| Capitalism is not a system of ideas, nor is it a system that anyone chooses. It is not designed, voted on, decreed, or managed. It has no governing authority, no standards organization. It has no dogma, creed, commandments, or constitution. Capitalism is the natural order of things within human societies above a certain size and complexity level. It's more like a force of nature than anything else. To establish any system other than capitalism takes great effort. What we can do is regulate it. It might be impossible to prevent corruption entirely in government. But to criticize capitalism in its contemporary manifestation is to criticize blatant regulatory capture, corruption, and demagoguery. Those phenomena are themselves manifestations of capitalism, and it is telling that they arise in capitalist and non-capitalist societies alike. We need to develop new and better systems for keeping people honest and for keeping institutions fair. Without this development, human nature, not the distribution of capital ownership, remains the greatest threat to humanity. Since I've been downvoted, I might as well clarify: this article exemplifies what I'm talking about! First the author writes: What is [the slave owner] really after? He’s trying to earn is freedom from labour — not having to do work, hence the slaves. He’s also trying to win freedom from exploitation — he holds the whip, but is above the moral law. And from control, punishment, hierarchy — he has no boss to answer to. That's perfectly reasonable! Note that capitalism has nothing to do with this. People have always sought this. It might as well be part of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. But then they try to summarize themselves: "Even the capitalist is really just trying win back his freedom from capitalism" I guess that's true in this particular case, because for this particular capitalist the cause of their non-freedom is capitalism. But is it true in general? Absolutely not! Freedom from exploitation and the desire for control are universal human desires that extend beyond any particular economic system. Once the false equivalence is broken, the article kinda stops making sense. |
0. some agreement to not use violence to take value
1. some way to Exchange Value
2. ways to Store Value
3. ways to Lend Value