The Probelm With Capitalism

[PETRUS]

35. ...

The acts I've described barely scratch the surface. I don't know how much has been written on the topic, but I've read several books on the history and development of capitalism and others on economic history in broader terms* and I can tell you that my assertions aren't even remotely controversial. Nearly everything - if not literally everything - we would recognize as a city state, nation, or empire involves an extractive hierarchy held together by some ideology and the raw exercise of power. My point isn't that this manifestation of "aggression and greed" is what sets capitalism apart, it's just the opposite. My point is that capitalism is no different in that regard, that is to say it's an imposed system, just like any number of others. It is however, different in its modalities (and consequences), which is why it's discussed at all as its own thing.

Property is a great place to start when talking about what you call basic conditions. People have come up with any number of wildly different ideas about property in different places and at different times. There is all kinds of scholarship in history and anthropology* that discuss ideas and arrangements about property that depart substantially from the institutions we live with today. I don't doubt that some concept of personal property is universal, but the (relatively) modern institution of private property is not. There are original writings from the time in question - arguments over property laws, the laws themselves, specific accounts describing enclosure and putting down resistance, etc. - that one can consult to get an outline of the process as the market system took shape and expanded. The claim I'm making here, that capitalism necessitated a change in property relations and that bringing those changes about required force, is not debatable.

Examining labor and the movement of goods is another reasonable way to see how capitalism is different from what it replaced. People have traded goods all over the world for a very long time, and if people hadn't been working for a living in some sense of the term, we wouldn't be here today. We've even had specialists - artisans, chefs, priests, healers, whatever - for a long time in all kinds of societies. In spite of all that, capitalism didn't come about until late in the game, and it happened in one place and expanded from there. It came about because of a very unique set of conditions (which existed in England, but not France or Spain or India or what has since become the U.S.) that represented a break from tradition and didn't appear until a mere few hundred years ago. Exactly what those conditions were and how they were different is a book length subject*, but I already hinted at one huge component - cutting people off from land and natural resources. People who rarely engaged in market activity and never required it for survival were made dependent on "the market." And markets were nationally (and then internationally) integrated, whereas before trade primarily took place in what is called "spot markets." Some of the history I've read doesn't even use the word "capitalism," it uses the term "market system." In some sense, the story of capitalism is the story of the expansion of market logic both in geographical and conceptual terms. It's worth noting that this expansion always meant war and/or rebellion, which doesn't seem consistent with the idea of something arising "naturally."

You close with some comments about policies you favor, which is fine, but I want to be clear that my comments here aren't an exercise in passing judgement, just clearing up some facts about economic history.


*In case you're interested, here are a few of the books I've read that contain information relevant to this discussion:

Empire of Cotton: A Global History -Beckert
Economics in Perspective: A Critical History -Galbraith
Debt: The First 5,000 Years -Graeber
The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic -Linebaugh & Rediker
The Origin of Capitalism: A Longer View -Meiksins Wood
The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time - Polanyi
Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed -Scott