I like Richard Wolff's tentative definition: capitalism is defined by the relationship between the employer and employee — Xtrix
For my filthy lucre, "capitalism", in sum, is a global, commodifying, market system institutionalized for maximizing shareholder returns (i.e. private profits) on stakeholder investments-taxes (i.e. public costs). — 180 Proof
Possible that capitalism is not an economic system at all, but a type of (partial) government system. — Srap Tasmaner
Capitalism
The socio-economic system where social relations are based on commodities for exchange, in particular private ownership of the means of production and on the exploitation of wage labour.
Wage labour is the labour process in capitalist society: the owners of the means of production (the bourgeoisie) buy the labour power of those who do not own the means of production (the proletariat), and use it to increase the value of their property (capital). In pre-capitalist societies, the labour of the producers was rendered to the ruling class by traditional obligations or sheer force, rather than as a “free” act of purchase and sale as in capitalist society.
Value is increased through the appropriation of surplus value from wage labour. In societies which produce beyond the necessary level of subsistence, there is a social surplus, i.e. people produce more than they need for immediate reproduction. In capitalism, surplus value is appropriated by the capitalist class by extending the working day beyond necessary labour time. That extra labour is used by the capitalist for profit; used in whatever ways they choose.
The main classes under capitalism are the proletariat (the sellers of labour power) and the bourgeoisie (the buyers of labour power). The value of every product is divided between wages and profit, and there is an irreconcilable class struggle over the division of this product.
Capitalism is one of a series of socio-economics systems, each of which are characterised by quite different class relations: tribal society, also referred to as “primitive communism” and feudalism. It is the breakdown of all traditional relationships, and the subordination of relations to the “cash nexus” which characterises capitalism. The transcendence of the class antgonisms of capitalism, replacing the domination of the market by planned, cooperative labour, leads to socialism and communism. — marxists.org
How would you see the differences? — Tom Storm
At its root capitalism is economic anarchy. — Yohan
"Free" of what?
"Free" for whom?
Anthropogenic climate change (at least) since the mid-1800s demonstrates one catastrophic way the "market economy" has not been "free". — 180 Proof
I was referring to historical capitalism and not Randian-fantasy capitalism. — 180 Proof
Harvey Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstein (just to name a few)…glorious indeed. — Deus
Everything is for sale if the price is right. — Lucio Tan
All these different terms get confusing, but the basic idea is free trade vs forced community sharing. When government interferes with free trade, then the problems of capitalism emerge.Sounds like classical liberalism. In which case, Marxism's description of capitalism is apt. — Moliere
Facebook, as an example, are pushing free internet to poor nations, not as a sign of goodwill, but to get more people onto their platform. — Christoffer
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