Via @Miisaakan in Future on Fire: Capitalism and the Politics of Climate Change
Capitalism = Institutionalized Social Order:
“Capitalism is not a mental paradigm. Nor is it just an economic system. It’s a way of organizing society, an “institutionalized social order.”” “Its historical emergence and spread involved violently depriving people of access to the land or water on which they had been able to rely for subsistence and also undermining the independence of artisans.”
“These processes of dispossession continue today. They have created an enormous global working class. This encompasses everyone who sells their ability to work in exchange for pay … the working class as a whole is exploited by capital.”
Capitalism is assisted by unpaid work in the home (by women):
“People are able to work for capitalists (the people who control firms and employ most of the rest of us) in large part because of the unpaid labor that’s done at home, mostly by women, to raise children and keep today’s wageworkers functioning.”
Some ‘Characteristics’ of Capitalism:
“Most commodities are produced by privately owned firms (some are state-owned).”
“The goal of production is profit, not providing people with useful things. The goods and services produced are just a means to that end.”
“Competition compels firms to increase productivity or go under.”
“To make and distribute products, firms hire people, who are forced to sell their ability to work to employers for lack of viable alternative ways of supporting themselves and their dependents.”
