Can anyone define "Capitalism"

What is "Capitalism" and does it actually work? This is a double bladed sword question...so is anyone daring enough to answer it..

to maximize profits, by generating as much revenue as possible, while paying as little as possible into the production process, (wages, repairs, overhead, rent, taxes, etc)

Well, Khnome that is one way to summarize a portion of it. I would like to add the freedom to conduct business in any means possible. But you didn't answer the second half of the question...still a respectable response though

Bah your all disillusioned communists get over it capitalism works very well especially in the right conditions

an economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations, especially as contrasted to cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth.

Capitalism's definition can be easily be looked up.

But I will use just my thoughts on this one. Imagine a system that can create and regulate every facet of our lives based simply on the reactant behaviors of people. This regulating process is determined by profit maximization. So takes houses, capitalism has deemed that house prices are determined by what price point will result in the highest profit with consideration to price elasticity and supply and demand. If prices are too high volume sold goes down, if prices are too low money is left on the table. The natural reaction of how people respond to these situations regulates the industry and every industry for that matter. This system is replicated in where wages result in the level of skill workers can accomplish in the future as well as the morale and productivity and also the accessibility of workers in comparison to the competitors in the employment vocational specific industry. If equilibrium (or the basis of capitalism) it can not be competitive and it will die off. The capitalist system then is able to purge those that move away from this equilibrium point out of the system and ensure a self regulating system of management.

In this capitalist system the government or laws or rules or policies can essentially take 1 of 2 completely opposite roles. 1 is they can attempt to stay completely out of the way and establish a sense of anarchy outside of the regulating capitalist system. And the other is to take a far more active approach in systematically eliminating the transgressions against the equilibrium force due to limited competition and the effects of a supply driven market. But essentially in a capitalist system all rules, all regulations, are put into effect to set the level of access one has to also adhere to profit maximization in a way in which every aspect of life is taken care of.

With that said, I was incredibly objective and the unsaid flaws with the system ruin the system, capitalism is crushing the world right now, and if capitalism in its true form is allowed to exist then global disaster will follow.

Yeah, let's have the government regulate the hell out of business and spread the misery...they do so well with the DMV, etc. (sarcasm alert)

I can see the benifits of a lot of systems , including Communism . But as always there is always one flaw . US . As humans there will always be people with the motivation to get to the top and then abuse the system to ther own ends . Greed , Arrogance and Dilusions of self importance . The sad thing is the compassionate people often lack the motivation to be at the top , were they should be , and the people who should not be there , are at the top .

Maclean that seemed like a cheap shot. Let's have self servicing individuals control inflation in this country.

If 95% of people who make 35k/year salary goes to necessity and 25% of those who make 300k/year salary goes to necessity. The inflation rate stays between 1.1~1.3 yet food and housing inflates at 3%-12% what does that mean happens to the inflation rate of pools, yauchts, and rolls royces?

People who don't see these kind of things aren't getting the big picture. Has anyone noticed that the Market Value of houses has decreased nearly 50% but the cost of rent hasn't been moved? This class warfare is spawned by Capitalism in which necessity items (those in which are the primary expense of those in economic distress) has an infinite price elasticity. Pending my definition in which has not been validated or discredited, will call for these prices to be used at whatever price will bring the largest return. While those that only few can afford and maintained and regulated through the capitalist system. The capitalist system can only work as long as the floor of society can adequately be prepared to handle the ceiling of necessity expenses in the country. But this can never happen because in a capitalist society there can be no ceiling to the cost of necessity expenses. Even if we can propel society to a better state the equilibrium prices of necessities will increase as elasticity of survival is infinite. This is true because in order to reach profit maximization prices need to increase because once again people will spend it as survival has infinite elasticity.

So as you can see in plain English Capitalism will never work, it will continue to encourage class warfare until every person is either rich or poor.

