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Ages of American capitalism: a history of the United States

A leading economic historian traces the evolution of American capitalism from the colonial era to the present—and argues that we’ve reached a turning point that will define the era ahead.

Today, in the midst of a new economic crisis and severe political discord, the nature of capitalism in United States is at a crossroads. Since the market crash and Great Recession of 2008, historian Jonathan Levy has been teaching a course to help his students understand everything that had happened to reach that disaster and the current state of the economy, but in doing so he discovered something more fundamental about American history. Now, in an ambitious single-volume history of the United States, he reveals how, from the beginning of U.S. history to the present, capitalism in America has evolved through four distinct ages and how the country’s economic evolution is inseparable from the nature of American life itself.

The Age of Commerce spans the colonial era through the outbreak of the Civil War, a period of history in which economic growth and output largely depended on enslaved labor and was limited by what could be drawn from the land and where it could be traded. The Age of Capital traces the impact of the first major leap in economic development following the Civil War: the industrial revolution, when capitalists set capital down in factories to produce commercial goods, fueled by labor moving into cities. But investments in the new industrial economy led to great volatility, most dramatically with the onset of the Great Depression in 1929. The Depression immediately sparked the Age of Control, when the government took on a more active role in the economy, first trying to jump-start it and then funding military production during World War II. Skepticism of government intervention in the Cold War combined with recession and stagflation in the 1970s led to a crisis of industrial capitalism and the withdrawal of political will for regulation. In the Age of Chaos that followed, the combination of deregulation and the growth of the finance industry created a booming economy for some but also striking inequalities and a lack of oversight that led directly to the crash of 2008.

In Ages of American Capitalism, Jonathan Levy proves that, contrary to political dogma, capitalism in the United States has never been just one thing. Instead, it has morphed throughout the country’s history—and it’s likely changing again right now.

Levy, Jonathan

Random House

It Came in the First Ships: Capitalism in America

"Capitalism came in the first ships." —Carl N. Degler, Out of Our Past

No nation has been more market-oriented in its origins and subsequent history than the United States of America. The very settling of the country, from the Atlantic to the Pacific and onward to Alaska and Hawaii, was one long entrepreneurial adventure. Even down to the present day, more Americans have probably made fortunes from the appreciation of real estate values than from any other source. But land is only the starting place for the epochal drama of American capitalism. That story, in comparison with the long-term business histories of all other large countries, has been one of intense and incessant competition. Americans have persistently shown themselves willing to follow market forces with relatively little hesitation.

In the early years, Americans' ravenous appetite for land was born of European deprivation confronting New World opportunity. Demand, which had been pent up for centuries, suddenly encountered plentiful supply. The settlers' hunger for more and more territory thrust them relentlessly westward, where they could establish farms and ranches that they themselves could own. This was the American Dream in its earliest form, and for the people living the dream, it had an aura of double-edged incredulity. There was disbelief not only at their own good fortune, but also at the backbreaking work required to capitalize on it.

From the colonial period through the early national years, and on into the nineteenth century, everything seemed up for grabs in the new country. Vast, apparently unlimited tracts of land were given away by the government or sold at irresistibly low prices. To get the best land, neither the first colonists nor the pioneers pressing across the frontier had much compunction about dispossessing Native Americans or each other. Sometimes they resorted to outright murder. The movement west constituted a great epic, but in its details was not a pretty story.

Land was available in prodigal abundance in early American history, but it is only one of the classic economic "factors of production." The others are labor, capital, and entrepreneurship. As the earlier chapters of this book have shown, modern capitalism fuses these four factors into operational systems for the conduct of economic life, most notably through the ingenious device of the business corporation.

There are several million corporations in the United States today, and a handful existed at the nation's official birth in 1776. The device became integral to the American economy only in the middle nineteenth century, but it was actually present at the creation 250 years earlier. In 1607, the settlers at Jamestown arrived under the charter of the Virginia Company of London. Puritans founded Boston in 1630 under the auspices of another English corporation, the Massachusetts Bay Company.

The proprietors of the Virginia Company soon were interested primarily in revenues from tobacco. Those of the Massachusetts Bay Company cared less about profit than about setting up what their leader John Winthrop called a "City upon a Hill." They wanted to demonstrate for all humanity the virtues of clean Christian living. If some of the Puritan merchants among them became moderately wealthy, then that might be a sign of God's grace, so long as customers were not cheated or overcharged. The line between virtuous profit and damnable avarice was blurry then, as it remains today. But the Puritans had an unmistakably capitalist turn of mind.

So did William Penn and his community of Friends. Persecuted in England for their religious beliefs, they acquired in 1681 a royal grant of land in America, and proceeded to develop their new colony on both religious and commercial principles. The Quaker merchants of Pennsylvania become prosperous international traders. Like the Puritan merchants of New England, they used their familial and religious connections to form a tight network of trustworthy relationships stretching over long distances. This kind of system for making credible business commitments is one of the essential conditions of strong economic development. In most capitalist economies today, it is embedded in the intricate law of contracts enforced by governments through courts.

Still another English corporation instrumental in populating the New World was the Royal African Company. Chartered in 1672, this company proceeded to take a significant though not dominant part in the slave trade. For the profit of shareholders, it brought to the western hemisphere masses of men and women who had been taken from Africa against their will. Eventually, many thousands of white merchants and seamen on both sides of the Atlantic participated in this commerce, including several hundred from Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The total number of Africans transported to the New World was about 10 million. Their destination was usually Brazil or one of the Caribbean sugar islands, but some 596,000, or about one of every 17, went to areas that became part of the United States.

In 1776, the 13 colonies that made up the original United States declared their independence after almost 170 years of British colonial status. Even at that early date, the new country's population of 2.5 million included plentiful examples of capitalism's many faces. Then as now, capitalism could serve despicable ends, noble ones, or some mixture of the two.

