Comments on: What is Capitalism?

By: David

David — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 14:26:58 +0000

America today is NOT Capitalism. America today is far from being Capitalism.

“So you think that money is the root of all evil?” “Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can’t exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?

read the full article: “Francisco’s Money Speech” by Ayn Rand. http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=1826

Capitalism is a social system based on the recognition of individual rights, including property rights, in which all property is privately owned.

The recognition of individual rights entails the banishment of physical force from human relationships: basically, rights can be violated only by means of force. In a capitalist society, no man or group may initiate the use of physical force against others. The only function of the government, in such a society, is the task of protecting man’s rights, i.e., the task of protecting him from physical force; the government acts as the agent of man’s right of self-defense, and may use force only in retaliation and only against those who initiate its use; thus the government is the means of placing the retaliatory use of force under objective control.

When I say “capitalism,” I mean a full, pure, uncontrolled, unregulated laissez-faire capitalism—with a separation of state and economics, in the same way and for the same reasons as the separation of state and church.

http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/capitalism.html

Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism:_The_Unknown_Ideal

By: Zen Forum

Zen Forum — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 02:44:04 +0000

With this recent world wide financial crisis, I have begun to wonder whether we are seeing a “whithering away” of capitalism which Marx and Engels predicted 150 years ago.
I also wonder whether some conservative Muslims will point to the Qur’anic prohibition against lending on interest.

By: Bowie

Bowie — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 21:04:47 +0000

When i think about capitalism, this is how i think. Everything we possess has two uses. One use is the proper use, the other is an improper use. For example, a vehicle is properly used for transportation. But this same vehicle can also be exchanged for food or money. It is true that exchange is also use, but it is not the proper way the vehicle was inteded to be used.
Before capitalism began, and in some cases afterwards, production was for use in most parts of the world. Food was made to be eaten, not exchanged. Only with the ascent of capitalism did production for the sole purpose of exchange become dominant.

By: K. Keenan

K. Keenan — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 20:08:16 +0000

The only way money can become a problem in someone’s life is if they make money important to them, unless the decision is out of the individual’s hands and forced on them by the power of the society. I do not beleive any half intelligent person in out country can go about successfully without being worried about their personal financial situation. That having been said, this “stress” factor allows capitalism to be second handedly moderated. There is no “capitalist organization” to sit behind desks and run the country. Capitalism is run by the ambitions, hopes, and dreams of its members (like it seems Bryan tried to say).

By: Geeko

Geeko — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 19:42:56 +0000

There has been some great discussion here. Without a doubt, the business world represents the outward facing reality of capitalism and is an important part of what ever capitalism is. It is the presense of the business firms and practices that defines the capitalism of modern life. We are all affected by this system one way or another. It is this image of every day life that constitutes the central fascination of capitalism for all of the great exconomists out there.

I would also like to touch on some of the discussion about feudal systems. The nature of capitalism, described by its behavior and beliefs that make its components work, can not be found in earlier forms of social organization. The logic of capitalism also has no parallel distinctions with feudal systems because capitalism is much more economically dramatic and exciting.

By: Cdog

Cdog — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 19:10:18 +0000

In capitalism, wealth inhabits material things briefly and temporarily. We discover surplus in all societies that have made a leap from primitive communities to more advanced civilizations, a movement that pays thanks to the rise of state. The reason for the formation of these states has been the birth of the extraction of surplus. Capitalism is not just the production of goods and the money. It is eihter of these things when it is used to set into motion a process of continuous transformation of capital-as-money to capital-as-commodities, followed by a restructure from c-a-c into capital-as-more-money. Its almost like a repetitive, expansion metamorphosis!

By: Charles Cullen

Charles Cullen — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 18:41:20 +0000

There is nothing wrong with an economic society whose primary goal is to acquire wealth. It sounds like Bryan is frustrated about the economy and is taking it out on capitalism as an evil being. Sure, it may stink to not be successful in acheiving the goals of a capitalist. As much as i hate to say it, capitalism needs peopel to fail in life in order for it to grow and prosper. There can not always be winners across the board. Tim moore explained it well with his 80% 20% scenario. Those numbers are the equilibrium capitalism has reached in order to maintain progress.

By: Michael Saliski

Michael Saliski — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 18:30:57 +0000

The fundaental force that drives a system through history is its search for profit- a search whose outcome depends on the historical fate of the social formation as a whole. The capitalist path takes different turnings at different points in histroy, and the parths of the capitalist nationas by no means run along the same tracks. Yet, in all variations, the direction of capitalism is easily recognized as a movement guided by the need for profit.
There is another aspect of the system that is the effect of accumulation in forcing structural changes inside the system. These changes alter the way in which capital pursues its unchanging goal. The real question is “how long can profits be won?”. The answer is ultimately based on the ever changing balance of class power.

By: Jim Gibson

Jim Gibson — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 18:30:53 +0000

The greatest thing about capitalism is that it has the natural ability to run itself with natural regulation. This regulation is powered by the business actions and decisions that everyone in this country makes. Self regulation is a consequence of the capitalists goal to expend, the clash of various business practices, and also the society in which the trading takes place.

By: UncleFester

UncleFester — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 18:05:37 +0000

I think capitalism is simply a formal way to express our greediness. Laws are made by government officials that benefit themselves more than the general population it seems. Bryan mentioned that people only do things if there is some sort of reward. I have to agree with that because everyone in this country is looking for ways to make “an extra buck” here and there, especially in these hard times. Nothing is free. Heck, not even our freedom is free.

By: LJcap10Mac7

LJcap10Mac7 — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:54:02 +0000

Capitalism can be described as a society in which the accumulation of wealth serves two purposes: the realization of power, with its danger of unconscious sexual and emotional needs, and the expression of that power, with its own ingredients of unconscious requirements and origins.

Both aspects of capital can be seen in capitalist social formations where the proccess of acquirin capital is pursued in part because it is the way the dominant class expresses its social control. Also, it is the typical means by which distinction is acheived in a socialized economic country.

By: Heatherae

Heatherae — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:41:14 +0000

The power wielded by capital differs in small but substantial ways. The owner of capital is not entitled to use direct force against those who refuse to enter into a trade scenario with him as a buyer or seller. The merchant or employer may have to turn to the power of state to enforce contractual agreements. The state is usually willing to lend out its power to break up riots and strikes, and to protect trade routes and means of production. Coersion belongs to the state, not the capitalist. When the capitalism uses strong-arm tactics, it is not a proper use of their power.

By: K G

K G — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 05:03:42 +0000

Very informative article about the economy in regards to the capitalism and the economy.

By: Klown

Klown — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 04:09:59 +0000

Capital is not a material thing like bryan describes. Its a process that uses material things as moments in its dynamic existance; an expansive process. It is more so a social process not a physical one. At the center of this process is a social relationship between the owners of money and goods, the “embodiments” of capital, and the users of these embodiments who need them to carry on the acivity of production which their life depends on.

By: Todd Simmons

Todd Simmons — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 20:46:10 +0000

RYAN posted that the current economic status is not because of capitalism. I think this is true in a sense because capitalism isnt necessarily what is lieing and misleading the public. Capitalism as a system is working just how it was designed to work. It is the capital(ists) who are destroying our economy because of all the corruptedness that is going on and because of their crooked business strategies.