As with all ideas in theory, capitalism doesn’t sound terrible. But when the competition is done improving and they’ve got their audience/loyalists, it’s a race to the bottom and the only “losers” are the ones who step just a bit too far… and then they try it again in a few years and it works. Just look at micro transactions
Marx analysed the underlying mechanisms of capitalism thoroughly, and even in theory it’s terrible. The only thing it’s good at, as he noted, is being efficient at production.
I don’t want to go out on a limb and say every serf and craftsman under feudalism would have refused capitalism if you’d told them what it was going to do to them, but the fact that there was primitive accumulation in the form of the enclosure act in the UK and similar acts in Europe shows that capitalism was far from being accepted by the people.
I think it’s more the “good side” of capitalism is appealing and is why people swear by it. The idea that working hard means you too can live “the American Dream” even though that dream was thoroughly claimed hundreds of years ago and now only the truly lucky get in. You don’t even necessarily have to work hard to do it, just be unreasonably lucky lol
The idea that working hard means you too can live “the American Dream”
at the expense of the genocided natives and on the back of slaves. there isn’t and never was an American Dream that was possible except through the brutal exploitation of human beings.
Gotta love exploitation. I just want to know what “God fearing” men/women decided that exploitation was the way? Especially when the whole point of the revolution was to get away from being exploited and treated poorly under the British crown. Like, how did so few people see the mirror (and give a shit) that we ended up with slavery for so long?
slavery and exploitation where the explicit purposes of the revolution. read “The Counter-Revolution of 1776”. remember that Washington’s very first act as president was to go put down some farmers and workers that wanted a better deal.
Well, that’s what the first economists hoped capitalism would do, but they were highly idealistic (the philosophical theory of it I mean). Smith for example tried to understand why some business owners accumulated capital and why some failed, and he could only come to the conclusion that it happened because they worked harder. It was only with Marx (the third ever economist) that we finally had an explanation for why that happened, primitive accumulation through which monopolies could form and eventually capital gets concentrated in the hands of a very few.
Of course if you tell people they can become rich like Bezos thanks to capitalism it might be considered part of its theory, but I personally consider it a lie.
I think the only people who swear by capitalism are it’s winners and those who are close to being, or who are deluded into thinking they’ll be, the winners.
The vast majority of ordinary people do not think the system is set up for them; they just lack the intellectual tools (Marxism) to know how to fight it, so they stay quiet or, occasionally, protest. I used to think they were just unwilling to work hard enough when they complained to me. I was very wrong.
Maybe this is different in the US. Still, I doubt anyone anywhere who is one cough, sore tooth, or grouchy boss away from becoming homeless and losing everything swears by capitalism, in theory or in practice. Those who swear by it are in a privileged position, whether they realise it or not.
I was one of those people. It blows away fast after however many unanswered job applications and however many letting agents telling you they have nowhere for you to live within your budget except a shared room. All that love for capitalism gets swept away in the first breeze.
The “theory” makes a lot of very favorable assumptions. The real theory (Marx) reveals the real usefulness/shortcomings of the capitalist mode of production, and we are way past it’s usefulness.
As with all ideas in theory, capitalism doesn’t sound terrible. But when the competition is done improving and they’ve got their audience/loyalists, it’s a race to the bottom and the only “losers” are the ones who step just a bit too far… and then they try it again in a few years and it works. Just look at micro transactions
Marx analysed the underlying mechanisms of capitalism thoroughly, and even in theory it’s terrible. The only thing it’s good at, as he noted, is being efficient at production.
I don’t want to go out on a limb and say every serf and craftsman under feudalism would have refused capitalism if you’d told them what it was going to do to them, but the fact that there was primitive accumulation in the form of the enclosure act in the UK and similar acts in Europe shows that capitalism was far from being accepted by the people.
I think it’s more the “good side” of capitalism is appealing and is why people swear by it. The idea that working hard means you too can live “the American Dream” even though that dream was thoroughly claimed hundreds of years ago and now only the truly lucky get in. You don’t even necessarily have to work hard to do it, just be unreasonably lucky lol
at the expense of the genocided natives and on the back of slaves. there isn’t and never was an American Dream that was possible except through the brutal exploitation of human beings.
I think the “is” there might be throwing your sentence off grammatically FWIW
fixed
Gotta love exploitation. I just want to know what “God fearing” men/women decided that exploitation was the way? Especially when the whole point of the revolution was to get away from being exploited and treated poorly under the British crown. Like, how did so few people see the mirror (and give a shit) that we ended up with slavery for so long?
“Rules for me but not for thee”
slavery and exploitation where the explicit purposes of the revolution. read “The Counter-Revolution of 1776”. remember that Washington’s very first act as president was to go put down some farmers and workers that wanted a better deal.
Well, that’s what the first economists hoped capitalism would do, but they were highly idealistic (the philosophical theory of it I mean). Smith for example tried to understand why some business owners accumulated capital and why some failed, and he could only come to the conclusion that it happened because they worked harder. It was only with Marx (the third ever economist) that we finally had an explanation for why that happened, primitive accumulation through which monopolies could form and eventually capital gets concentrated in the hands of a very few.
Of course if you tell people they can become rich like Bezos thanks to capitalism it might be considered part of its theory, but I personally consider it a lie.
I think the only people who swear by capitalism are it’s winners and those who are close to being, or who are deluded into thinking they’ll be, the winners.
The vast majority of ordinary people do not think the system is set up for them; they just lack the intellectual tools (Marxism) to know how to fight it, so they stay quiet or, occasionally, protest. I used to think they were just unwilling to work hard enough when they complained to me. I was very wrong.
Maybe this is different in the US. Still, I doubt anyone anywhere who is one cough, sore tooth, or grouchy boss away from becoming homeless and losing everything swears by capitalism, in theory or in practice. Those who swear by it are in a privileged position, whether they realise it or not.
I was one of those people. It blows away fast after however many unanswered job applications and however many letting agents telling you they have nowhere for you to live within your budget except a shared room. All that love for capitalism gets swept away in the first breeze.
The “theory” makes a lot of very favorable assumptions. The real theory (Marx) reveals the real usefulness/shortcomings of the capitalist mode of production, and we are way past it’s usefulness.