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Capitalism

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Organization

The Resume

    (March 9, 1776- )
    Political-economic system
    Outlined in 'The Wealth of Nations' by Adam Smith (March 9, 1776)
    Allows private individuals and groups to own and profit from capital/the means of production
    Important pillars include private property, private control of the factors of production, accumulation of capital, and competition
    Countries that practice include: United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, Canada and Germany
    Subject of the 2009 documentary ‘Capitalism: A Love Story’

Why Capitalism might be annoying:

    Donald Trump is one of its biggest proponents.
    It gave Michael Moore another excuse to film a self-promoting project.
    t is great in theory but ignores that some rich people inherit their wealth, thereby failing to create equality of outcome and opportunity.
    Capitalist economies tend to boom for short periods of time and then burst with long-term recessions and mass unemployment.
    Keynesian economics was a response to the Great Depression and was a rebuke of the Laissez-faire Capitalism most common to that point.
    John Maynard Keynes wrote ‘Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most [wicked] of men will do the most [wicked] of things for the greatest good of everyone.’
    Capitalist economies often ignore social benefit in favor of maximum profits, such as pollution from mass production plants (see: The Industrial Revolution).
    Its decades-long struggle with Communism birthed the Cold War, which dominated the latter half of the 20th-century.
    /It is central to the concept of the Military Industrial Complex, and thereby has indirectly been the cause of a number of wars and/or military interventions into other countries.
    It begets private monopolies over industries, enabling companies to exploit their position to charge higher prices and/or lower employee wages (examples include Sirius XM, AT&T, Microsoft and probably McDonald's and Disney).

Why Capitalism might not be annoying:

    It incentivizes innovation.
    It sustains economic growth.
    It has arguably existed since Ancient times.
    It is the world’s most popular economic system.
    It encourages global diplomacy and cooperation.
    It yielded the popular board game Monopoly.
    If it didn’t exist, there would be no Scrooge McDuck cartoons.
    Some people complain about it while openly benefiting from it at the same time.
    It provides economic freedom and thereby political freedom (governments owning the means of production run the risk of becoming authoritarian).
    Countries like China and Russia (most associated with Communism) now embrace many of its central tenets and have thrived in a free-market economy.
    Milton Friedman - one of the most important economists of the 20th-century and a huge advocate for Capitalism - has been credited with helping to end the draft, and making military service voluntary instead.

Credit: BoyWiththeGreenHair


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Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 6 Votes: 16.67% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 86 Votes: 55.81% Annoying