capitalism is Private ownership of the means of production The social system. The idea is that the bourgeoisie buys labor exploit . Its main characteristics are: generalized monopoly, global monopoly and economic financialization. ^[20]

Germany Schiller The Industrial Revolution completely restructured the mode of production and changed people's way of life, resulting in unprecedented social unrest. This is a thousand-year change in European society. The basic feature of this social form is a strict social division of labor. The whole society is like a delicate clockwork machine, with numerous but inanimate parts forming a whole of mechanical life. This kind of mechanical society will inevitably lead to the division of human nature. ^[19]

Capital can take the form of money and credit for the purchase of labor and production materials. Whatever form it takes, it is always privately owned capital in the hands of the bourgeoisie. ^[1] Capitalists own capital and control the production process and financial decisions. There is competition between capital, but in essence it tends to monopoly . ^[1-2] The trend of increasing concentration of capital is very clear, and the speed and degree of this concentration are increasing day by day. ^[20]

Chinese name: capitalism
Foreign name: capitalism

sprout: Renaissance period
Characteristic point: Private ownership Base on...

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definition

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etymology

The Latin word "capital" comes from the trade and possession of animals, and "capitalis" comes from the Proto-Indo-European word "kaput" - meaning "head" - a way of measuring wealth in ancient Europe: the more heads of cattle a person had, the richer that person was. The words "chattel" (meaning commodity, animal or slave) and "cattle" are also derived from "kaput". In the 12th and 13th centuries, the word "capital" began to be used to describe money, stocks of goods, quantities of money, or profits from money.

David Ricardo The term "capitalist" was used several times in the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817). The English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge also used the term in his work in 1823, and in 1867 Pierre-Joseph Prouton used the term "capitalist" to refer to the owners of capital. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels The word capitalism has been used in many writings, in Das Kapital It gives a rich portrait of capitalism. ^[16]

Marx was very insightful on this point. In a capitalist society, he said, capital itself becomes the subject. Humans are its pawns, reduced to feeding the beasts to figure out how they get what they need between the cracks. Let humanity be the food that feeds capitalism. ^[17] As Engels put it:" Jus romanum is capitalism Before the perfect law of commodity production, it also contains capitalism Period of most legal relations ". ^[18]

The suffix ism may be used to denote a historical state, a movement, a system of thought, or some combination of the above meanings. The first person to use the term "capitalism" in English was the English novelist William Makepeace Thackeray, who used it to mean the ownership of large amounts of capital rather than a system of production. In his 1902 book The Jews and Modern Capitalism, German economist Wiener Sombart used the term "capitalism" to describe the system of production. A close friend and associate of Sombart Max Weber The term was also used in the Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism in 1904.

Different definitions

There are different definitions of capitalism.

The term uses the term "social system" because capitalism's mode of production also determines its politics and culture superstructure .

The Dictionary of the Century, published in 1909, defined the country as having capital or property; Possession of capital. Too much capital is concentrated in the hands of too few; And, the power or influence over a large or combined capital.

Western economics generally believes that it belongs to the" Economic system ". The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines capitalism as "one owned by an individual or corporation. Capital property The economic system in which investment is made through individual decisions rather than through state control, and where prices, production, and sales of goods are primarily determined liberty The market decides." The 1987 British edition of" The Oxford English Dictionary It is defined as: "The condition of possession of capital; The identity of capitalists; Support the capitalist system."

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EDITOR

Main feature

Economically, to Private economy Mainly, no government intervention or little government intervention. Politically, bourgeois parties take power, or a bourgeois democratic political system is practised.

capitalism (2 photos)

Production is for sale and not for use by the producer himself; There is a market for buying and selling Labour in exchange for money wages for a given time (hourly wage system) or for a particular job (piece rate system); The use of money as a medium of exchange is a dominant, if not universal, phenomenon. By taking the form of money, capital gives its owners the greatest flexibility in scheduling; The capitalist may dominate the process of production, which means that he has power not only over the hiring and firing of workers, but also over the choice of technology, the preparation of products, working conditions, and the sale of products; Dominate financial decisions. Under capitalism, business owners have the right to raise money by borrowing, issuing shares and mortgaging their buildings. Workers have no say in this;

The contradiction between the socialization of production and the private ownership of the capitalist means of production constitutes the basic contradiction of capitalist society, which runs through the development of capitalism. It manifests itself economically as the contradiction between the organized production of individual enterprises and the anarchy of the production of the whole society, and politically as the contradiction between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.

The development of capitalism has gone through two stages - free competitive capitalism and Monopoly capitalism .

In conformity with the ruling form of capitalist relations of production, the various pre-capitalist superstructures were replaced by bourgeois superstructures, giving rise to bourgeois superstructures State power The formation of a social system including the capitalist mode of production and the superstructure corresponding to it.

The bourgeoisie and proletariat The reasons for the opposition: the system formulated by capitalists is mainly to protect the interests of capitalists themselves; Socialism is ruled by the proletariat, and the system formulated by the proletariat mainly represents the interests of the proletariat. The interests of the bourgeoisie are clearly opposed to those of the proletariat.