In between the oppressed slaves on the one hand and free yeoman farmers and entrepreneurs on the other stood a large number of whites who had come to America as indentured servants. Between one-half and two-thirds of all white immigrants before the Revolution arrived under these terms. They flocked to America mainly from England, but also from Scotland, Ireland, and Germany. (Germans tended to come in family groups, the others as single adults.) A few were abducted and taken aboard ship by force, but most made the trip voluntarily. They exchanged four to seven years' labor for passage to the New World.

So capitalism did come in the first ships, and in many different forms: legitimate commerce, legal cover for religious freedom, the slave trade, and individuals' exchange of labor for a ticket to America. Yet none of these examples represented modern capitalism. Few had much to do with the First Industrial Revolution, let alone the Second or Third. Each concerned farming, commerce, and trading, not technology and manufacturing. But all contained powerful elements of capitalism, and that proved to be momentous for the nation's future.

Editor's note : Thomas McCraw died inn 2012.

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Ages of american capitalism: a history of the united states, review products.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 September 2022

When people ask me, as they often do, to recommend a single-volume overview of American economic history, I always feel stumped. Sometimes I suggest textbooks in the field, sadly all out of date at this writing, and sometimes monographs that cover specific periods or topics. Now, finally, I have a good answer. I can recommend Jonathan Levy's Ages of American Capitalism . A comprehensive narrative that runs from the colonial period through the recent financial crisis, the book is broader than the accounts most economic historians would offer in that it pays considerable attention to Americans’ cultural responses to economic change. At the same, time, however, it provides up-to-date coverage of the relevant economics literature, making it accessible to readers not able to follow the econometrics. Undoubtedly, specialists will find things to quibble about. I did. But that goes with the territory. The bottom line is that Ages of American Capitalism is an impressive work of synthesis that everyone interested in American history should read.

Ages of American Capitalism is divided into four “books” whose titles convey its narrative arc: “The Age of Commerce, 1660–1860,” “The Age of Capital, 1860–1932,” “The Age of Control, 1932–1980,” and “The Age of Chaos, 1980–.” The first three parts contain six chapters each; the last, four. It is a long book! Levy aims to keep the reader engaged by focusing on key figures such as Presidents Thomas Jefferson and Franklin D. Roosevelt and entrepreneurs Andrew Carnegie and Henry Ford. This attention to great men, as well as the familiar periodization of the book's chronology, gives the narrative a conventional, old-fashioned cast that some readers might find off-putting. I hope they will not be put off, however, because the individual chapters contain many intriguing nuggets of interpretation that will reward those who persevere.

“The Age of Commerce,” for example, opens with the provocative argument that mercantilism was a variant of what today we would call industrial policy and that its pursuit jump-started capitalism in the British Empire. Organizing the section around the concept of Smithian growth, Levy shows how commercial expansion led to a productivity-enhancing division of labor within and between economic units. This kind of growth, Levy argues, was particularly compatible with the system of plantation agriculture that spread across the southern half of the United States after independence, and he offers a nicely nuanced view of that development, explaining slavery's links to the larger U.S. economy without in any way overstating its importance for the country's economic development. Indeed, in contrast to many so-called new historians of capitalism, Levy recognizes the critical role in modern (as opposed to Smithian) economic growth played by the era's high-tech sector—the new machine-tool-based industries that sprang up in the Northeast under the stimulus of, first, burgeoning trade within the region and, later, interregional connections with the Old Northwest. This section of the book also provoked one of my most important quibbles. From Levy's overly schematic treatment of Jacksonian antimonopoly politics in the chapter “Capitalism and Democracy,” one would never realize that it was the Whigs who were behind New York's pathbreaking free banking law. The chapter “Confidence Games” offers abundant compensation, however. Levy's remarkable discussion of Herman Melville's Confidence Man both decodes this extraordinarily difficult novel and uses it to explore the growing problems of trust that Americans had to solve as the economy expanded.

To grasp the argument Levy develops in the three books that follow, one must understand his definition of capitalism. Most new historians of capitalism have eschewed serious discussion of the term, equating it simply with the dominance of the profit motive. Levy, by contrast, tackles the problem of definition head on, using his introduction to lay out a set of three principles—or, as he calls them, “theses”—about capitalism that give the book its structure. I use the word “structure” deliberately here in the sense that steel beams structure a skyscraper. They give form to the edifice and keep it standing, but they do their work beneath the surface and are largely hidden from view. Ages of American Capitalism is not a theory-laden book; a reader who skipped the introductory chapter might completely miss its theoretical underpinnings. Nonetheless, it is important to consider Levy's theses critically because they drive the rest of his analysis.

Levy argues that what distinguishes “capitalism” from the economic systems that preceded it is the centrality of “capital” to economic life. Hence, defining “capital” is critical to the enterprise of the book. According to his first thesis, capital is a “process,” specifically, the “process through which a legal asset is invested with pecuniary value, in light of its capacity to yield a future pecuniary profit” (p. xiv). Levy initially proposed this definition in a brilliant article, “Capital as Process and the History of Capitalism,” published in this journal in Autumn 2017. A product of our age of financialization in much the same way as Marx's labor theory of value was a product of early industrialization, Levy's definition effectively turns Marx on his head. Capital's value derives not from the dead labor that produces it, nor from the control it confers over the labor process, but rather from the stream of returns it will generate, albeit with a great deal of uncertainty, in the future. By this definition, what Marx termed the means of production could be transformed into capital, but so too could land, enslaved human beings, patents, brands attached to consumer goods, information about consumers’ desires, even synthetic securities with no productive assets behind them.

