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The basic concept of capitalism is that there are capital owners, and they hire workers who use that capital to generate value. The capital owners receive all o

The basic concept of capitalism is that there are capital owners, and they hire workers who use that capital to generate value. The capital owners receive all of that value and then pay the workers for their time. This is not a comprehensive description of capitalism but it is the low level idea. Obviously there is a distribution of real world behaviors.

AYBABTME 5y ago
Capitalism is about trade and industry being done by private owners, instead of by the state. It's a decentralized economic system that acknowledges a state's inability to fully plan the economy due to imperfect information. It's not anchored in labor exploitation.
- SequoiaHope 5y ago
  > Capitalism is about trade and industry being done by private owners, instead of by the state. It's a decentralized economic system that acknowledges a state's inability to fully plan the economy due to imperfect information. > The basic concept of capitalism is that there are capital owners, and they hire workers who use that capital to generate value. The capital owners receive all of that value and then pay the workers for their time. These are both true.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- davmar 5y ago
  capitalism cannot differentiate between efficiency and exploitation
- heavyset_go 5y ago
  State capitalism exists.
- kqr 5y ago
  This is incorrect. You can have state capitalism as well as non-state non-capitalism (worker-owned cooperatives are a common example of private non-capitalism). As the person you're responding to said, capitalism is the philosophy that concentration of capital should be rewarded. It's that simple. Whether the state or private magnates concentrate the capital and get rewarded for it is irrelevant.
gojomo 5y ago
That's only the 'basic concept of capitalism' at a reductionist Fischer-Price level-of-understanding by its detractors. That's just as impoverished a model of the real world, in its own way, as simple microeconomics analyses of 'perfect competition'.
- SequoiaHope 5y ago
  I disagree. The description I used is helpful in distinguishing capitalism from previous modes of production like feudalism or alternatives like communism. I explicitly said the description is not comprehensive, but it is one aspect of capitalism.
- TaylorAlexander 5y ago
  > a reductionist Fischer-Price level-of-understanding By the way I got this from Richard Wolff. Here is his education history: B.A. History magna cum laude Harvard 1963 M.A. Economics Stanford 1964 M.A. Economics Yale 1966 M.A. History Yale 1967 Ph.D. Economics Yale 1969
  - gojomo 5y ago
    Ideology can make even the highly-credentialed pretty dumb. But did Mr. Wolff really say – "The basic concept of capitalism is that there are capital owners, and they hire workers who use that capital to generate value. The capital owners receive all of that value and then pay the workers for their time." – ? Where?

AYBABTME 5y ago

Capitalism is about trade and industry being done by private owners, instead of by the state. It's a decentralized economic system that acknowledges a state's inability to fully plan the economy due to imperfect information. It's not anchored in labor exploitation.

SequoiaHope 5y ago
> Capitalism is about trade and industry being done by private owners, instead of by the state. It's a decentralized economic system that acknowledges a state's inability to fully plan the economy due to imperfect information. > The basic concept of capitalism is that there are capital owners, and they hire workers who use that capital to generate value. The capital owners receive all of that value and then pay the workers for their time. These are both true.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
davmar 5y ago
capitalism cannot differentiate between efficiency and exploitation
heavyset_go 5y ago
State capitalism exists.
kqr 5y ago
This is incorrect. You can have state capitalism as well as non-state non-capitalism (worker-owned cooperatives are a common example of private non-capitalism). As the person you're responding to said, capitalism is the philosophy that concentration of capital should be rewarded. It's that simple. Whether the state or private magnates concentrate the capital and get rewarded for it is irrelevant.

gojomo 5y ago

That's only the 'basic concept of capitalism' at a reductionist Fischer-Price level-of-understanding by its detractors. That's just as impoverished a model of the real world, in its own way, as simple microeconomics analyses of 'perfect competition'.

SequoiaHope 5y ago
I disagree. The description I used is helpful in distinguishing capitalism from previous modes of production like feudalism or alternatives like communism. I explicitly said the description is not comprehensive, but it is one aspect of capitalism.
TaylorAlexander 5y ago
> a reductionist Fischer-Price level-of-understanding By the way I got this from Richard Wolff. Here is his education history: B.A. History magna cum laude Harvard 1963 M.A. Economics Stanford 1964 M.A. Economics Yale 1966 M.A. History Yale 1967 Ph.D. Economics Yale 1969
- gojomo 5y ago
  Ideology can make even the highly-credentialed pretty dumb. But did Mr. Wolff really say – "The basic concept of capitalism is that there are capital owners, and they hire workers who use that capital to generate value. The capital owners receive all of that value and then pay the workers for their time." – ? Where?