Quantitative index

The controversial term is sometimes used in economic research Index of economic freedom . One of the two most famous indices is by Wall Street Journal and Heritage Foundation The other was released by Canada Fraser Institute Published by the Fraser Institute. Both indices attempt to measure the economic freedom of each country, mainly in terms of regulations, the degree of government intervention, private property rights, and private property rights Freedom of trade Main. Economic freedom is defined as "the ability of people to produce, sell, and consume goods and services without government coercion or restriction" (this is also known as laissez-faire).

Using data from independent organisations such as the United Nations, they calculate how each country scores on items such as the size of its government, tax rates, security of property rights, Free trade And the extent to which markets are regulated. Much of the published material has also been used by other independent think tanks to study the relationship between capitalism and poverty. The Fraser Institute argues that "the more thoroughly capitalist the country is, the higher the national income, the higher the income of the poorest 10% of the population. Mean life Higher literacy rates, lower infant mortality rates, greater access to water, and less corruption." The share of total income shared by the poorest 10% of the population is the same in capitalist and non-capitalist countries. Others stress the importance of the credit system in capitalism, and in particular the role played by microcredit.

Theoretical basis

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Most of the theoreticians known as capitalism came into being in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, for example Industrial revolution And the period of European imperialism (e.g. Smith, Ricardo), and the Great Depression (e.g Keynes ) and Cold war Period (such as Friedrich Hayek , Fleming ).

These theorists define capitalism as a system in which capital is owned by private individuals (sometimes called "capitalists"), while economic decisions and decisions are made by the market - that is, by trade through agreements between sellers and buyers; It operates through the wisdom of the market and entrepreneurship, as well as property rights and contract systems protected by law. These theorists also try to explain why capitalism can produce greater economic growth than an economy with government involvement. (See Economics, Political philosophy , laissez-faire)

Finland Parliamentarian Anders Schydenius was The first to advocate for freedom of trade and industry and liberal principles when he published The National Gain in 1765, 11 years later in 1776 Adam Smith Have published Wealth of nations A book.

In 1867, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon used the" capitalist "To refer to the owner of capital. However, the first use of the term "capitalism" to describe the system of production was by the German economist Werner Sombart in his 1902 book Die Judenunddas Wirtschaftsleben. A close friend and associate of Sombart Max Weber Also in 1904, Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism Dieprotestantische Ethikundder Geistdes Kapitalismus used the term.

The concept of capitalism has also changed over time and varies with political views and analysis. The economic liberalism espoused by Adam Smith focused on the enlightened role of human self-interest (" The invisible hand "), and the specific role it plays in increasing the efficiency of capital accumulation.

Some advocates of capitalism (e.g Milton Friedman , Ayn Rand Alan Greenspan and Alan Greenspan both emphasized the role of the free market, believing that free markets promote cooperation among individuals, innovation, economic growth, and freedom. Some people (such as sociologists Emmanuel Wallerstein The pivot of capitalism lies in an economic system that enables goods and services to be traded on markets, while the products of capital are owned by non-state entities and operate on a global scale.

Austrian school Economists argue that because the economy organizes itself, an economy without government planning and guidance will be more efficient.

produce

Capitalist relations of production emerged from the feudal society. The dissolution of the economic structure of the feudal society liberated the elements of capitalism. In the 14th and 15th centuries, Mediterranean Certain cities along the coast (e.g Venice Capitalist relations of production have sparsely emerged germinate For sure, but Age of capitalism It only started in the 16th century.

At the end of feudal society, the development of commodity economy promoted the disintegration of natural economy in feudal society and caused the polarization of small commodity producers. capital Primary accumulation Accelerating this divergence, the basic conditions for the emergence of the capitalist mode of production are: on the one hand, the creation of a large number of proletarians who have lost the means of production and are obliged to sell their Labour power; On the other hand, huge amounts of money and means of production are concentrated in the hands of a few and converted into capital. What is called Primary accumulation of capital It is the historical process of forcibly separating natural persons from their means of production, and the expropriation of the peasants of their land is the basis of the whole process. There are two ways to produce it: first, it is differentiated from small commodity economy; The second is from the businessman and Loan Shark Is transformed into. The destruction of the self-sufficient natural economy, the bankruptcy of a large number of peasants and artisans, thus both supplying and creating free Labour for capitalism Commodity market . The history of the dispossession of peasants and artisans takes on different characteristics and goes through different stages in different countries. The conversion of Labour power into commodities and the conversion of means of production into capital are marked Simple commodity production The transition to capitalist production also marks a change in the form of exploitation of the labouries-from feudal exploitation to capitalist exploitation. The primitive accumulation of capital also includes the occupation and plunder of colonies and other violent means of utilizing state power.

develop

Capitalist mode of production It contradicts the feudal system of local privileges, hierarchies and personal attachment. With the development of capitalism, the economic and political power of the bourgeoisie continues to grow Bourgeois revolution The conditions are prepared. In the Netherlands at the end of the 16th century, in England in the middle of the 17th century, in France at the end of the 18th century, and in Germany and some other countries in the middle of the 19th century, the bourgeois revolution broke out successively and changed the feudal system, thus clearing the way for the capitalist mode of production to replace the feudal mode of production.