Levy's second thesis is an important qualification of the first. If what turned assets into capital was not their intrinsic utility but instead the stream of returns they promised to generate over time, it did not necessarily follow that the entrepreneurs who propelled the capitalist system forward were solely, or even primarily, engaged in the pursuit of profits. To the contrary, Levy argues that “the profit motive of capitalists has never been enough to drive economic history” (p. xviii). In his view, the innovators who did the most to expand the economy's productive capacity persevered out of a complex of motives, not simply because they were convinced they had discovered the path to greater wealth, and much of his discussion of entrepreneurs like Carnegie and Ford is devoted to demonstrating this point. This thesis is a major advance over earlier literature that assumed that what distinguished capitalists from precapitalist economic actors was their single-minded concern with the bottom line. As I have argued elsewhere, this assumption impaired not only our understanding of entrepreneurial behavior but also our ability to see capitalism as a historical development (see “Rethinking the Transition to Capitalism in the Early American Northeast,” Journal of American History [2003] and “Interchange: The History of Capitalism,” Journal of American History [2014]).

Levy's third thesis is, in my view, more problematic. It is the idea that the “history of capitalism is a never-ending conflict between the short-term propensity to hoard and the long-term ability and inducement to invest.” In Levy's telling, this “conflict holds the key to explaining many of the dynamics of capitalism over time, including its periods of long-term economic development and growth, and its repeating booms and busts” (p. xxii). At its simplest level, the thesis is an unobjectionable restatement of John Maynard Keynes's theory that, in some circumstances, investment falls short of the level needed to maintain the economy at full employment, with one of the main causes of the deficit being a “liquidity preference” on the part of the owners of capital. But Levy pushes the idea further, drawing on an obscure observation of Keynes—that “there has been a chronic tendency throughout human history for the propensity to save to be stronger than the inducement to invest” (quoted on p. xxii)—to give capitalist dynamics a direction.

Keynes's observation allows Levy to tie the three parts of his theory together. Capitalism's speculative aspect—its dependence on future returns—makes investors cautious and concerned with liquidity, which is why long-run growth depends on entrepreneurial innovation driven by nonpecuniary motives. In Levy's telling, as the American economy developed over time, its progressively greater ability to generate new revenue streams—to transform assets into capital—funneled ever larger amounts of investment into entrepreneurial innovation, but it also made flights to liquidity easier and potentially more economically devasting (“The Age of Capital”). The ensuing crises, especially the Great Depression, provoked government policymakers to build the regulatory capacity to moderate capitalism's swings (“The Age of Control”). In the late twentieth century, however, capitalism again burst its fetters. What we call “financialization” was nothing new. Indeed, to Levy it was the defining feature of capitalism. In the period's “new economy,” however, it became a central locus of entrepreneurial innovation and accounted in its own right for an increasing share of national product. “Since 1980,” as a result, “a preference for liquidity over long-term commitment has dominated capital investment as never before. Fast-moving money, rapid investment and disinvestment, across various asset classes, as well as in and out of various companies, has not only overturned old methods of production—its logic has often threatened to overwhelm other economic patterns” (p. 587). The 2008 financial crisis was a consequence, and Levy implies that more bad times are in store. We are in “The Age of Chaos.”

It is always risky for scholars to infer a direction to history from their present circumstances. Joseph Schumpeter shared Levy's view that entrepreneurs were the drivers of growth and were motivated by more than the pursuit of profits. Writing Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy (1942) in the wake of the New Deal and the rise of totalitarianism in Europe, he predicted that capitalism was doomed—that what Levy calls the Age of Control would destroy the social context that fostered entrepreneurial ambition. Obviously, Schumpeter got it wrong. Levy takes the 2008 financial crisis as a sign that we are being engulfed by chaos, and he too may be getting it wrong. As Christina Romer long ago demonstrated, the apparent stability of the “Age of Control” over the era that preceded the Great Depression was largely a statistical illusion—an artifact of the different ways in which national product was calculated in the two periods (see, for example, “Is the Stabilization of the Postwar Economy a Figment of the Data?,” American Economic Review [1986]). When Romer applied the algorithm used to generate the modern series to the earlier data, the difference between the two periods disappeared, and the same thing happened when she applied the earlier algorithm to the later data. And Levy's own graphs suggest that macroeconomic volatility has continued to decline since then (see, for example, the recessions graphed from 1945 to 2015 in the figures on p. 671).

Once upon a time, scholars saw the Great Depression as the last in a series of accelerating downturns, the product of speculative excesses that led ultimately to the catastrophic stock market crash of October 1929. More recent research has shown, however, that rather than the crash, it was world leaders’ stubborn commitment to the international gold standard that transformed an otherwise normal cyclical downturn into the most serious depression in U.S. history. Levy accepts this interpretation of the Great Depression, but he does not think to explore the Great Recession in a similar way. Yes, there was excessive speculation in U.S. mortgage markets. Yes, the U.S. rating agencies failed to assess properly the vulnerability of mortgage-backed securities to systematic risk. But that was by no means the whole of the story. Long after housing prices turned down, banks continued to turn out the synthetic equivalent of mortgage-backed securities. They did so because global commodity markets were booming and the world was awash with cash. One has only to look at the yields on Pakistani and Ukrainian sovereign debt to glimpse the bigger story. Relative to U.S. treasuries, these yields collapsed from over 500 basis points in 2002 to under 200 in 2007, though no one thought the bonds were becoming less risky (Martin Wolf, “The World Wakes from the Wish-Dream of Decoupling,” Financial Times , 22 Oct. 2008). Although the subprime crisis in the United States triggered the financial meltdown, the underlying causes of the crisis were deeper and more international than Levy suggests (see Gary Gorton and Andrew Metrick, “Getting Up to Speed on the Financial Crisis,” Journal of Economic Literature [2012]).

As for the failure of control, yes, the Federal Reserve made mistakes in responding to the crisis, but it kept the damage to the economy sufficiently in check that the Great Recession did not become a Great Depression and people quickly forgot how dire the situation could have been. At least as of this writing, the Fed has also mitigated the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the past two decades, moreover, companies have been deliberately delinking their businesses from “fast-moving” capital markets. By adopting noncorporate organizational forms, taking their companies private, and going public with dual-class shares, among other strategies, entrepreneurs have taken steps to solidify control and isolate their operations from the flightiness of liquidity-minded investors.

