• njm1314@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      12
      ·
      16 days ago

      I knew someone once who thought capitalism was basically all forms of commerce. Like there was no trade before capitalism i guess. Don’t understand how they thought the world worked for most of the last few thousand years.

      Course a distressingly number of people in this thread seem to think similarly. Which makes me sad for the world.

      • schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        16 days ago

        I knew someone once who thought capitalism was basically all forms of commerce.

        Here’s the problem: if capitalism is essentially just a remix of mercantilism and industrial manufacturing, then it’s not something fundamentally new. If it’s not something fundamentally new, then it is not itself going to lead to anything else fundamentally new; that is to say: the belief in a future utopia DEPENDS on a history being an arrow instead of a circle. The more you tie capitalism back to earlier eras, the more you erode the belief that there is something better coming after the Bell riots.

    • rwrwefwef@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      15 days ago

      But you can still have money without capitalism.

      All major organized society from the 20th century onwards used some form of currency, be it fascist, liberal or socialist. This isn’t really debated.