Capitalism is a way of organizing resources and people in order to produce a profit for those who control property. It has three major traits:
- Private ownership controls the production of commodities
- Commerce is used to move resources around society
- Society is divided into classes, with most people working for others for wages
History
The history of capitalism is a key area to understanding how capitalism works and its disturbing history. Capitalism evolved out of the early market economies which were common throughout the ancient world, as
Definition
British Anarchist William Godwin first used ‘capitalist’ in English in his Political Justice (1794). The initial use of the term ‘capitalism’ in its modern sense is attributed to French Socialist Louis Blanc in 1850 (‘What I call “capitalism” that is to say the appropriation of capital by some to the exclusion of others’) and French Anarchist Socialist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in 1861 (‘Economic and social regime in which capital, the source of income, does not generally belong to those who make it work through their labour’ note: he first used the term in 1840 in ‘What Is Property?’).
Anti-Capitalism
Numerous criticisms of capitalism exist which argue capitalism is detrimental to human freedom, the environment, mental health and is unable to effectively use the resources it has to solve big issues like poverty or hunger. Others have pointed out a link between capitalism and authoritarianism, noting the methods to create capitalism involved stealing common land from indigenous groups via colonialism and from medieval peasants via enclosure. Additionally, capitalism has had a strong association with fascism and the destruction of social democracy in the third world. Some of the main criticisms of capitalism are:
- Capitalism has been responsible for more deaths than any other economic systems