Levy acknowledges many of these developments, but he is too carried away with his idea of the investment/liquidity tradeoff (and perhaps also by a need to weigh in as a critic of capitalism) to see them as potential challenges to his view of the system's trajectory. My concerns about Levy's final section are minor, however, when weighed against my admiration for his ability to bridge the economic history literature, the more general literature in American history and culture, and the history of capitalism to boot. That is a remarkable achievement, and Levy deserves further plaudits for advancing our understanding of capitalism's distinguishing features, even if not of its future.

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• Volume 96, Issue 3
• Naomi R. Lamoreaux
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007680522000587

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The Evolution of American Capitalism

Although the American economic system has undergone significant change since colonial times, there are identifiable threads running through the centuries-long narrative. Chief among these are the themes of "liquidity" and state action – both of which can either be a blessing or a curse.

• Jonathan Levy, Ages of American Capitalism: A History of the United States , Random House, 2021.

CAMBRIDGE – Jonathan Levy, a historian at the University of Chicago, is a leader in the burgeoning movement to place capitalism at the core of the American experience. His major new work provides a framework for reading American history over 400 years and a set of themes for explicating its conflicts and crises. Ages of American Capitalism is an outstanding work of scholarship and storytelling.

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Freedom, Fairness and American Capitalism

Subscribe to the center on the united states and europe update, felix rohatyn fr felix rohatyn cuse advisory council member.

April 21, 2005

• 16 min read

This speech was given at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government

President Bush has made the spread of Freedom and Democracy the basic pillar of our foreign policy. As part of this effort he has committed to a vastly enhanced program of Public Diplomacy under the authority of Karen Hughes as Under Secretary of State.

By emphasizing diplomacy over the use of force President Bush did much to eliminate the fear of an American military crusade. But in order to prevail Ms. Hughes will not only have to sell the idea of freedom and democracy to the Arab world, she and the President will have to sell the American version of democracy to much of the rest of the world, including many of our allies.

The late George F. Kennan, who may have been our greatest diplomat, wrote the following in advising on how to fight communism in 1946: “It is not enough to urge people to develop political processes similar to our own. Many foreign peoples are less interested in abstract freedom than in security.”

“Democracy,” like “Rashomon,” has many faces and American democracy, viewed from abroad, has some unique facets. During my four years as U.S. Ambassador to France I saw how fascinated the French are by everything American; I believe that to be true of all Europeans. While they admire much of what we do, there also is much that is contrary to their beliefs and, in some cases, frightening to them. The death penalty, the power of religion in our politics, our opposition to international law, are just some examples of deep differences in values.

There is also a certain historical level of anti-Americanism that reflects these differences, but they are offset by recognition of a broad community of interests. Global economic instability, fear of terrorism and proliferation of nuclear weapons ultimately outweigh everything else. However, the war in Iraq unleashed a level of public hostility to America that was more virulent than anything in memory.

The new tone of the Bush Administration’s dialogue with Europe has softened, which is all to the good. It is also a quite pragmatic recognition of the fact that we need each other. Domestically, just as George W. Bush needs the support of American public opinion to commit the country in a dangerous world, European political leaders need the support of their public opinion to be able to support us. To do so we have to recognize their concerns about our policies.

When President Bush speaks of freedom and democracy, Europeans think of the economic freedom that is fundamental to American capitalism. They are fascinated by its dynamic and by the opportunities it offers. They are, however, troubled by the social objectives imbedded in American capitalism, by the lack of a solid social safety net, by the speculative aspect of our markets, by the growing inequality created by our large differentials of wealth, and by the harsh impact of extensive deregulation.

Today they are also worried about the weakness of the dollar, and about policies that may lead to even greater weakness and the risk this creates to the global financial system. After all Europeans own more than $2 trillion in American securities, including over 15% of all listed stocks here, and over five million Americans work for European companies here. As a result of the depreciation of the dollar, they have suffered capital losses of about $800 billion.

The vision we have of American capitalism is that of a market driven system where government regulation and Protestant ethics help ensure that the public interest is protected. In that vision the Federal Reserve maintains a stable currency while a responsible budgetary policy enables strong investment in technology and innovation by the private sector. A progressive tax system is expected to provide for a fair distribution of benefits to society as a whole.

Seen from abroad, however, the current practice of American capitalism is quite different. Huge government deficits are generated by a rapidly growing military budget; taxes are being cut, instead of being raised to meet these expenses; a weak dollar and burgeoning speculative bubbles in the real estate markets are the present reality and the present risk. And the tax cuts, which strongly favor upper income groups, accelerate the growing inequality in wealth and income that is creating an ever more sharply divided America.

Americans’ antipathy to taxes is not new. In 1782, the French Ambassador to the United States noted, “The Americans suffer the torching of their farms, the loss of their ships, and endure all the trials of war with courage, of which they have not enough to levy taxes, which would prevent the greatest part of their calamities.” The tax increases on upper income Americans by Presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush I, and Clinton, in fact improved the functioning of our economy, but we have not changed our attitude. American capitalism is very different in practice than in theory.

Market-based capitalism requires a platform of political freedom, the creation of wealth and fairness in its distribution. The American economy reflected these values until the 1980s, when American capitalism and European social democracy created reasonably similar economic outcomes. After the New Deal and the Great Society an implicit social contract, among business, labor and government, had maintained economic stability, a strong social safety net, and an increasingly broad distribution of wealth in America. We began to diverge with Europe in the 1980s as a result of higher population growth rates in the U.S. coupled with significantly greater investments in research and technology. And by the 1990s accelerating changes in our corporate culture and in the functioning of our financial markets, together with cheap money and easy speculation, resulted in the creation of astounding levels of wealth. These in turn led to serious legal and ethical abuses in the business world and to a breakdown in the concept of fairness.

