Capitalism

Capitalism as a social system promotes individual rights. In capitalism, everyone is free to do as he or she pleases so long as their actions do not interfere with the rights of others. The government's power is limited to the protection of these rights (laissez-faire capitalism as a political system) and everyone can enjoy a fearless way of life.

Continuing on the economic and political train of thought, capitalism has a 100% free market economy. You are allowed to enter or withdraw from it as you please and place items up for sale with no outside interference. This means that there is no income tax or anything of the sort. What you make is completely and entirely yours.

Much of the criticism of capitalism stems from the thought that the rich will become richer and the poor will become poorer. What they fail to say is that the PRODUCTIVE rich will become richer under capitalism and the UNPRODUCTIVE poor will become poorer. Controversy also stems from the belief that only the selfish and corrupt can succeed in capitalism and that everyone has a duty to others. Those three points each represent different things: That everyone must be selfish to succeed in capitalism is true to an extent- so long as the "selfishness" is RATIONAL (see: Objectivism); that only the corrupt can succeed in capitalism is incorrect and is actually quite untrue- the corrupt will logically not have their products bought for they will, logically, be sub-par (see: nihilism); and that everyone has a duty to others is a fallacy that stems from the irrational fear that always seems to pervade anti-capitalist thought- upholding this doctrine of self-sacrifice can only lead to communism or socialism (see: Marxism as well).

While it is true that capitalism will have a very wealthy upper-class and a very poor lower-class, there is no law that could exist in capitalism that would prohibit charitable foundations that still would continue to give to the poor; capitalism only says that you may not force one to donate.

I hope this answers your question- and, for more information, do read up on Objectivism, a staunchly pro-capitalist philosophy.

The US Constitution says absolutely nothing about capitalism. The only oblique reference to capitalism is in the Preamble where it has the phrase "secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity". Liberty, when the US Constitution was written, referred to economic freedom to open, manage, and close businesses as well as freely shop at any business. So, the US Constitution was arguing that one of the key purposes of the US Constitution was to guarantee a free-market economy.

They did not really expect the emergence of political parties.

Parties came into existence with a significant disagreement over how to interpret the Constitution.

Washington's Treasury Secretary, Alexander Hamilton, was a "loose constructionist," one who believed that the Constitution should be interpreted loosely. Thomas Jefferson, Washington's Secretary of State, and James Madison, the "Father of the Constitution," were "strict constructionists," those who believed that the Constitution should be interpreted as it was written.

Followers of Hamilton came to begin calling themselves Federalists, and followers of Jefferson/Madison, Democratic-Republicans. These were the first political parties.

For more info, go to www.constitutioncenter.org and run "necessary and proper clause" in the Search section. Do the same thing in the Interactive Constitution section.

Also a review of the Federalist Papers would be worthwhile, particularly Federalist #45 and #51 (both written by Madison). They are a little hard to read, but will give you a good idea of what the Framers (and the representatives of "We the People" in the ratifying conventions) had in mind when they wrote/ratified the Constitution. See: www.yale.edu/lawweb/Avalon/federal/fed.htm.

Good luck.

It is a capitalist country: most companies are privately owned with some exceptions at key industries, namely oil and electricity.

Adam Smith A+

Answered By Pimp Daddy SBON

Capitalism is prevalent in the global economy because this economic system allows individuals freedom to make choices. With this system, people are free to do what they want to do and use their money where they want to.

I just learned this. Communists wanted to spread communism. And russias army was scary. USA was like screw that, we're not going to bow to anybody. NUKES. But russia responds quickly, and because they have a single party communist government at the time which pretty much means no elections, they have exellent spys. So Russia discovers the nuke tech. from the USA then the cold war is on. Not helped by the cultural revolution in China; USA backed the side that lost. Basically the communists won.

It was NOT the Industrial Revolution, it was the Commercial Revolution.

In a capitalist system, the means of production are privately owned and operated. Over time, this results in resources being controlled mainly by large corporations and conglomerates. Capitalism is driven by profit motive, so in a capitalist system, the allocation of resources is decided based on making money according to supply and demand.

In a socialist based economy, the means of production are publicly-owned, meaning resources would be allocated according to the needs of the people by a governing body.

No. Communist don't have much power.

Capitalism has not managed to take hold any where yet. The united states likes to put itself forward as a capitalist country, however the USA is a mixed economy where the government still pulls the strings and passes laws that interfere with the free flow of business. This they do to protect the so called common good, which is all very nice but it is socialism. Capitalism puts the accrual of wealth above all else and it has just not reached that point any where in the world. The Economic crisis bail out proves that the world is run on a collective socialist basis's. By people that are just plain dishonest.

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The two most important aspects of capitalism would first be the private ownership of the means of production. That is, land, factories, etc. are not owned by everyone but are owned by a few, the capitalists. The workers must try to sell their labour power to the capitalists in order to survive. Secondly, the driving force of capitalism is the accumulation of capital for the sake of the further accumulation of capital. It must grow and expand at whatever cost, otherwise a crisis will promptly follow.

Austria is predominantly capitalist, but has numerous socialist aspects to its economy.

Capitalism really started to develop in Europe in the early-mid 1800's, but the seeds of modern capitalism could be seen as far back as the 14 and 1500's.

KARL MARX had the view that history was inexorably trending to communism and that capitalism would improve to socialism and socialism would improve to communism.

Sure capitalism is based on a set of ideas = ideology. The main IDEAS behind capitalism are the closely connected 'inflation' and 'infinite growth'

Communists are somewhat Lockean in their idea of production at least Marx was. They believe that mixing your labor with something makes it yours in a sense. However capitalists are those that make money off of others' labor. They merely own the means of production and take their living from the surplus value of the labor they hire. This is a very crude answer to your question, but I hope it points you in the right direction as to why communists have moral issues with capitalism.

This is a pointer to a possible answer...not an answer. There was an Englishman in the 1800's who'd written a treatise on the subject and I'm at a loss to specific details as it's been over 40 years since I've read it.

That being said, his description of the stages of capitalism went something like this:

Initially people barter with their personal production. Next craftsmen evolve who create more complex and desirable products which are sold and form the basis for the first businesses. Then partnerships/guilds/cooperatives are created to create more complex products or more geographically dispersed distribution of products. These evolve into corporations specifically to allow an increase in wealth/size to the producers in exchange for shared ownership. The natural direction for corporations, in their mandate to grow and increase wealth is to form oligarchies, with the ultimate goal (if unfettered) of becoming a monopoly.

Stalin was in fact the dictatorial ruler of the state capitalist USSR.

Pure Capitalism consists of three pillars of ideas.

Private ownerships.

A Price System.

Competition.

Pure Capitalism has no or close to no government control, it is controlled by the people, for the people.

Capitalism. Any system in which the means of production are privatley owned and controlled by a few and the fundamental goal is the accumulation of more and more wealth for the sake of further accumulation, is capitalist despite anything else.

marxism