Questions tagged [capitalism]
Capitalism refers to the economic system wherein decisions about production, investment, and exchange are made chiefly by private individuals or corporations, especially as contrasted with collective, public, or state ownership. Attributes central to capitalism are private property, the division of labor, voluntary exchange, a money price-system, and competitive markets.
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Why did capitalism not lead to improved wages for centuries after its inception?
I'm reading the following paper by Sullivan & Hickel (2023):
Their main claim is that capitalism did in fact not improve wages of low skilled labourers but in fact reduced them.
They also make ...
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The relation between productivity and prices
I apologize if this is a stupid question, I am new/ an amateur in this field.
I am wondering, in what way productivity and wages are actually related.
If all labor was physical and I invented a pill ...
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Decrease of population can be the answer of capitalism? [closed]
According to Thomas Piketty, if I do not misunderstand, the population growth and technology advancements are the keys for the growth of the economy and society in the capitalism society.
However, ...
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"Rate of exploitation" and savings growth
The normative implication in Marxian economics is that "exploitation of labour-power" is a bad thing. I'm hoping to understand quantitatively who are the winners and losers.
Definitions:
A &...
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Can the ideas of capitalism and communism be well defined?
I have read several reddit threads where it is said that modern economists don't bother with ideas like capitalsm and communism (eg: 1 ,2). However when one looks in a dictionary they get the ...
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Relationship between capital and decreasing marginal prodcutivity
In Capital by Thomas Piketty ( chapter The capital - labor spit in the twenty first century - page 271) we have below quote
The evolution of the rate of return on capita, r, significantly reduces the ...
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The difference between capitalism and communism [closed]
I'm mostly a software developer, and we like to assign structures containing fields to things.
For capitalism; if every thing had an owner field, an ...
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What would happen in a modern economy if growth plateaus?
According to a Wikipedia article on a United Nations report,
The UN Population Division report of 2019 projects world population to continue growing, although at a steadily decreasing rate, and to ...
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How did Pareto came up with Pareto Distribution of wealth law?
I am not an economist but a mathematics student. I heard about the Pareto law - the mathematical modelling of the distribution of wealth, how did Pareto come up with this law? technically speaking ...
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What determines whether slavery is economically efficient in industrialized/modern era economies?
Various forms of slavery were nearly universal before the industrial revolution. After industrialization, it would naively seem forced labor would continue to be widespread, as there is no way to ...
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Does the concept of Capitalism increase the net wealth?
I am currently going through a video by Peter Schiff from the occupy Wallstreet period where he is talking with the protestors at the time. I'm pretty early in the video and Mr. Schiff makes the ...
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Why are Americans at the top of nearly every field?
I live in India, and having spent several years in America before returning, I noticed that Americans dominate in nearly every sphere of human activity. For example, the US seems to be blessed with ...
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Which metrics best characterise 'socialist' and 'capitalist' economies?
I am interested in finding some metrics that capture how 'socialist' or 'capitalist' a country was throughout modern history, and to include these alongside those in the gapminder dataset, to explore ...
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What are the effects of a 12 month sudden stop/shutdown of a capitalistic economy like the US? [closed]
Consider a scenario where consumer confidence remains low until a virus such as COVID-19 is contained. In this scenario, containment is defined as being achieved once a vaccine is manufactured and ...
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How likely is a total economic collapse due to the potential coronavirus impact? [closed]
Most signs show that lockdown could easily stretch through the summer. A freeze in consumer spending would cause multiple industries to fail causing a ripple effect.
To be specific, if lockdown lasts ...
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Why can't I find masks for the corona virus?
Not an economist by far, just a layman, and that's a layman question.
How is this possible that it's difficult to find mask for the Corona Virus? I have been several times to 7/11, boots, Watson, and ...
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Why doesn't capitalism run out of money?
There's this question that doesn't let me sleep at night...
From what I hear, investing surplus money is always considered a good idea because it lets your money "work for you" and earn you more ...
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Essential difference between Neo-Classical and Neo-Liberal economical philosophies
From what I learned about Neo-Classical and Neo-Liberal economical philosophies in different sources such as documentary series or Wiki site articles I understand both are "neo" versions of Classical ...
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(Universal) Basic Income as a type of insurance
I was thinking about UBI a lot and I can see that it has many up and down sides. What I would like to know is if there is a concept like UBI, which is not paid by the government through taxes, but ...
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What are some historical examples of laissez-faire capitalism?
I suspect both supporters and detractors of laissez-faire capitalism have some historical examples in mind that they consider reasonably close to an ideal or to a "natural experiment". (The examples ...
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Did capitalism exist before the 18th century?
Were there capitalistic economies before the 18th century?
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Alternatives to Capitalism and Communism
Are there any remarkable economists who have envisioned alternative economic system to the ones previously tried? I'm looking for realistic economic system models and their authors.
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Would it be accurate to say that the economies of most of the countries are capitalistic?
What is the proportion of countries that are capitalistic? What is the proportion of the planet's population who live in such countries? How is this, (somewhat subjective?)
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Why incomes should decline in equilibrium state
According to Keynes, the prosperity of a population is measured by the aggregated income of each individual. Spending this income keeps the economy away from a depression. If there is too much ...
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Did/does a decline in crime rates encourage materialistic values?
Robert Shiller writes (2000 Irrational Exuberance, 2015 3rd edition):
A decline in crime rates also, on the flip side, encouraged materialistic
values by making people feel more secure, less ...
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Key points for a speech on Capitalism [closed]
I was given an English task in which the teacher has asked us to do a presentation/speech on Capitalism. The thing is he didn't specify which aspects (historical, economical and the political) we ...
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Help understanding this inclusive capitalism proposal [closed]
Robert Ashford has written about his proposal for a better, inclusive capitalism, but I don't understand the method. For example, take a look at this article. All is very obscure. It seems to be about ...
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When people talk about “Companies Hiding Money Overseas” to avoid taxes, what does this really mean?
Presuming the consequence is holding cash somewhere else: I'm really interested in the objective effect of this from a global value creation perspective. I'm less interested in the money itself and ...
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What metrics can be used to distinguish between capitalistic and socialistic economies?
What macroeconomic indicators are meaningful to distinguish whether a country leans towards socialism or capitalism (and where to find such data, specifically for european countries)?
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Definition of capitalism
Does the discipline of economics have an accepted rigorous definition of capitalism?
I.e. not something like "some economists would quote Hayek and say that so and so constitutes capitalism" but an ...
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Aside from buying IPOs, what exactly is the point of shareholders?
The more I look at the shareholder system in modern capitalism, the more it starts to appear as nothing more then an otherwise meaningless system that allows rich people to profit off others work ...
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Is a small business owner without employees a capitalist?
If a man has a small business where he is the only employee or if he is self employed, that makes him a capitalist?
For example a freelance writer. Or a subsistence farmer that only produces enough ...
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Is the arable land a mean of production?
Wikipedia claims that "capitalism is an economic system and an ideology based on private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit".
And then, the land used for agriculture ...
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Rentier capitalism vs investment capitalism? [closed]
A company has backers who put in money seeking a return from either share-price growth through company growth, and yearly rent in the form of dividend payments. Debt is clearly the case where share ...
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Why does competition work for capitalism?
As far as I know, capitalism is based on competition:
If two(or more) companies produce similar products that compete against other, these companies are in a competition.
Because the objective of a ...
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What is the function of capitalism? [closed]
To my understanding, all systems have a function. For instance, the function of the respiratory system is to supply oxygen to the body. The function of the digestive system is to break down and ...
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Did the idea of “making money” originate in the United States?
I am currently reading Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand and I came across an interesting paragraph related to Economics and American History.
If you ask me to name the proudest distinction of Americans, ...
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What are the defining features of Capitalism? [closed]
What are the necessary and sufficient conditions for an economic system (or mode of production) to be classified as "Capitalism"?
Is it markets? Is it for-profit corporations? Is it limited liability ...
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Is worsening wealth inequality intrinsic to Capitalism?
I am but a humble lay person, but I have a question.
I've been thinking about wealth inequality and the structure of capitalism. It seems to me that the pay rate for workers accumulates in a linear ...
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