On December 2, 1988 Ross Johnson, the then Chairman of RJR Nabisco, appeared on the cover of Time Magazine above the headline “A Game of Greed.” Some time earlier, Ivan Boesky had given a much-applauded speech to the graduates of the University of California, entitled “Greed is Good.” Greed had become one of the main engines of American market capitalism and speculation, and, in some cases, massive fraud was the result.

Greed is a sin, but it is not necessarily a crime. In the case of Ross Johnson, it remained a sin. However, it can lead to crime and, in the case of Michael Milken, Ivan Boesky and others it did just that. In the 1990s criminal behavior extended not only to speculators or insider traders, but also to a number of CEO’s and senior corporate officers who manipulated their financial statements in order to inflate the price of their stock. In doing so they were often aided by their auditors, their bankers and, in some cases, their lawyers. We saw some of the results recently in the criminal conviction of the former CEO of WorldCom, Bernie Ebbers. Other rogue companies, and their former CEO’s such as Enron, Adelphia, and HealthSouth, are presently under indictment or under investigation, and great banks such as Citibank and Morgan Chase were forced to pay billions to settle claims for violations of the security laws. As of now, even Blue Chip companies such as Fannie Mae and AIG and their CEO’s, are under investigation.

In the late 1990s, as ambassador to France, I spent much of my time singing the praises of American capitalism. But back at home these factors were changing the system. A booming stock market sent executive compensation soaring, with very little accountability for performance. At the same time, deregulation, an easy monetary policy, and media-driven hype of new information technologies created essentially “free money” and astronomic stock valuations. Speculation created the dot.com bubble and in due course brought about the collapse of much larger companies, with tragic results.

The results were usually the same. Management and directors collected hundreds of millions in bonuses and stock sales while tens of thousands of employees saw their jobs and their savings lost. Hundreds of thousands of stockholders were ruined.

These events strike at the very heart of the most basic requirements of market capitalism: transparency and fairness. In addition, the media, treated finance like show business, creating stars out of executives and touted wealth as the sole standard of success.

While no single event can be pinpointed as the start or the single cause of these corruptions, I believe a great deal began in the 1980s. The road to Enron was long and well traveled.

Until the 1980s overall corporate activity was still consistent with the evolution of a largely industrial economy, while the consolidation of the financial sector, of Wall Street and the rise of institutional investors pointed to a major shift—late 20th Century finance capitalism.

Until then, the top levels of American enterprise, the big industrial companies, the big banks, etc., were dominated by Boards and CEO’s who were traditional, conservative businessmen, with relatively high but not excessive compensation levels, whose fiefdoms were the platform of the American economy.

The advent of the leveraged buyout radically changed the relationship of management to the corporation. As LBO firms such as KKR and Forstmann Little, restructured American companies, they provided management with ownership levels never previously imagined. The 20% ownership stake in RJR Nabisco, demanded by Ross Johnson for his small top management team, possibly worth $2.5 billion, was simply an extreme extension of this new process, and Time Magazine made it the symbol of a new age.

The 1980s also coincided with the adoption of the large scale granting of stock options. I remember sitting on the boards of some large companies at the time, pressured by institutional investors demanding changes in compensation packages, aiming at greater stock interests of management and lower cash payouts. That meant more stock options. Meanwhile, stock prices were shooting upward, with no consistent correlation to the performance of their companies. According to the author Kevin Phillips, the compensation level in 1981 for the top ten American corporate executives had ranged from $2.3 million to $5.7 million, mostly in the form of salary and cash bonuses. Because of the shift to more options, by 1988 the compensation of the top 10 American executives ranged from $11.4 million to $40.1 million. By 2000, the range was $104 million to $290 million. While the levels of executive compensation are back from the stratosphere, they are still lofty. However, during this entire period American workers’ pay increased only by slightly more than the inflation rate.

During these years, the deregulation of the telecommunication industry and the breakup of AT&T, together with dramatic advances in information technology had become a magnet for new investment. WorldCom, Qwest, Global Crossing and others raised tens of billions of dollars from the markets. They used over-inflated stock to acquire older, stronger companies and fed the myth of endless growth.

The glamour of these new entrepreneurs, and their new billions, gave a new political dynamic to the notion of deregulation. The repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act allowed banks to re-enter the securities field from which they had been excluded since the Great Depression. Energy deregulation brought new players into the staid utility field where traders such as Enron hooked up with the Internet to create a new culture of trading instead of investment.

The Federal Reserve kept interest rates low and flooded the markets with money. As it found its way into the stock market, it drove prices higher and higher. The Federal Reserve did nothing to slow this down. It was fearful of bursting the bubble and Alan Greenspan had become a convert to the New Economy.

A financial critical mass had been created which, at first, drove stocks sky-high and ultimately, and inevitably, exploded. In March 2000 the NASDAQ reached 5,100 and the Dow Jones 11,000. They then crashed and wiped out $7 trillion of market value. They wiped out the savings of millions of Americans, triggered the recession of 2000, and brought about the bankruptcies.

The public uproar created by these scandals, finally allowed the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley bill in July 2001. It required more responsibility from independent directors, certification of company finances by CEO’s and demanded separation between the investment banking and research analysis functions of the banking industry. It is important legislation but, by itself, it will not suffice; it is already under attack.

We still have much to learn from what happened. New private equity funds have surpassed the original LBO investors in their size and ability to generate quick returns. Larger and larger hedge funds are being created and highly leveraged transactions in the tens of billions of dollars each are being considered. The availability of almost unlimited amounts of bank financing is astonishing.

