9
votes
What determines whether slavery is economically efficient in industrialized/modern era economies?
Necessary Caveats When Discussing Slavery:
First before tackling this question it is important to note that this issue is broad and complex. This is because there is no single 'slavery'. For example, ...
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7
votes
Aside from buying IPOs, what exactly is the point of shareholders?
The shareholder system is a way of distributing the ownership of the company - each shareholder owns a certain part of the company. Shareholders are the owners of the company, in several company legal ...
- 2,155
6
votes
Did capitalism exist before the 18th century?
According to some yes. In this (historically oriented) view, whatever succeeded feudalism is called capitalism.
Capitalism, broadly accepted as a phase of history, is dominating the last half-a-...
6
votes
Definition of capitalism
Though there may not be a set definition of "capitalism" chisled in stone somewhere, there are general principles that economists agree are implied in capitalism and that capitalism implies.
...
- 2,898
6
votes
Why can't I find masks for the corona virus?
The supply of masks can't keep up with soaring demand because mask producers have capacity constraints in the short run. See this recent article.
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5
votes
Accepted
Is the arable land a mean of production?
Yes.
Anyone who utilizes their privately owned property or assets as a means of production for the sake of profit is a capitalist.
In this case the farmer's capital is the land which they use for ...
- 8,847
4
votes
Definition of capitalism
The dictionary definitions of capitalism (currently the most upvoted answer) have been critiqued as inadequate, in the sense that they are too broad, by Geoffrey Hodgson in his treatise, ...
4
votes
Is a small business owner without employees a capitalist?
(Bowing to peer pressure) According to original Marxist theory, no, he is not. Here, the defining characteristic of a capitalist is that he appropriates (as "profits") the surplus value that is ...
4
votes
Why does competition work for capitalism?
Competition "works" in capitalism in the sense that society, as a whole, is provided with the maximum possible quantity of goods for a price which gets close to the cost of producing the good.
...
- 2,155
4
votes
Accepted
Did the idea of “making money” originate in the United States?
No, the idea of wealth as something to be created did not originate in the United States. It was part of the mercantilist approach to national economic policy that was widely adopted in Europe in the ...
- 8,773
4
votes
Accepted
What is the function of capitalism?
Capitalism is defined as an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.
It functions as an allocation ...
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4
votes
Accepted
Why doesn't capitalism run out of money?
First of all there are several incorrect statements in your text:
Investing money is not just raking in the cash. It involves a risk, actually non trivial part of the reason why you earn interest on ...
- 58.5k
4
votes
Accepted
How did Pareto came up with Pareto Distribution of wealth law?
The Pareto distribution was derived based on the observation of Vilfredo Pareto that in Italy $80\%$ share of land belonged to $20\%$ of the country’s population, and he showed this held for many ...
- 58.5k
4
votes
Accepted
Relationship between capital and decreasing marginal prodcutivity
The claim is not that capital decreases marginal productivity, but that the marginal productivity of capital is decreasing. (See "diminishing returns.") That is, the first "unit" ...
- 29.7k
3
votes
Accepted
What are some historical examples of laissez-faire capitalism?
There is an ongoing project to try and estimate how close a society is to the ideal, see the indices of economic freedom by the Heritage Foundation and the Fraser Institute. The ones who made They ...
3
votes
Alternatives to Capitalism and Communism
Arguably, Henry George described such an alternative in his 1874 work Progress and Poverty. His system eventually became known as Georgism.
George saw his system as different than either Capitalism ...
- 727
3
votes
When people talk about “Companies Hiding Money Overseas” to avoid taxes, what does this really mean?
Re: main question.
It can range from a) companies fraudulently charging above/below market prices among departments/subsidiaries in order to fraudulently lower tax liabilities in a particular ...
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3
votes
What is the function of capitalism?
From a neoclassical perspective, its function is to allocate scarce resources efficiently, based on the invisible hand that make human selfishness work for the common good. Provided issues like ...
- 8,631
3
votes
Is worsening wealth inequality intrinsic to Capitalism?
First, let us make a distinction between the functional distribution of income, related to how payment goes to factors of production, i.e, labour and capital, via wages and rents, and the personal ...
- 8,631
3
votes
Accepted
Why can't I find masks for the corona virus?
This is a common problem in many domains. For example, there's massive new demand of Airbus planes after the Boeing 737 Max 8 disaster, and their manufacturing capacity is maxed out.
I'm familiar ...
- 146
3
votes
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
This is about 3/4 correct. It is true that most economists do not use ...
- 58.5k
3
votes
Are individuals under-incentivized to make investments as they aren't able to net all the social surplus they generate?
Since a portion of the social surplus generated by investments goes to consumers and not producers individuals in a free market are always under-incentivized to make investments and therefore a degree ...
- 58.5k
2
votes
Accepted
Is a small business owner without employees a capitalist?
Small Business Owner: Yes.
Freelance Writer: Yes.
Subsistence Farmer: No.
Capitalism is the use to the private sector to grow the economy.
This means that the private sector has to be producing a ...
- 2,898
2
votes
Accepted
What metrics can be used to distinguish between capitalistic and socialistic economies?
My opinion is that “capitalism” and “socialism” in this context is in the eye of te beholder. The European countries are mixed economies.
One standard metric is the size of government expenditures as ...
- 9,907
2
votes
Did/does a decline in crime rates encourage materialistic values?
Did/does a decline in crime rates encourage materialistic values?
These are interesting claims but Shiller does not seem to offer
anything to back them.
Much of it sounds quite logical, whence ...
- 1,807
2
votes
Alternatives to Capitalism and Communism
In my opinion there are two alternatives which are rather complementary.
Participatory Economics or PARECON by Michael Albert and Robin Hahnel : http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/topics/parecon, and ...
- 155
2
votes
Accepted
Essential difference between Neo-Classical and Neo-Liberal economical philosophies
To expand on my comment. Your question is not really about economics but about philosophy or political science. The reason for this is that the Economics is usually defined following the definition of ...
- 58.5k
2
votes
Why can't I find masks for the corona virus?
Exacerbating the short-run supply matter, these kinds of masks aren't actually for healthy people to keep pathogens away. They're for sick people to keep from spreading pathogens. So not only is "...
- 1,806
2
votes
How likely is a total economic collapse due to the potential coronavirus impact?
As a disclaimer, this is not an answer, rather a long-form explanation of the difficulties of answering.
The first leg is uncertainty about the danger of the epidemic. Economists are not medical ...
- 9,907
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible