> At its core, capitalism is That kind of transaction dates back to bartering, and is neither unique to capitalism nor excluded from socialism. The way you pu

> At its core, capitalism is That kind of transaction dates back to bartering, and is neither unique to capitalism nor excluded from socialism. The way you put it also assumes that both parties are capable of negotiating the work/money trade to be advantageous to both; it seems pretty clear that Walmart and their floor workers are not in such a win-win. > Whereas socialism is the codification of a win-lose This is roughly equivalent to saying capitalism is the codification of exploitation, in that neither are true of their respective, functioning systems, and both are failure modes of their respective systems. Socialism is the venture capitalism of people, at scale. Society invests in you and your situation; if you pan out, it needs a return on that investment so that it can reinvest. Of course these are all drastic simplifications of complex systems that cannot be boiled down to soundbytes, but eh.