Speculation is back but the biggest speculator of all is now the U.S. government. The Bush administration gave in to the conservative anti-tax revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, and went to war in Iraq while greatly underestimating its $300 billion cost to date. It simultaneously engaged in a policy of massive tax cuts, probably the first time ever that a country cut taxes when going to war. The domestic budget went from surplus to a record deficit, as did our trade balance, and the Federal Reserve pushed interest rates to all-time lows. And neither the Treasury nor the Fed acted to protect the dollar, which has declined by 40% and only drove our foreign deficit still higher. Our foreign debt has reached $4 trillion and China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan became our largest creditors. We have become the world’s largest debtor; the dollar became one of the world’s weakest currencies; and we are now facing large and increasing deficits for the foreseeable future.

And to add to an already incoherent and radical fiscal policy, President Bush, with the support of Chairman Greenspan, proposed to fix a supposedly “bankrupt” Social Security system by borrowing a further $2-4 trillion to create private investment accounts. This would do nothing for Social Security, but the perspective of such huge borrowings is likely to have a seriously negative impact on the credit markets.

During this period the fairness so vital to a modern democracy, was seriously impaired. As a result of the tax cuts and extraordinary levels of executive compensation, 1% of Americans now own 45% of the nation’s household assets, a level not seen since 1929.

And in the meantime, we continued to starve domestic public investment. Much of our infrastructure is in a state of decay. The state of our public schools in particular, is a disgrace. It would probably require $2 trillion to bring our overall infrastructure up to decent condition, and a decade or more to achieve it, if we tried.

Much of what has gone wrong is due to serious ethical lapses of some business leaders, as well as mistaken policies by the Bush Administration. In the financial services field, however, there is an additional factor involved: the dehumanizing aspect of much of the new business.

Financial services used to be an extremely personal business; the making of loans, the purchase and sale of securities, the giving of financial advice, these were all activities with high levels of personal interplay, where personal character counted. Today, more and more of the financial service business involves capital markets and other trading activity. These consist of individuals, facing computer screens, buying and selling electronic signals with counter parties whom they never see, in locations all over the world. The only measure of performance is the profit or loss for that day. Quality, trust and confidence or any other non-quantitative measures of performance are of ever decreasing importance.

When a group, under the sponsorship of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, recently suggested the adoption of an Ethics Code by the financial industry, it was immediately met with the Kafkaesque notion that the very existence of such a code might increase legal liability risks. This is, however, an initiative that must be encouraged; corporate compensation committees, as part of their reviews, should specifically take ethical standards into account.

A global financial crisis could well happen as a result of our present fiscal policies. Many experts take the view that this is very unlikely; that foreign central banks will indefinitely support the dollar, and that the global system is self-correcting. Perhaps so. The risk that the experts are wrong may be small, but it is a risk we cannot take since it is a gamble we cannot afford to lose.

Our economy is vastly over leveraged and very vulnerable to a major shock. If a crisis occurs, mainly centered on the dollar, it will require heroic coordinated international efforts to bring it under control, as well as a level of bipartisan efforts unthinkable in the present domestic climate. To avoid the crisis, it is critical to maintain our credibility with our foreign friends as well as with those less friendly to us.

I am a capitalist and believe that market capitalism is the best economic system ever invented; but it must be fair, it must be regulated, and it must be ethical. American capitalism is now driven by the urge to deregulate and to limit the role of government to a minimum. Hence the current attacks of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, only three years after its enactment. At the end of the 19th Century, Theodore Roosevelt had a different view of the earlier manifestations of American capitalism. He rejected the idea that Washington had no role but to stamp Wall Street’s initiatives. His quarrel was with illegal behavior, with those who exploited their extraordinary advantages to abuse others. He insisted on government’s obligation to regulate the large new business aggregations not so much to address the inequalities of wealth as to police its potentially distorting influence. TR’s war on the trusts was an effort to reinforce the new system, not weaken or attack it. This should be the purpose of regulation in a more and more complicated system.

The stakes are very high. Foreign investors own $5 trillion of our stocks and bonds. It is imperative that those foreign investors maintain their level of ownership and actually increase it by about $2 billion a day . That is the amount required to finance our current account deficit. “Credit” comes from the Latin verb: “to believe.” Belief in our system is critical to maintain a global financial balance.

President Bush’s idea of an “ownership society” is an idea, which is consistent with the objectives of American capitalism. But it is not credible within the context of government fiscal policies that increase our external indebtedness every day to the detriment of our national wealth. These policies cannot be allowed to go on indefinitely. They require difficult and painful actions, which can only come from a multi-year, bi-partisan plan, led by the President, and the Congress, with the support of business and labor. Such a plan will require a fair allocation of sacrifice in the form of budget cuts and tax increases. It must deal with entitlement programs. It must address the problem of alternative sources of energy such as nuclear power. It should aim to rebuild the country’s infrastructure with new investment and new employment. It must stabilize our currency. Like the GI Bill of Rights, it should enhance the creation of American intellectual capital. The President and the Congress have much work to do if we hope to regain the global confidence in American capitalism. This is the challenge they must face which is fundamental to our ability to lead the free world.

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The Cold War

Capitalist america.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the United States (US) was a burgeoning superpower. US industrial and manufacturing rivalled that of the European great powers. American economic growth in the second half of the 1800s was the fastest in its history, generating significant increases in production, wages and personal wealth. The late 1800s, in particular, was a period of rapid industrialisation, expansion, population growth and, for some, growing prosperity. The tremendous opportunities available in America sparked a surge in immigration in the late 1800s. Millions of migrant workers crossed the seas from Europe and Asia, seeking job opportunities as well as political and religious freedom. Industrial growth transformed American society. New transport infrastructure made travel and relocation easier. Some American cities – particularly New York, Chicago and Philadelphia – swelled with newcomers. American industrial growth expanded its military strength.