Capitalist economy is going through Industrial revolution , due to Workshop handicraft industry Transition to Machine industry It was eventually established. Late 15th century Geographical discovery As well as the subsequent expansion of colonies, the sales market expanded many times and accelerated the transformation of handicraft industry into workshop handicraft industry. Because of the division of Labour within the workshops, capitalist handicraft industry greatly increases the productivity of Labour compared with the simple cooperative handicraft industry in the early period of capitalism. By the 18th century, other advanced in England Capitalist country In the past, the rapid expansion of the domestic and world markets has come more and more into conflict with the narrow technical base of the handicraft industry. In order to gain more profits in the competition, capitalists require further improvement of production technology. It was in this context that the Industrial Revolution occurred. The machine industry that was born in the Industrial Revolution marked the establishment of the material and technological basis for capitalist production. bourgeoisie and proletariat Two opposing classes became Capitalist society The basic class structure. The continuous progress of science and technology and its application to production have promoted the rapid development of the productive forces, extended the capitalist relations of production to all branches of production, and at the same time further developed the antagonism between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. The emergence and development of capitalism have common laws and similar consequences in various countries, but each country also has its own characteristics due to different specific historical conditions.

The contradiction between socialized production and capitalist ownership also manifests itself in the opposition between the organization of production in individual enterprises and the anarchy of production in society as a whole. Simple commodity production It already contains social production anarchy The capitalist mode of production takes this anarchy to the extreme. The formation of large industry and the world market has made the struggle among capitalists universal and unprecedented in intensity. In order to acquire more surplus value, the capitalists, at the same time under the domination of the law of competition, strive to apply the results of science and technology, constantly improve the machinery, and strengthen the organization of socialized production in their own enterprises, with the result that the anarchy of the whole social production is constantly intensified. The enormous expansion of capitalist big industry meets the relatively narrow limits of the market imposed by capitalist ownership, the objective proportions necessary for socialized production meet the destruction of the anarchy of social production as a whole, and conflict becomes inevitable. Since 1825, Capitalist economic crisis Periodic outbreaks are prominent manifestations of this conflict. In a crisis, the entire apparatus of the capitalist mode of production fails under the pressure of the productive forces of its own creation. The periodic economic crisis shows that the productive forces of society, with increasing force, demand the abandonment of their character as capital and the de facto recognition of their character as social productive forces. This resistance of the productive forces compels the capitalist class to take a stand Capital relations Within the limits of the internal possibilities, the social character of the productive forces is partially recognized. Joint-stock companies arising from the concentration of capital, Monopoly organization And state ownership is a manifestation of this trend. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, capitalism passed from the stage of free competition to its highest stage, namely Monopoly capitalism Stages.

Bipolar world theory The paper reviews the process of external pressure and the transformation of social form inside capitalism by stages, divides capitalism into three stages of development: land occupation capitalist colonial system, land tribute and tax capitalist colonial system and raw material market capitalist colonial system. In terms of industry, the corresponding stages are the colonization in the field of public goods, the colonization in the field of natural monopoly and the colonization in the field of competition. The rise of Britain to the middle of the 19th century is the stage of land occupation and colonization, and the social form of the colonial system is similar to the slavery for the purpose of land occupation in the primitive society and slave society. From the middle of the 19th century to the end of World War II was the stage of land tribute colonization, from the middle of the 19th century to the end of the 19th century to the end of World War II was the first stage of land tribute colonization, and from the end of the 19th century to the end of World War II was the second stage of land tribute colonization. The social form of the colonial system was similar to that of feudal society with the purpose of obtaining the tribute paid by the people living on a certain land. The period from the Second World War to the first half of the 21st century is the colonial stage of the raw material market; the period from the second World War to the first half of the 21st century is the second stage of the colonial stage of the raw material market. The social form of the colonial system is the economic colonial form aimed at acquiring raw materials and markets based on the unequal international division of labor. ^[3]

Private enterprise

In a capitalist economy, the vast majority of productive capacity is owned by profit-oriented corporate organizations. This includes some of the organizations that existed in early economic systems such as sole proprietorships and partnerships. Non-profit-oriented organizations in the capitalist system include cooperatives, credit unions, and communes.

The more distinctive organization of the capitalist system is the legal person, which can be used for both profit and non-profit purposes. Such entities can be legally liable in the same way as natural persons, which also creates a unique advantage for the shareholders of the company, so that the shareholders only have limited liability.