This is only 1 point, true one of the biggest, but I felt it necessary to take this one point at a time. We can argue and fight without getting sent off in a crazy direction. Once I win this topic I'll throw in another topic. +1 MantoArms but I'd like to remind you that there are infinite solutions to every problem and infinite ways to lead they are potential ways to stop the corruption and still allow for motivation. It's sheer ignorance and pride of ideals that people rally behind two extreme ideals afraid to ACTUALLY supply a system that works

Heh Drew, well done for not actually saying "death to the capitalist infidels!"

Re: M2Arms " As humans there will always be people with the motivation to get to the top and then abuse the system to ther own ends . Greed, Arrogance and Dilusions of self importance. The sad thing is the compassionate people often lack the motivation to be at the top, were they should be, and the people who should not be there, are at the top."

You got that right!!!!!!

Pheww ...Drew , I have to tell you I am not sure i could follow everything in youre statement . Not because of its quality but probally of my inability to understand it fully .

But i will try .
I dont agree that the valae of housing has gone down by 50% , there has been a sligth decrease but not a lot , people can not afford to sell a house for less than they bougth it for , therefore the price of houses can not go down by much , you can sell new builds cheaper and drive the price down , but Capitalism being wat it is the people building the houses will always get the max profit out of them that they can . Mind the market for new builds has decreased a lot .

I agree that Capitalism does create a class war . I also believe there is a possibilty that Capitalism will destroy itself , in that the people at the top will never want to stop taking more from the working class . Once they have it all , the working class , the majority , will seek and find a new system which they will enforce by force - The one big lesson in history is that everything will always change , we often forget that . for example , people in Rome must of thougth that there way of life was the ultimate and would never change , nearly a thousand years , but it did end . The U.S.S.R always seemed to be so strong and would never change , but it did . The supremacy of Capitalism in the west may seem like the best and never change , but it will .

To get back on topic .
My Difination of Capitalism would be .
To create the most efficent way to make a profit , money and profit being the first priority and the health and welfare of the workers being the lowest . This is achieved by giving the control off all business to the "Private Sector " Who dont have to answer to the public . The motivation between the Director of a private bussiness to the manager of a state run bussiness is totally differnt . For example the value of pensions between private and public sector . Public sector get more because they work for the goverment and the people , the private gives as little as they can .

I am no expert , my comments are my thougths based on what i think i know . My perspective is one from a working class man , with 20 years experiences in a trade union as a branch president .

One more thing i would like to state .

Capitalism does seem to work , in that the Quality of life does seem to be better in Capitalist countries . I HATE that fact .

Or is it just that the countries with a better quality of life have adopted Capitalism

capitalism...simply put in my own terms. Freedom of commerce.

Capitalism is a monetary system and thats it. But when adopted as a way of life its becomes a legitimate way to rob someone under the guise of profit and intelligence.

You are on your own, earn money however you can, competition... Free Market ja, all of that.

lol drew cant just let me revel in my apparent genius

i can also not understand your posts o well

and manto arms your logic is stupid

W00t W00t crony capitalism and long live the elite enviornment destroyers!!!!!!!

Quote "an economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations, especially as contrasted to cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth. "

Yes , I agree . But why does this work better than any cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth .

Because the private or should we say wealthy can than pay us all less wages while they make bigger profits and they do not have to answer to the public for there greed or lack of concern for the quality of life off its employees . But people have a breaking point when they are constantly being riped off . The Goverments are happy because they have the power to brush shoulders with the wealthy and play there silly power games . Lets be honest if there was no regulation from democratically ellected goverments and the private corpoations were giving free riegn , What do you think the world would look like ?

Quote "and manto arms your logic is stupid "

Come on , you have to give more than that lol .