Most of this growth sprung from unrestrained capitalism. America’s economic growth came not from government policy but from private capital and investment, as well as the availability of cheap labour. Unchecked by government restrictions or high labour costs, American capitalists built gigantic corporations, transportation and communications networks, heavy industries and powerful banking and financial organisations. In the two decades before 1880 the amount of railroad track tripled, allowing the free movement of people and cargo. Coal mining and steel manufacture boomed, fuelled by new technical developments and production methods. Factories, mines and farms all benefited from mass produced machinery, which became cheaper and more accessible. Late 19th century America became the creative hub of the world, conceiving hundreds of new inventions like the telegraph, telephone, electric power and lighting. The need for investment capital fuelled a growth in stock market and American banks. The figureheads of this growth were business tycoons like John D. Rockefeller (oil), John Jacob Astor (real estate), JP Morgan (banking) and Andrew Carnegie (steel).

The Gilded Age

Needless to say, this growth was not without its problems or criticisms. Mark Twain dubbed the last quarter of the 19th century America’s ‘Gilded Age’, for while it glittered from the outside, all was not well within. One significant problem was political corruption and croneyism, fuelled by the connections between government and business. During the Gilded Age the United States endured a number of mediocre presidents and politicians, many of them in the pocket of big business. Laws of the time protected corporate interests but overlooked social problems and the rights of workers. There was growing discontent about wage levels and the treatment of labour. Women and children endured even worse workplace conditions, since they could be hired for much lower wages than men. Child labour was still rampant in some parts of America in the early 1900s, with children as young as six employed in factories and mills. Unions emerged in the 1870s and organised industrial action, like the 1877 strike that paralysed American railways for six weeks. The Knights of Labor, another powerful union movement, grew rapidly in the 1880s. These unions employed tactics that were often violent and disruptive. There were numerous incidents of American unionists instigating riots, assaults and even murders. One significant example of this violence was the 1892 shooting of notorious steel tycoon Henry Clay Frick by a left-wing agitator. Frick survived and was hailed as a hero by the capitalist press, which called for strong action against unions and socialists.

These problems came under scrutiny during the so-called Progressive Era, between the 1890s and 1920. American journalists became more active in exposing corruption and injustice. Political reforms improved elections and democratic representation. Social reforms brought improvements to healthcare, education and the law. Economic reform and regulation were slower coming, though the early 1900s saw the introduction of legislation to reduce the size and power of corporate monopolies. Wages increased and the America middle class began to grow. There were gradual improvements in working conditions, though unions continued to flourish in the early 20th century. America’s industrial economy was given a shot in the arm by World War I. Though the US did not enter the war until April 1917, many American companies raced to sign lucrative deals to supply the Allies – Britain and France chiefly – with munitions, equipment and supplies. While the war devastated Europe physically and economically, America was untouched and financially invigorated. The United States entered the post-war period as a genuine superpower.

The First Red Scare

The Bolshevik revolution in Russia in 1917 triggered anti-communist paranoia in the United States. Washington refused to recognise the Soviet Union or its communist leaders, a situation that prevailed until 1933. In July 1918 president Woodrow Wilson ordered 13,000 American troops to northern Russia, to support White anti-communist forces there. The rise of communism in Russia also contributed to America’s first ‘Red Scare’ (1918-20). American capitalists were particularly concerned about Soviet ideas – or even Soviet agents – infiltrating American unions, making them more radical and violent, potentially revolutionary. Events in 1919 seemed to justify these fears. Strikes among Seattle dock workers (January), Boston police (September), eastern steelworkers (September) and coal miners (November) suggested American unionists had become more radical and militant. In mid 1919 an anarchist group posted mail bombs containing several pounds of dynamite to several politicians and officials. Only one person was killed but the bombs were obviously intended to kill more. The US federal government moved against radicals and socialists, setting up an investigative task force and launching a series of raids in the winter of 1919-20. Almost 250 European-born socialists and political agitators were deported from the US in December 1919. In 1920 five socialist politicians were expelled from the New York State Assembly, despite being elected by constituents.

1. By the 1900s America was the most industrialised nation in the world, its wealth rivalling the empires of Europe. 2. Much of this progress came in the late 1800s, largely at the expense of workers, wages and conditions. 3. American trade unions began to organise in the 1870s and, as in Europe, they were susceptible to socialist ideas. 4. The ‘Gilded Age’ gave way to improvements in regulation, social policy and conditions between 1893-1920. 5. America was panicked by the Russian Revolution, which triggered the first ‘Red Scare’ of 1918-20.

Content on this page is © Alpha History 2017. This content may not be republished or distributed without permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use . This page was written by Jennifer Llewellyn, Jim Southey and Steve Thompson. To reference this page, use the following citation: J. Llewellyn et al, “Capitalist America”, Alpha History, accessed [today’s date], https://alphahistory.com/coldwar/capitalist-america/.

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Capitalism In America – The History Of Our Economic System

Understanding Economy is Essential

The United States of America has a unique economic system. It’s called Capitalism, and it’s been around for more than 200 years. It was first brought to North America by European settlers, who started trading in the 1620s.

That’s when Europeans imported their new ideas about how society works: from their countries. They came to our country, which at that time included everything from Florida to New York. And they began to put those ideas into practice on this land.

In his book “A Capitalist Manifesto,” economics professor Richard Wolff says three basic rules: competition, private ownership, and free exchange under Capitalism. According to these principles, businesses must compete against each other to sell their goods and services to consumers.

This means that all producers get paid according to their efficiency. No producer gets special favors or tax breaks.

But while Capitalism is known for treating everyone equally, it does have a history of inequality.

Why is the USA a capitalist country?

The US was founded by capitalists who believed that free enterprise creates wealth. They felt that private ownership of land, capital, and labor should be respected. And they thought that competition among companies should be encouraged.

These beliefs have shaped our economic system. Today, we still believe that these ideas will lead to prosperity.

But there are critics of Capitalism. Some say that Capitalism leads to inequality because only rich people own big companies. Others argue that Capitalism doesn’t work because it encourages Greediness.

How does Capitalism work in the United States?