Certain forms of corporation are owned by shareholders, stockholder Buying and selling their shares on the market. Shares also turn ownership of a company into a tradable good - the rights of ownership are split into units of stock, making them easier to buy and sell. This kind of stock trade first appeared in Europe in the 17th century and has gradually expanded and developed since then. When ownership of a company is divided among many shareholders, shareholders can usually vote to exercise power within the company based on the shares they hold.

To a broader extent, control of productive capacity belongs to the shareholders of the company. Within the limits of the law and the financial capacity of the company, the shareholders of each company can decide how to use the productive capacity. In larger companies, the corporate power structure usually has a hierarchy or hierarchy of management.

It's important that the company stockholder They are able to capture the profits or income generated by the company, sometimes through the stock bonus system, and sometimes by selling their shares at a higher price. They can also reinvest those profits, further expanding the company's profits and value. They can also sell the company, sell all equipment, land, and other assets, and split the proceeds. Ownership of production capacity is usually sold at a maximized price, or a net present value price, based on the estimated future profits the company will generate. Thus the incentive of profit will induce the shareholders of the company to exercise their power to promote the company's productive capacity. Different shareholders also have different degrees of this stimulus - some will sell the ratio of their holdings, others will try to increase the value of their holdings. In any case, this profit incentive has always existed, and many people regard it as a major factor in the prosperity of capitalist economies. While critics of capitalism argue that the profits given to corporate shareholders are too large and allow them to legitimately claim the benefits of labor production, some argue that such profit incentives only encourage shareholders to make profits - and do not necessarily have a positive impact on society. Some point out that shareholders, in order to make a profit, must satisfy the needs of others to make them willing to pay. Moreover, although non-profit organizations and communes can legally produce under capitalism, people generally prefer to buy goods and services produced by profit-seeking companies.

When a company is founded, the original owner usually provides some money (capital) to buy or borrow some of the tools of production. For example, a company would first buy or borrow a piece of land or a house, buy machinery and hire labor (labor), or the capitalist would provide the labor itself. The products produced by labor become the property of the capitalist (in this case the term "capitalist" means those who own capital, not those who support capitalism) and are sold by labor on behalf of the capitalist, or by the capitalist himself, and the proceeds of the sale belong to the capitalist. The capitalist, on the other hand, pays the laborers for their labor and other costs, and keeps the rest as profit. These profits can be used in many ways, and the capitalist can spend them, or further invest them in the development of new products or technologies, or use them to expand the territory of the business in pursuit of more profits. If you need more money to expand your business, capitalist They will borrow money from others and guarantee that they will repay the principal and interest on their credit.

Private profit

Ayn Rand's objectivist philosophy holds that one's moral goal in life is to pursue one's own interests.

The pursuit of personal gain is an essential ingredient of capitalism. In such an economy, "the owners of land and capital, as well as the workers they employ, are free to use their resources and labor to produce for maximum profit." Many theorists such as Adam Smith And Ayn Rand believed that the pursuit of personal gain made the whole society richer. Adam Smith, widely regarded as the father of capitalism, believed that self-interested actions were better than those that claimed to serve the "common good. altruism Much more efficient:

"By pursuing his own interests, an individual will be able to improve society more effectively." I have never seen much good done by those who intervene in trade for the "public good." ( Wealth of nations )"

Ayn rand is perhaps the most outspoken support of Capitalism in the pursuit of personal interests, she in Capitalism: TheUnknownIdeal book wrote:

"The prosperity of the United States is created not by those who sacrifice themselves for the common good, but by free and productive men of genius who pursue their own interests and private wealth."

Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman also championed the importance of pursuing self-interest in capitalism. He argues that companies do not have a social responsibility; their only responsibility is to increase profits for shareholders, as long as they do not use fraud in the process. He argued that companies could benefit society while pursuing their profits, as long as they did not engage in fraud and deception. Friedman did not argue that corporations should not assist the community, but that as long as they were engaged in long-term undertakings they would "contribute resources to the facilities of the community..." To "boost goodwill" in order to boost its profits. Other proponents of capitalism object to the focus on self-interest, such as JohnMackey, CEO of WholeFoodsMarket, who argues in a Reason magazine article that serving customers and society is a matter of "love" rather than self-interest (rethinking the social responsibility of business, Reason Magazine, October 2005).

Self-interest through the pursuit of profit is a necessary feature of capitalism. Profit is made by selling a product for more than it costs to produce it. Some argue that the pursuit of profit is the essence of capitalism. Sociologists and economists Max Weber He argued that capitalism, like the pursuit of profit, is carried out by deliberate and rational capitalists. However, this was not a unique feature of capitalism; ancient hunter-gatherer societies also engaged in exchange and trade for profit. In capitalism, profit is a necessary condition for economic growth, and the profit portion of growth is reinvested instead of being consumed.

