| | How would you describe the merchants of times and places before 18th century NW Europe and its colonies? Thales of Miletos exemplified the spirit of his times when he speculated in olive press futures contracts. By the same token, do you call Aristotle an Objectivist, or a proto-Objectivist? Would Thales and all the other merchants before Adam Smith be called proto-capitalists because they did not have a consistent theory predicated on the law of identity?
Some libertarians repeat the false claim that the word "capitalism" was invented by socialists. Last summer, I took a class in American history and found "capital" and "capitalist" in 18th century common writings -- John Adams's letters and diaries for instance.
Capitalism means making money from money, i.e., putting your wealth to work, not just holding on to it, but investing it, as if --
-- and here is the origin of the word -- you were tending a herd. "Capital" refers to the "head" of something ... cap as in hat... der Kopf... captain... mostly in early times a head of sheep or a head of cattle. In fact, the word for money comes from pecu (pecuniary) and PECU is the same word as FEE (in German das Vieh = the cattle) --[P -> F as in Pater Father and C -> H has in cortus heart]. But in earlier Latin, the word root "pecu" could apply to sheep as well as to cattle. So... having walked all the way around the barn on that one... --
A capitalist is a different kind of merchant. He does not just sell things. Again, this is from the McCullough biography of John Adams, looking for huge loans for the new American government, Adams goes to Dutch "capitalists" -- he does not call them bankers -- men who would invest in a new enterprise, the United States of America.
Of course, in the truest sense, we are all capitalists. We all seek to grow our wealth by investing it, but that is really a personal matter. I mean, you might be doing just that, but you only see yourself "becoming a doctor" or some other occupation.
One problem with the definition of capitalism or any ism is that it often means "rule of society by..." Feudalism, monarchism, communism, fascism, they are all social philosophies. Capitalism is "the rule of society by those who own the tools of production." In the information age, I guess that would be anyone with a laptop, palm pilot, gameboy, ipod, or cellphone...
Then, there are ideologies ("philosophies") like hedonism and positivism, and nominalism, and monism, etc., etc.
It seems like a semantic argument. Is a highlighter a pen?
|
|
