It is time for this blog. I regularly remind my readers that the term “capitalism” is Lefty nonsense. It is an empty term with no meaning. It is a term given respect by the world of commerce, lacking a better word.
“Capitalism” is a term defined in opposition to “socialism” and “communism”. It is used by Marxists to define the difference between GOVERNMENTS that rely on independent business versus a mixture of Independent business and government owned business and business entirely owned by the government.
That has nothing whatsoever to do with the contemporary world except for North Korea where the government owns everything but the small farmers markets.
It never had any meaning. All systems of government have capital. Capital is highways, machine tools, maps, textbooks. computers and dancing girls. All societies have these. Who owns them is always ambiguous even in the USSR and China.
The correct term for the world we see around us is “commerce”. “Industrial commerce” is the unique part of commerce that has grown most rapidly in the last 200 years and has brought us the modern world of prosperity, abundant food and extraordinary health..
If you would like to use reliable, accurate, meaningful English, use the word “commerce” or the words “industrial commerce”. Forget the ideologically vapid term “capitalism”.
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Footnote: I don't use the standard economic definition of capital. To me capital is knowledge embedded in institutions and products. It consists of 90% embedded knowledge. But it simply doesn't matter. “Capitalism” is nonsense regardless of the definition of capital..