Free market

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The concept of a "free market," in which all economic decisions regarding money, goods, and services are made on a voluntary basis, free from coercion and fraud, is seen as a necessary feature of capitalism. Other economic systems that prevent individuals from owning the means of production (including profits), or force them to be shared, and where some economic decisions are subject to coercion, cannot be considered free markets. In the ideal free market system, all economic decisions cannot be forced to influence, but instead are determined by individuals trading, negotiating, cooperating, and competing with each other. In a free market, the government may play a protective role to prevent market participants from using force, but it does not intervene actively. This situation is called laissez-faire. However, some argue that capitalism can coexist with authoritarian government, or that a free market can exist without capitalism (see Socialist market economy ).

A legal system that recognizes and protects the right of property owners to freely sell their property; If no one wants to buy it then they have the right to keep it. According to the standard theory of capitalism, as Adam Smith argued in the Wealth of Nations, when individuals trade, they are usually more concerned with assessing the value of the product than with the price they pay for it. If the product doesn't have that value, they won't trade, keeping what they assess is worth more. This concept also indicates that both parties in a trade have assessed that they will benefit from it.

In a free market, the prices of goods and services are determined by price agreements between buyers and sellers, rather than by the government. This price is the price at which buyers are willing to pay for their goods, and the price at which sellers are willing to sell their goods, and is directly determined by supply and demand (and the volume of trade). In the abstract, price is determined by the balance point of an arc of supply and demand, representing the price at which buyers would be willing to buy (and sellers would be willing to sell) a specific amount of a product. Prices at the equilibrium point will lead to excess supply, and prices at the equilibrium point will lead to increased demand. When the price that buyers are willing to pay is the same as the price that sellers are willing to sell, the trade proceeds and the price is thus determined.

However, not everyone believes that free markets are a good thing, and the reason often used to justify government intervention in markets is so-called "market failure". Market failure refers to those situations in which markets fail to provide or allocate resources and services efficiently (for example, markets are often accused of undermining moral or social justice when they do not distribute goods as someone would like them to). Some argue that a free market that lacks "perfect intelligence" and "perfect competition" should be subject to government intervention (see perfect competition). Other frequently cited market failures include monopolies, monopolies of market information sources (e.g., insider trading), or price fraud. Wages determined through free market mechanisms are also often criticized for creating an uneven distribution of income. Another criticism of free markets is the problem of externalities, which cause the actions of one side of the market to negatively or positively affect others without being noticed. The most commonly cited example of an externality is pollution. In general, the free market has played an important role in health care, Unemployment rate , wealth Inequality and the distribution of goods in areas such as education are often criticized as market failures. At the same time, many governments considered to be capitalist systems also impose price controls in the market, thus interfering with the free market mechanism. This often occurs in times of economic crisis, or in areas of products and services that are considered strategically important - such as electricity - which are heavily regulated by governments in many countries. Many prominent economists have also analyzed market failures and argued that governments should indeed take on the job of balancing these market failures, for example through programs of market regulation and subsidies.

However, other economists, such as Nobel laureate Milton Friedman and the Austrian School of Economics, strongly opposed government intervention in the free market. They argue that the government's role in the economy should be limited and that "market failure" should not be used as an excuse to interfere with economic freedom. They argue that market failure is nothing more than a false concept, used by many to justify the political act of coercive government intervention - such as egalitarian goals. These economists argue that government intervention will not solve the problem, but will create more problems, and even create the exact opposite of what the original intervention was intended to achieve. These laissez-faire economists do not oppose monopolies unless they are achieved by compulsion to avoid competition (see Forced monopoly They also point out in history monopoly It is often due to government intervention, not the lack of it. They argued that a minimum wage law would only create unnecessary unemployment, that laws banning insider trading would reduce market transparency and efficiency, and that government-imposed price controls would create shortages of products and services. These economists are often based on practical theory, but many advocate capitalism on moral grounds, such as Ayn Rand's claim that capitalism is the only morally justified economic system.

Although often heavily regulated, financial markets can provide large-scale, standardized, and easier trade debt, international exchange rates, and ownership of companies. Agriculture, mining, and Energy industry There will be similar changes in production.

Markets have existed throughout human history. During the hunter-gatherer period, people often bartered for their goods. The advent of money made exchange easier and allowed medieval trade fairs to flourish. However, each society (at different times and places) had its own view of the appropriateness of trade in products, and therefore sometimes imposed restrictions on production and trade in particular products: either because such restrictions were used to achieve other goals, such as securing the position of local nobles/warriors/chiefs, or because the notion that a particular product could be traded was false. All this prevents a true free market.

Even in modern economies, governments do not allow markets to operate freely in many areas; But compared with the privileges granted to the same industry in the Middle Ages, for example, the price restrictions have been quite relaxed. Most economies have a mix of free market and non-market institutions. Some argue that capitalism does not necessarily equate to a free market, arguing that certain elements of the capitalist economy or property rights impede freedom in trade, while others reject the concept of a "free market" altogether, arguing that it is exploitative or does not exist at all. For example, some argue that wages set through the free market, rather than the government, are exploitative, arguing that they deprive workers of all rights over products and that they can only accept low wages to earn a living. Economists, however, point out that wages are falling just as they are in the market deflation The phenomenon is general: when the price of Labour falls, it simply means that there is less demand for this Labour in the market, or that the supply of this Labour is too great, and so the average price falls.

