The-Invention-of-Capitalism

[lrellok]

http://www.scribd.com/doc/147231852/Michael-Perelman-The-Invention-of-Capitalism

An interesting history of the formation of capitalism, free on scribd.

"Yep, despite what you might have learned, the transition to a capitalistic society did not happen naturally or smoothly. See, English peasants didn’t want to give up their rural communal lifestyle, leave their land and go work for below-subsistence wages in shitty, dangerous factories being set up by a new, rich class of landowning capitalists. And for good reason, too. Using Adam Smith’s own estimates of factory wages being paid at the time in Scotland, a factory-peasant would have to toil for more than three days to buy a pair of commercially produced shoes. Or they could make their own traditional brogues using their own leather in a matter of hours, and spend the rest of the time getting wasted on ale. It’s really not much of a choice, is it?"

[bemildred]

1. Capitalism is just feudalism without the land. nt

[Egalitarian Thug]

2. There's a very important lesson here that we have failed to learn time and again.

Making changes that leave the existing power structure intact invariably end in little or no change.

[1StrongBlackMan]

3. So true …

Though I have yet to find a workable (in the real world) alternative to capitalism and therefore support regulating the sh!t out of it.

But that said, years ago - during my Masters studies – I took more than a few Ethics courses (and ended up doing my thesis on the topic, but I digress). In every course, the topic of globalism was raised and in every instance I got into long drawn out “debates” on the effect of globalism on agrarian societies. It seemed that everyone wished to believe that the globalists’ “providing jobs in the city at the factories” was good for the people because they now had money to purchase what they needed/wanted. I constantly questioned how is that good? The members of agrarian societies have very little need for money, as they also tend to be banter societies. Further, agrarian societies possess a different set of values, where status is not measured by accumulation; but rather, cooperation … you consume what you (and/or your neighbor grows) and trade the rest for the things you need. Finally, I argued that globalism is a proximate cause for the break-down of entire societies/cultures, as the youth – after getting a taste of toys - are pulled away from the society, leaving no one to continue the society’s traditions.

(One day … when I’m retired or after I win the lottery … am going to collect my writing on the topic and flesh them out with fresh research and write a book on the topic … though I suspect if we, as a global community, continue on our current path, it will be a historical retrospective.)

[Egalitarian Thug]

4. Ah, you again. I can't help but think we'd have some good conversations IRL

as we agree on so much yet have enough differences to make it interesting.

I hope you do get that book written, I promise you would get at least one sale.