5.Capitalism

8/11/2019 5.Capitalism

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American Capitalism


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Capitalism is an economic system in

which wealth, and the means of

producing wealth, are privately ownedand controlled rather than commonly,

publicly, or state-owned and controlled.


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Through capitalism, the land, labor, and

capital are owned, operated, and traded

by private individuals or corporations,and investments, distribution, income,

production, pricing and supply of goods,

commodities and services are determinedby voluntary private decision in a market

economy


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A distinguishing feature of capitalism is

that each person owns his or her own

labor and therefore is allowed to sell theuse of it to employers.

In a "capitalist state", private rights and

property relations are protected by therule of law of a limited regulatory

framework


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The central axiom of Capitalism is that

the best allocation of resources is

achieved through consumers having freechoice, and producers responding

accordingly to meet collective consumer

demand. This contrasts with plannedeconomies in which the state directs what

shall be produced.


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American Caste System

The first Non-working Caste

Those who don't (cannot) work [The

Outcastes] -the uneducated, unemployable,addicts, handicapped poor, elderly poor.

Many of these outcastes are minorities or in

jail.


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The Working Castes

Those who work primarily with their hands

[Unskilled manual workers] - minimum

wage, service industry (most of these arebarely making it) .

Those who work primarily with their hands

[Skilled manual workers] - blue collar

workers, trades people etc (many of these are

insecure and constantly worried that they

may fall into 1)



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The Working Castes

Those who work primarily with their heads

[White collar, mental workers] - officeworkers, engineers, first line supervisors,

journalists, teachers, academicians, other

professionals etc (many are struggling to get

into 4, shocked when they fall into 1).



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The Working Castes

Those who work primarily with their mouths

[Management, verbal workers] - managers(middle and upper), newspaper/magazine

editors, politicians, independent business

owners, self-employed lawyers and doctors

etc. These often imagine that they rule the

world without acknowledging (or even

realizing) that they have been bought and

paid for the other non-working caste.



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The Second Non-working CasteThose who don't (don't need to) work [The

CAPITALISTS] - Some of these actually do

choose to work, but their income is primarily

'unearned' and comes from their invested

capital. They essentially live off the labor of

1 through 4.


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The Second Non-working Caste

The capitalists' main job is to remain invisible

(unless they are politicians) and use their power andinfluence (they own the media as well as

government leaders - both elected and appointed) to

keep the four working castes suspicious and

distrustful of each other and together learn to hate

the other non-working group or some foreign threat


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Capitalism and Democracy

It has been suggested by some that there

was a deliberate decision after World War II

to use terms like the 'free world', the 'free

market', 'free enterprise' in order to implythat all these were synonymous with

freedom and a democratically elected

government. This has become so pervasive in the US that

many people very likely think that a

capitalistic state means a democratic one.


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Capitalists and Entrepreneurs

the myth that all capitalists (or at least

most of them) are entrepreneurs -

constantly starting new ventures, takingmajor risks, helping the economy to grow

and generally raising the standard of

everyone else. The truth is very fewcapitalists are entrepreneurs who start

their own enterprises


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Characteristics of Capitalism as

practice

The accumulation of the means of

production (materials, land, tools) as

property into a few hands; thisaccumulated property is called "capital"

and the property-owners of these means

of production are called "capitalists."


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Productive labor

the human work necessary toproduce goods and distribute themtakes the

form of wage labor. That is, humans work for

wages rather than for product

Labor also becomes "efficient," that is, itbecomes defined by its "productivity"; capitalism

increases individual productivity through "the

division of labor,".

Result of the division of labor is to lower the

value of the individual worker; this would create

immense social problems in Europe and America

in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Characteristics of Capitalism

as practice


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Characteristics of Capitalism

as practice

The means of production and labor is

manipulated by the capitalist using

rational calculation in order to realize aprofit. So that capitalism as an economic

activity is fundamentally teleological


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Capitalism as a way of thinking is

fundamentally individualistic, that is, that the

individual is the center of capitalist endeavor.

All individuals are different, that society iscomposed of individuals who pursue their own

interests, that individuals should be free to

pursue their own interests (this, in capitalism, is

called "economic freedom"), and that, in a

democratic sense, individuals pursuing their

own interests will guarantee the interests of

society as a whole.


way of thinking


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Capitalism as a way of thinking isfundamentally based on the Enlightenment idea

of progress; the large-scale social goal of

unregulated capitalism is to produce wealth,

that is, to make the national economy wealthier

and more affluent than it normally would be.

The entire structure of capitalism as a way of

thinking is built on the idea of "economicgrowth." This economic growth has no

prescribed end; the purpose is for nations to

grow steadily wealthier.


way of thinking


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Economics, the analysis of the production and

distribution of goods, has to be abstracted out of

other areas of knowledge. In other words, capitalism as a way of thinking

divorces the production and distribution of

goods from other concerns, such as politics,

religion, ethics, etc., and treats production anddistribution as independent human endeavors.

In this view, the fundamental purpose and

meaning of human life is productive labor


way of thinking


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The economic world view treats the economy

as if it were mechanical, that is, subject to

certain predictable laws. This means thateconomic behavior can be rationally calculated

, and these rational calculations are always

future-directed . So, the mechanistic view of the

economy leads to an exclusively teleologicalworld picture; capitalism as a manipulation of

the "machine" of the economy is always

directed to the future and intentionally regards

the past as of no concern

Characteristics of Capitalism a

way of thinking


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The fundamental unit of meaning in capitalist

and economic thought is the object , that is,

capitalism relies on the creation of a consumer

culture, a large segment of the population that isnot producing most of what it is consuming.

Since capitalism, like mercantilism, is

fundamentally based on distributing goods

moving goods from one place to another

consumers have no social relation to the people

who produce the goods they consume.


way of thinking

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5.Capitalism

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