> [!idea] Thesis > Capitalism and its flavors are a [[Culture of Supremacy]]. Capitalism is a ubiquitous and complicated concept that describes an economic and political ideology oriented around the supremacy of the means of production, rather than a deity or sovereign. The term is often used as either a scapegoat for social ills or as justification for objectionable business practices. As such, it is often misused. It is a broad term that generally describes the attitude of Western economies to prioritize financialization and privatization of goods and services. The word, "capitalism," has a fairly recent etymology. Understanding its history is important to dismantling its [[Mythology]]. [Roughly put](https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2023/12/the-etymologies-of-capital-capitalist-and-capitalism-a-brief-sketch.html), it takes about 300 years for "capital" as a broadly accepted term for wealth to become "capitalism," a system in which wealth dominates the social and political order. The term "capital" occurs first between 1400 and 1600 CE to refer to [[property]], and later wealth in general. It [shares](https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/11/15/564376795/from-cattle-to-capital-how-agriculture-bred-ancient-inequality) a linguistic root with "cattle," but is not derived from the term itself, instead historically [introduced](https://history.blog.fordham.edu/?p=883) in the context of height, as in a "capital offense," while also evolving to refer to a significant monetary sum. Roughly 200 years later the term "capitalist" emerges, referring to owners or stewards of capital. According to Franz Rainer, "Capitalist" was officially defined by Dutch tax authorities in 1621 to refer to a specific class of wealth (over 2000 guilders), evolving among the French in 1765 to refer to the rentier class in general, then finally becoming synonymous with "entrepreneur" in the English-speaking world in the early 19th century.[^1] "Capitalism" as a term occurs last and emerges as a description of the paradigm antithetical to that promoted by socialism and communism.[^2] Capitalists referred to their paradigm as "liberalism." The term subsequently developed in academic circles to describe historical economic patterns. It was popularly adopted by the American press in the wake of the October Revolution and subsequent events of the first Red Scare.[^3] In all forms, the term "capitalism" is poorly understood in the context of its popular use and its promotion as an economic model. It seems the result of a contemporary term being applied retroactively to describe historical patterns within autocratic cultural models. The three components of capitalism are enclosure, capture, and extraction. These are best illustrated through harvesting of material resources. Once the product becomes sufficiently abstracted from the environmental, I think there is a fourth component related to the financial strategy, which is value-hacking, seeing how many shortcuts can be taken to maintain the appearance of value or utility, and transferring the savings to the capitalist. #### Flavors - Chokepoint capitalism - Constructive capitalism - Vulture capitalism - Disaster capitalism - Surveillance capitalism - Green capitalism #### Examples - Deepwater Horizon and BP oil spill: There is a tension in how the legal system relies on a standard of evidence to determine fault in civil and criminal trials, and how corporate system advocates for the introduction of chemicals without evidence that it’s not harmful. There’s a term for this that is escaping me at the moment. I think this is an expression of capitalism. That capital is a greater good than human quality of life. - Effacement of labor and geographic identity in [maritime shipping](https://bostonreview.net/articles/the-ever-given-and-the-monstrosity-of-maritime-capitalism/). #### Common Arguments - Free market - This has evolved into "a market free from regulation." The premise is that a free market is between buyers and sellers, but it is organized only around sellers. American capitalism [purposefully disadvantages](https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/22/reality-distortion-field/) buyers in order to trap them in a product ecosystem. ## Thoughts The historical basis of liberalism (which has evolved into popular capitalism) is a response to feudal and seigniorial (manorial) economic models, in which the means of production are owned by a Lord. Early capitalists (who referred to themselves as liberals) believed the means of production should be accessible to anyone with an idea of how to derive value from it, and not constrained by heredity. This is the free market hypothesis; that individual choices determine the value of a good, not the will of a sovereign. The spirit of early capitalism was consistent with the emerging values of personal liberty. It seems that what we vilify as an extractive ideology is actually an older pattern of individual greed that has co-opted the financial strategy of securing the means of production, as a more efficient means of accruing power. #### Antidotes - Regulation: no early capitalist believed in freedom from regulation. They supported freedom from rents and freedom to access the means of production. - The FCC makes the Interesting point that [price-fixing by algorithm is still price-fixing](https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2024/03/price-fixing-algorithm-still-price-fixing). Technology acts as a third party for collusion among rentiers, who argue that since they are not directly communicating with each other, they are not liable in price-fixing schemes. An example of how working around the letter of the law still violates its spirit. [[It's legal but is it honest?]] - Good [summary](https://prospect.org/infrastructure/transportation/2024-03-28-suicide-mission-boeing/) of the [[enshittification]] of Boeing and an example of late-stage capitalism. This is when the intrinsic value of a product becomes reified and then financialized. The integrity of the work that produces the product becomes taken for granted. As the company brand establishes trust, leadership focuses on the craft of production, once trust is established, the quality of the product is gutted for the brand. Goes from [[Situationism]] to [[Dispositionism]]. >[!quote] Maureen Tkacik >Like most neoliberal institutions, Boeing had come under the spell of a seductive new theory of “knowledge” that essentially reduced the whole concept to a combination of intellectual property, trade secrets, and data, discarding “thought” and “understanding” and “complex reasoning” possessed by a skilled and experienced workforce as essentially not worth the increased health care costs. [^1]: Rainer, F. (2018). Word formation and word history: The case of capitalist and capitalism. [^2]: ibid. [^3]: Marks, S. G. (2012). The word “capitalism”: The Soviet Union’s gift to America. _Society_, _49_(2), 155-163. #### Value and Meaning Because capital, as representative of the means of production, is relevant to economics in all forms, it applies itself to all pre-existing forms of meaning. Capital has no real, intrinsic value beyond that which is assigned to it by investors. > [!quote] Slavoj Žižek > Although capitalism is global and encompasses the whole world, it deprives the large majority of people of any meaningful cognitive mapping. Capitalism is the first socio-economic order which de-totalizes meaning: It is not global at the level of meaning. There is, after all, no global ‘capitalist world view,’ no ‘capitalist civilization’ proper. The fundamental lesson of globalization is precisely that capitalism can accommodate itself to all civilizations, from Christian to Hindu or Buddhist, from West to East. Capitalism’s global dimension can only be formulated at the level of truth-without-meaning.[^4] [^4]: Gardels, N. (3 May, 2024). *The Clash Of Civilizations Is The Politics Of The End of History, Reflections by the philosopher Slavoj Žižek on universality and “worldless places.”* Noema Magazine. [full text](https://www.noemamag.com/the-clash-of-civilizations-is-the-politics-of-the-end-of-history/) [[The Capitalist's Mindset]] As a modern political ideology, capitalism is the belief that representative value is superior to intrinsic value. The "means of production" as a representative currency that mediates markets is the medium through which capitalism operates. In modern society, the layers of representative value run so deep that it is often difficult to discern somethings intrinsic value, and when one does, the cost of something intrinsically valuable is often very little ([[Economics MOC#^27d318]]). Clean air and water are the basis of intrinsic value. The organisms that produce nutritious food, filter the air and water have intrinsic value. Cash is just a pile of paper. It *represents* the possibility of creating intrinsic value. Capital is necessary to reduce the friction of [[the triple coincidence]] inside the hierarchy of needs. Capital needs government because *capital needs regulation*, it requires an authority to tell others that something with no intrinsic value has representative value. Regulation is organized around ensuring that the intrinsic basis of representative value remains capable of producing intrinsically valuable products. [[monumental architecture]] fits in here somewhere. ## Questions - What is the *actual value* that corporate executives contribute to the public good? - Is capital a mysterious answer?