Economic growth

One of the main objectives of a social system in which trade and property play a central role is to promote the growth of capital. The standard way to measure growth is called GDP Gross domestic product, Capacityutilization, and standard of living.

In Adam Smith's argument, the ability of capitalist economies to maintain and improve their stock of capital is central to the free market's determination of production, prices, and the allocation of resources. It is generally believed that before the Industrial Revolution and the emergence of modern capital economy, the gross domestic product of all countries in the world was quite low and the growth was relatively slow. Since then, capitalist countries have grown very rapidly. [7][8] Prior to the Industrial Revolution, some countries had features of modern capitalism and relatively higher standards of living, including ancient Greece in the 4th century BC, Roman Italy in the 1st century, and Northern Italy in the 15th century. The Netherlands in the 17th century is also a good example, when per capita income in the Netherlands was much higher than in any other country, and also reached the 18th century England But did not achieve the industrial revolution as England did.

Higher GDP per capita income is also thought to improve living standards, including adequate or improved food, housing, clothing, medical care, reduced working hours, and free the elderly from labor. None of this can be done when GDP is too low.

However, economic growth is not universally regarded as positive, and the negative effects of this growth are what economists call "cost externalities" (see externalities), which include, among other things, pollution, destruction of traditional lifestyles and cultures, the spread of disease, and wars over access to resources or markets. And created an underclass. In defending capitalism, liberal philosophers begin with Oh, Seah Berlin It argues that none of these negative problems is unique to capitalism, nor is it a necessary consequence of capitalism.

The entrepreneurial economy and the "growth" of a society is marked by economic mobility, which represents a large-scale change in the structure that constitutes the socio-economic structure. This change is evident in the income and wealth gap between populations, and it dramatically changes how much power a person can actually earn over a lifetime. In standard economics, capitalism provides individuals with more opportunities to engage in new industries or business ventures, giving individuals the opportunity to get rich faster. In contrast to this unstable economic structure, feudal system and tribal society had a more stable wealth relationship. while egalitarianism the Socialist society It distributes more wealth for the good of society and thus reduces income mobility, especially for those who own capital and want to trade with it.

However, large changes in income do not necessarily represent income mobility - some people receive regular salaries, their salaries increase with the number of years they work, and they retire at old age, and such changes do not necessarily represent "mobility" in nature. In addition, many labor economists argue that wage instability represents a transfer of risk to workers - especially to specific sectors such as agricultural labor - and allows owners of capital to escape risk.

self-organization

Proponents of capitalism point out that such an economic system can organize itself into a complex system without external guidance or planning mechanisms. This phenomenon is called "self-organization." Nobel Prize winners Friedrich Hayek Coined the term "trading economy" (catallaxy), meaning a market out of "spontaneous order", no Central control Institutions can block individuals' decisions to pursue their goals. However, in most modern economies the state conducts some degree of central economic planning (e.g Central bank Even these limited controls, ostensibly intended to increase the efficiency of the economy, reduce the variability of the economic cycle, and promote specific social goals, create problems because it is extremely difficult to predict the state of the economy just one or two years into the future. Nobel laureate Milton Friedman argued that the Great Depression was caused by Federal reserve system Is caused by the wrong policies.

Some economists use chaos theory to argue that it is impossible to make predictions about long-term economic development. Their view detracted from the nature of economic planning and developed into one of the most important forces in capitalism, arguing that capitalism allows for experimenting with solutions, and that real-world competition can often come up with good solutions to emerging problems. These theories oppose the centrally planned way of running society in a planned economy, which is often based on wrong predictions and wrong solutions. One possible example is the experience of Somalia, where the previously tightly regulated telecommunications industry "flourished" after the collapse of the government, reportedly because of the absence of a government.

Both Ancient Rome (especially from the late Republic to the early Empire) and Song China had some characteristics of capitalism: no feudal fiefdoms, (weak) property rights, some economic growth, and technology that was quite advanced for the time. Much debate has also focused on why these societies failed to produce their "industrial revolutions" to achieve modern industrial capitalism. Some argue that these countries all have monopolies in their regions and lack competition with other countries. As a result, the ruling class became complacent, and the smooth system was reversed to enrich certain interest groups. Many new technologies have been invented in the history of many small countries competing, as in Ancient Greek and Renaissance At that time, these countries and cities were among the most advanced regions in the world.

Basic contradiction

Subject article: The basic contradiction of capitalism

The basic contradiction of capitalism is this Socialization of production and private ownership of capitalist means of production . Its specific manifestations are:

In terms of consumption, the contradiction between the trend of infinite expansion of production and the relative shrinkage of the purchasing power of the working people;

In production, the contradiction between the organized nature of production in individual enterprises and the anarchy of production in society as a whole;

In class relations, the contradiction between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. ^[4]

Capitalist production The real limit is capital itself That is to say, capital and its self-multiplication appear as the beginning and end of production, as the motive and aim of production, and production is produced only for the sake of capital. ^[2]

Exploitation and alienation

There is exploitation in capitalism. The value of every commodity is determined by the amount of Labour materialised in its use-value, by the time of Labour socially necessary to produce it. ^[5] The capitalist, by virtue of his ownership of the means of production, appropriates the laborer's surplus.

