Hello and welcome back to ideology explained.
Today we are talking about capitalism.
You can already tell that the name of this
series doesn’t mean anything anymore, because,
and this is true, capitalism is not an ideology
but an economic system.
And before you rush to the comment section,
I am aware that capitalism is part of many
ideologies, but it itself isn’t one.
So, let’s go over the basics, in general
capitalism is just an economic system in which
the means of production are owned by private
individuals.
Means of production is a Marxist term and
just means the thing you need to work, like
a PC if you are an author or industrial machinery
if you produce dildos.
And what does that private ownership mean?
Classically it just means that it’s not
owned by the state or by the crown but by
whoever bought it.
That means you can buy a piece of land and
build a factory there and it then belongs
to you.
And all of the profit it generates belongs
to you as well, minus stuff like taxes.
And that’s it according to some definitions.
But others put an emphasis on competition
and such which I disagree with.
This is because nowadays “capitalism”
has become synonymous with “free market
capitalism”.
And free market capitalism means an economic
system made up of both the free market and
capitalism.
Personally I believe it’s important to distinguish
between those two.
The distinction I make is that capitalism
dictates how things are produced, for example
in a factory which is owned by a single private
individual or a group of investors.
So capitalism is the system of production.
It produces things.
And the market is a system of distribution
which transports stuff from the factories
that produced it to the people who need it.
I will not dwell on how markets work because
that’s actually a separate video already.
Click, somewhere.
You need both a system of distribution and
a system of production to make a full economic
system.
And I believe this distinction is important
because if you mix them up then you can make
some silly mistakes like believing that market
socialism is the same as capitalism because
it has competing businesses.
I just think that keeping the market and capitalism
separate makes it easier to understand certain
things.
So that’s the theory, capitalism is just
a system in which everything is produced and
owned by private entities.
But how does that work in praxis?
How do I get to own this piece of land and
how can I make sure nobody else takes it?
That’s the job of the state.
The state is a core feature of capitalism
because it is the entity that enforces property
rights.
Practically that means you can buy a piece
of land and you’ll receive a piece of paper
that says that it’s your land.
And if someone else comes along and tries
to take your land then you call the police
and they commit war crimes on the people who
are trespassing.
Using tear gas is a war crime, look it up.
This also has the effect that someone can
own a factory and all the machines therein
AND have the full dictatorial power over the
people who work there.
And if they try to do anything against it
you can call the police and have them arrest
the workers.
And this is the very first criticism of capitalism.
It allows single people to take control of
factories which may affect thousands of lives
and businesses which may affect billions of
people.
An employee pretty much has to do as an employer
tells them to or else become unemployed.
Needless to say anarchists have a very big
problem with that.
Another criticism of capitalism is the tendency
towards monopoly.
If you’ve ever played monopoly you know
what I mean.
This has many negative effects like increasing
wealth inequality between workers and employers
and preventing the founding of new businesses
which would treat the workers better.
Capitalism also leads to rent keeping in which
someone owns land, by some means, and then
charges other people for living there.
Of course these other people have no choice
but to pay since they need a home.
According to some economic and philosophical
theories this is fundamentally unjust and
exploitative.
And if we are going to use Marxism the same
goes for all of those capitalist businesses.
In Marxism they are all seen as exploitative
for reasons that are too complicated to explain
in this short video.
Click the link over here, that should give
you a good overview.
There are more criticisms of capitalism which
I’d personally name and I have another video
on those.
So go there and watch that.
Now you should be aware of what capitalism
is, why it’s useful to separate it from
the market and some of the most common criticisms.
Thanks for watching.
C ya.
Extra Special thanks to Darius the Berd, Noah,
The-Doctor0_0, Dordoise, Aaron J Peton, Jenarchist
77, Morally Conflicted Tortoise, Tyler Dang,
klarstrup , and sphaere for your generous
donations.
