Capitalism

The Name Game

Lincoln! Lincoln, Lincoln. bo-bin-coln
Bo-na-na fanna, fo-fin-coln
Fee fi mo-min-coln, Lincoln!
Come on ev'rybody, I say now let's play a game
I betcha I can make a rhyme out of anybody's name

What we call something unfortunately can affect how we approach something.

When my then two-year-old said that there was a bear in our backyard, I assumed that he meant a Teddy Bear.  My brother-in-law, who lives in the woods, had an entirely different reaction, and thought that it meant black bears were at his bird feeder again. Just saying bear is incomplete because it only focuses on one component. 

Capitalism focuses on only one component of free market economics, i.e. capital.  The name does not mean that capital is the only component of production in markets.   A production equation includes both capital AND labor. You can’t have production without both.  Labor can not be owned by another.  That is considered to be slavery and the Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitution abolished slavery.  Corporations are chartered by society to protect the assets of a producer from liability.  That includes both the assets of those supplying the labor and those supplying the capital.  Corporations, since they have been chartered by society, are considered to have free speech ( e.g. Citizens United).  But corporate boards almost exclusively represent the interests of capital, not labor or society.  Speaking, and acting, with unity is considered to be acceptable for capital, ( e.g. Manufacturer’s Associations, Chambers of Commerce, etc.), but is seems to be considered to be wrong when labor speaks and acts with unity, i.e. labor unions.

Free markets are a User Optimal solution, e.g. rights of the individual, but properly both capital and labor are users.  The ownership of labor and capital is what distinguishes free markets from socialism, communism, etc.  The ownership of capital by society, whether only in certain industries as in Scandinavian Socialism, or all industries as in Communist countries, must be considered, but so must the ownership of labor. In Scandinavian socialism, all labor is owned by individuals.  In total communism, all labor is owned not by individuals, but by the government.

If the ownership of capital and labor is how economic systems is considered, many “Communist” countries can not be considered to be Communist.  Considerable amounts of capital are owned by individuals and corporations in those countries. E.g. Jack Ma in “Communist “China is among the world's wealthiest individual. Controlling society does not mean owning capital.

Democracy is one manner of how society is controlled.  Capitalism is not democracy.  That is only one part of the name game.