, on the fusing together of the isolated, independent laboring-individual with the conditions of his labor, is supplanted by capitalistic private property, which rests on exploitation of the nominally free labor of others, i.e., on wage-labor.[---]
Karl Marx, The Capital, Vol I. Part VIII, Chapter 32
An interesting perspective on capitalism would be that it is the exploitative system where you can sell companies (note carefully that thoseshould be understood not only as production units but also as social institutions consisting of cooperating individuals), while one in the slave society where people are sold directly and feudal societies where families can switch owners. This is indeed an difference in capitalisms favour, since the individual can leave the company, even if it in practice quite often will not be much of a choice.

And please, can we leave human nature out of this thread? Any hegemonic system has always been the "best suited to human nature".
 
Capitalism is an efficient economic system that produce many social problems if left unchecked. It seems to fit quite well with innate human behavior. In its regulated form and applied to the appropriate markets it has done much good.

In the US it has become for some not an economic tool but a religion. It is thoughtlessly offered as the answer to all problems and any restrictions on its practice is condemned as heresy.
 
Akka said:
Capitalism is a variation of the free market where the emphasis is on the capital : the production of wealth comes more from the money invested than from the work of people itself. An striking example is stock exchange, where huge amount of money can be gained or lost with virtually no practical work done.

I disagree.
The stock exchange example is precisely about money, not wealth.
The production of wealth comes only from work of people itself.
 
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