Alienation is mainly presented in three aspects. Alienation of laborers and commodities . The product created by the laborer is appropriated by the capitalist and becomes the capital for the capitalist to further enslave the laborer. The alienation of production behavior and production activity. Labor is no longer a kind of self-confirmation and self-satisfaction, but has become a burden of livelihood. Alienation of human relations. Capital becomes the measure of everything. In circulation and distribution, the products produced by society highlight not their own use value, but their value as commodities that allow capital to obtain profits. The capitalist is manipulated by alienated capital, which is the personification of capital ^[6] Decisions are made for capital appreciation.

ideology

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EDITOR

Liberal capitalism

capitalism (2 photos)

It is generally accepted that Western capitalism has gone through three main stages of development mercantilism Period (16th - 18th centuries), Liberal capitalism Period (19th century), monopoly, especially state monopoly capitalism (late 19th century, especially since the economic crisis of the 1930s). ^[9]

Monopoly capitalism

Marx Monopoly is the opposite of capitalist free competition, "because competition has historically manifested itself within a State in the abolition of guild coercion, government regulation, domestic tariffs, and the like, and in the world market in the abolition of closed, prohibitive or protective tariffs." That is to say, in the world market, capitalist monopoly is mainly self-contained unilateralism , Prohibitive tariffs Or trade tariff protectionism and xenophobia. ^[10]

State capitalism

Sino State capitalism Is produced and developed in the process of the new democratic revolution, is the new China New democracy A form of ownership during the transition to socialism.

Digital capitalism

New Forms of Human Labor Driven by the logic of digital capital -- Digital labor Only the new changes in the form of human labor under the condition of digital capitalism, superficial changes in the mode of labor cannot bring about the transformation of the capitalist mode of production, as long as it is still under the capitalist paradigm, it will inevitably hide new forms of alienation. At the same time, the dialectics of capital self-negation in contemporary times Digital capitalism From production capital to financial capital to digital capital, no matter how capital appears, how to dress its core in the guise of technology and digital, its basic contradictions, exploitation and accumulation nature will not fundamentally change, and it will not be able to avoid the end of crisis and extinction. ^[11]

defect

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Money politics

Private capital control Public power This is a chronic disease of Western capitalist democracy. Capitalist mode of production The essence is the movement of capital multiplication, which not only exists in the economic field, but also permeates into the political and other social fields, and becomes the fundamental principle governing all social activities and people's behavior in capitalist society. ^[12]

Political corruption

Western academic circles and public opinion circles have long been manufacturing and publicizing Multi-party system , parliamentarism Can curb corruption. In fact, behind the appearance of mutual supervision between the ruling party and the opposition, as well as between the legislature, the judiciary and the executive, due to the inherent drawbacks of capitalist democracy, the Western political operation needs to pay huge social costs and form serious political corruption. ^[12]

Labor opposition

First, labor is opposed to capital. Capitalist production is based on wage labor and aims at maximizing surplus value, thus creating opposition and conflict between labor and capital, wages and profits. ^[13]

Gap between rich and poor

Third, the polarization of the rich and poor. With the continuous accumulation of capital, wealth is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few large monopoly capital, and there is a trend of polarization between the working class and the bourgeoisie in the possession of wealth and income distribution. ^[13]

overproduction

Fourth, overproduction crisis. To a certain extent, the contradiction between the tendency of capitalist production to expand infinitely and the relatively small demand of the working people for their ability to pay will inevitably lead to the occurrence of an economic crisis of overproduction. ^[13]

Economic virtuality

Sixth, the virtualization of the economy. The inevitable trend of capitalist development is that financial capital gains the dominant position relative to all other forms of capital, virtual capital and financial sector expand rapidly relative to the real economy, and financial crisis breaks out frequently. Financial speculation Severe flooding. ^[13]

World distortion

Eighth, the world economy is distorted. The capitalism-led world economic system has inherent defects, such as: worldwide polarization of the rich and the poor, over-exploitation and destruction of the global ecosystem, frequent outbreaks of global economic chaos and financial crises, international exploitation, and economic development. hegemonism And power politics prevail. ^[13]

crisis

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Systemic crisis

There are many fields involved. At present, the crisis of capitalism is not only manifested in the financial field, but also involves manufacturing, international trade, and then affects the social structure and social relations, resulting in a crisis of values and a crisis of culture. The United States has taken advantage of the convenience of financial means to continuously shift the crisis, which has not only led to the dislocation of the European economy, but also caused the contraction of trade and economic downturn in the world. ^[14]

Cyclical economic crisis

Subject article: Cyclical crisis

The general manifestation of economic crisis is: a large backlog of commodities, a sharp decline in production, a large number of factories closed down, a large number of workers unemployed, credit relations seriously damaged, the entire social economy into extreme chaos and paralysis. ^[5]

Under capitalism, because of its basic contradiction, the purchasing power of the people declines while the capitalists expand production. With the development of productivity, for commodities The general profit rate will gradually decline . In order to counter this trend and gain more profits, the capitalists will take measures such as increasing the degree of labor exploitation and reducing wages, which will reduce the purchasing power of the people. ^[2] Therefore, The income of the workers, who make up the vast majority of the population, cannot buy back all the products they produce Commodities cannot achieve "thrilling jumps" in a market economy. ^[7] Come out of Relative overproduction An economic crisis eventually broke out.