"we learn from history that we learn nothing from history"

look at any communist country in the world it hasn't worked it ends up being an autocratic authoratative genocidal plutocracy....quite the oppiosite of actual communism.....people are incapable of interconnecting so thoroughly as to be able to run an entire economy....thus far....it could work and try if you want just not.in my country because I love crony capitalism....you are trying to achieve utopia but I hope you don't succeed because then the world will be boring

oh yah and its not just a coincidence that all wealthy country's are capitalist.....what else could attribute so significantly to a country's wealth...you have ti give me more then that

Quote " oh yah and its not just a coincidence that all wealthy country's are capitalist.....what else could attribute so significantly to a country's wealth...you have ti give me more then that "

democratically ellected goverments are the differnce between a poor country and rich , and when i say rich I mean the Quality of life for the joe public .I think communism has been more open to abuse from the top because they dont have to figth an election, they do not have to answer to the public .Hence once again the the public are being riped off . Yes i would like a fairer world were kids dont have to starve , families dont have to break up because of financial worries ,and the few dont control the many . This does not have to be boring . I can still have my Holiday in disny land , or go out on the piss at the weekend , more so with a shorter working week and more money to spend . Juat the rich havnt got so much any more . A fairer distrubution of the wealth in the world .

Lets try this .
There is a copper mine , run privately at a profit for the owneres , and they get rich .
Now why cant a public run mine not run just as profitable but its wealth is more evenly distrubuted to its workforce , instaed of the few owners . The answers is it can , and we can all be better off .

<!-Quote-!>Quote:

Lets try this .
There is a copper mine...[snip]<!-/Quote-!>

Isn't that the principle of a co-operative?

I apologize for using economic terms. But they are basic concepts I'm sorry many of you don't understand. When dealing with such a loaded question it is difficult not to use them. Essentially I just stated that the poor will always stay poor, even if economic situation of the country increases the built in mechanism in capitalism will systematically raise particular costs to deal with the change in financial situation. If you don't believe me I can try to re-explain it, if you don't believe me and don't want me to re-explain then you shouldn't be here.

@ Mantoarms- The housing market may not have been as severe as I stated but it is in excess to 30% average decline in the price of homes. I have heard 42% quite oftenly but also as high 57% and as low as 34%. So it is difficult to get the proper numbers there. But this economic collapse isn't the point of this situation. A good example of my point would be the rapid inflation rate pre-disaster on a necessity such as housing. As the economy is in expanse water, shelter, and food or things required for life prices went up to somply raise the price point to ensure the largest gain. That is the real point also paired with the concept of an equal balanced substitute in renting (class warfare at its root).

@ Demitri- Communism isn't the only alternative to capitalism. Socialism isn't what I'm referring to either as socialism IS capitalism. In an effort to create a self regulating government for profit maximization investments in the public are instated to perform profit maximization.

@ Maclean- Since when is the DMV a for profit institution? It is there to ensure safety and provide services, for a low cost. If you want it to run ore efficiently who have to pump money into new locations a very uncapitalist approach to the problem. As it does in fact perform its function with its current budget. If you would like it more efficient and still be part of a capitalist situation, then the DMV would need to generate more revenue broad based GDP in order for it to stay consistent with the capitalist agenda.

@ Crafty- I understand you feel strongly on that issue, but we are not talking about that issue at the moment, If the thread gets revived I'll talk to you there, but this constant bringing up of that issue just wastes time.

I think you guys give capitalism to little credit with the exception of Nix there.

Capitalism controls everything. Money spent on education, the level of innovation we are able to pursue, the quality of medicine, tax levels, loopholes, even what interests we are allowed to pursue.

Case in point, software has an initial cost, but the material costs of software are pennies sold for lets say a video game at 60$ up to Maya Autodesk in the thousands. The justification of this to gain the most money, however pursuing these interests are something that is not at your discretion but that of others. Imagine if Maya was freeware substidized through donations, where would are visual technology be right now?

Quote " Case in point, software has an initial cost, but the material costs of software are pennies sold for lets say a video game at 60$ up to Maya Autodesk in the thousands. The justification of this to gain the most money, however pursuing these interests are something that is not at your discretion but that of others. Imagine if Maya was freeware substidized through donations, where would are visual technology be right now? "

Yes , i agree with that . War has also been the motivation for some big technology advances , just a shame it takes a war to drive this , as it is a shame that only money has the abilty to drive some peace time technology advances . But it is a fact .

Keeping on that theme , perhaps the perfect system is one that manipulate the motivation of people for the better off all . mmm that thougth just occurred to me , does it make sense ? lol