In the crisis, the contradiction between socialized production and private ownership of the means of production has reached the point of violent outbreak. The circulation of commodities was temporarily halted; The means of circulation, money, becomes a barrier to circulation; All the laws of commodity production and circulation have been turned upside down. The economic conflict came to a head: The mode of production opposes the mode of exchange . ^[8]

In order to rebalance production and consumption at the end of the crisis, a lot of wealth needs to be destroyed on the one hand, a lot of poverty (unemployment) on the other, and then a new cycle begins.

Development direction

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EDITOR

As history has shown, fascism The crisis of capitalism is so serious that monopoly capital cannot rule normally, and once fascism becomes the mainstream ideology of a country and fascists take power, not only those "scapegoats" within the country will be brutally suppressed or even massacred on a large scale, but the risk of aggressive war will also increase dramatically. This will bring human society into a disastrous situation once again. The only hope of avoiding such a situation is for Marxists of all countries to organize themselves as soon as possible proletariat The political parties will get out of their predicament as soon as possible and unite the proletariat of all countries to set off an international communist movement. ^[15]

Typical country

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France

in French Revolution At the beginning of the outbreak, the big bourgeoisie included tax payers, arms suppliers, and important shareholders of state-chartered companies. They are inextricably linked with the feudal autocracy. These people do not want to overthrow the feudal autocratic system, but only hope to limit the power of the monarch through reform, improve their political status and eliminate some disadvantages of the old system. Generally speaking, the big bourgeoisie is the bourgeoisie which not only has a strong economic power but also controls a part of the political power. In the colonies, semi-colonial The country, the big bourgeoisie often started from the "comprador". The word "Comprador" comes from the transliteration of the Portuguese word comprador, which refers to the middlemen and managers in colonial and semi-colonial countries who serve foreign capitalists in the domestic market. They are closely connected with the feudal ruling class and foreign capitalism, and have accumulated huge economic and political power by selling national interests. Eventually it developed into a bureaucratic bourgeoisie, such as the four great families of China.

In France, the middle bourgeoisie included artisan ranchers, middle merchants, and sea freight, who had stronger Economic power The use of large machinery production, large-scale production, deep exploitation of workers. But they have nothing to do Political right Their own interests are often not guaranteed, and production is hindered by feudal rulers and controlled by the big bourgeoisie, so they realize that the feudal system is an obstacle to their own development, and politically they demand the complete abolition of feudalism Land relation To establish bourgeois democracy. In semi-colonial and semi-feudal China, the middle bourgeoisie was National bourgeoisie Like the early capitalists Chen Qiyuan , Zhu Qi 'ang Et al. They struggled to get started in production, oppressed and bound by foreign capitalism and domestic feudal forces. In fulfilling the task of fighting against imperialism and feudalism, they belong to the revolutionary class, but the revolution has two sides. After liberation, through socialist transformation, this class was transformed into socialist workers.

The petty bourgeoisie is called Civic stratum , commonly known as Petty citizen . This class includes small businessmen and small workshop owners. Most of them participate in the labor force and are independent operators. From the point of view of exploitation, they mainly rely on their own labor or only lightly exploit others. Therefore, the petty bourgeoisie is a special social class, and some people think that they do not belong to the bourgeoisie. But they had certain assets and wanted to expand their industries by developing capitalism. As they were hindered in their business by the feudal system, politically they had common interests and demands with the other bourgeoisie, that is, they demanded the overthrow of the feudal autocracy and the establishment of democracy. In addition, they are still subject to the big bourgeoisie in terms of production, so they have more pressing demands for democratic politics.

Germany

In Germany there is also a bourgeoisie with a special identity - the "Junker bourgeoisie". Junker is a transliteration of the German junker, derived from Jungherr, meaning "son of the landlord" or "little master". The origin of the Junker bourgeoisie Prussia The aristocratic landlord class. Since the 16th century, these aristocratic landlords have long monopolized military and political positions and have controlled the country leadership . In the middle of the 19th century, he began to become capitalist and became a semi-feudal aristocratic landlord. Since they possess not only economic power but also control political power, they must belong to the great bourgeoisie. They are Germany Under the state of fragmentation, in order to develop capitalism and meet the needs of external expansion, it advocates ending the state of separation and becoming German unification Leadership in the process.

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