Let’s take a look at how capitalism functions in the United States. First, there are corporations. A corporation is a company owned by shareholders. Shareholders pay money to buy stock in the corporation. That gives them a share of the profits once the business makes money. When a corporation creates a profit, it returns some of that back to the shareholders.

Corporations exist to make a profit. But unlike individual workers, corporations aren’t taxed individually.

Instead, governments collect taxes based on the total amount of income a corporation earns. This allows corporations to deduct the costs of producing goods and services from their taxable income.

So, when a company sells something for $100, it keeps $80 after paying its employees, rent, utilities, advertising, etc. Then, it produces a tax rate of 30 percent on that remaining $80. Finally, the company turns over the rest, $20, to the government. That’s why, even though corporations are often referred to as greedy, they don’t make any more money than individuals who run small businesses.

Next, let’s discuss markets. Markets are where buyers and sellers meet. They allow businesses to find out what customers want and need. If a call has too few suppliers, prices go up. If there are too many suppliers, prices drop. Markets also create incentives for people to produce things better or cheaper.

For example, if I wanted to buy a new car, I might search online to see what cars other people bought recently. If I noticed that my neighbor had bought a particular model, I would be motivated to ask them about his experience with it. Maybe they could tell me about problems they encountered. Or perhaps they could recommend another brand. This kind of exchange helps consumers decide what they want.

It also allows producers to figure out how to improve their products. So, markets work well when there are enough participants.

Finally, let’s talk about the government. Governments provide infrastructure like roads, bridges, tunnels, airports, water treatment plants, power grids, etc. They can also enforce contracts, protect property rights, and regulated industries. Governments also provide police forces, armies, and fire departments.

These institutions help ensure that markets function pretty.

Why Is Capitalism So Important?

Capitalism is one of the most integral parts of modern life—but how exactly did we get here? Today, we can shop online, work flexible hours, and live comfortably without growing much food ourselves. We’re able to provide jobs and opportunities for others because of companies like Walmart and Apple, both of whom were founded long before the Civil Rights Movement.

How did Capitalism become such an essential part of everyday life?

The short answer is that Capitalism gave us freedom. It allowed people to pursue their dreams and goals. Capitalism also created a lot of wealth, which led to prosperity and opportunity for many. And it provided the foundation for economic growth. And now, with the rise of social media, smartphones, and the internet, we have access to information, news, and products faster than ever. Today, Capitalism is viewed as a negative term, but it isn’t anything terrible if you think about it. It’s just a way of organizing production and distribution. Why not call it “production-and-distribution” instead.

How does Capitalism benefit society?

Capitalism benefits everyone. Because it allows people to choose what jobs they want, it gives them control over their lives.

It also lets them earn more money. This means they can spend more money on goods and services.

That makes us all more prosperous.

And finally, Capitalism provides an incentive for innovation. When people invent something new, others may use it. This means that everyone gets to enjoy those innovations.

So, while Capitalism isn’t perfect, it’s still pretty great.

What Are Some Problems With Capitalism?

First, some people say that Capitalism causes inequality. But this is only true in certain circumstances.

Let’s look at two examples:

1) A company hires someone skilled at writing code. The person earns $100 per hour. The company then pays its employees based on the number of hours worked. After working 40 hours, the employee earns $4,000. Now, suppose the same company hired someone else who was less skilled at coding.

They reached $10 per hour. The company paid its employees based on the amount of time spent working. After 40 hours, the employee made $400.In this scenario, the first coder got paid more than twice as much as the second coder. Why? Because the company valued the skills of the first coder more than the second coder. To be considered qualified, applicants must have a bachelor’s degree or higher.

2) Suppose a company offers a job paying $50,000 per year. However, 100 people are applying for the position. Only ten people will be selected. Now, suppose the company offered the same job paying $40,000 per year. Again, only ten people would be chosen. But, this time, the qualifications required to apply were a high school diploma or GED.

Which situation sounds better?

Inequality occurs when the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. But, under Capitalism, the wealthy don’t always make more money than the poor. For instance, let’s look at the example above where the company pays its employees based on hours worked. If the company had paid its employees based on productivity rather than hours worked, the salaries of the two coders would have been equal.

Thus, Capitalism comes with its Pros and Cons now it comes to the people whether they want to follow it or not. When considering the opportunities that we get through Capitalism, most people don’t open up. Some go with the flow and intake what is required. To understand the country’s economy, one must thoroughly know the nook and corners of Capitalism.

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Capitalism in the USA 1900 to 1940

How did the Great Depression in the USA bring about a crisis of capitalism?

Background and focus

It is important to understand that the focus of THIS section is almost in direct contrast to the previous topic.

Previously, learners were required to understand how the USSR had developed. WE now look at Capitalism and

its development in the US. Learners MUST understand that this topic, along with the previous one, will set them

up for studying the bipolar nature of the globe in Grade 12. So, pay attention, and make notes for next year.

Having looked at socialism (and the USSR) in the previous topic, we now investigate capitalism as it developed

in the USA.

We study the crisis of capitalism that occurred as a result of the Great Depression. At the time of conception,

Roosevelt’s New Deal was criticised by some for bringing in socialism. Learners must analyse these criticisms,

which relate to the New Deal Programmes that were set up to bring about relief, recovery and reform.

Could Roosevelt’s form of state intervention to create jobs, as well as the welfare system he set up, be

considered socialist reform, and did he thereby undermine the capitalist system in the USA?

There was a list of conditions that existed in 4 phases:

1.     The growth of Capitalism during the 19 and 20 centuries in the US.

2.     The conditions that led to the Great Depression.

3.     The policies that attempted to address the Great Depression.

4.     The criticisms of the New Deal.

This section includes the following:

-· the nature of capitalism in the USA

Online Resource:

http://www.newhistory.org/CH07.htm [Accessed: 10/02/2015]

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8723692-american-colossus [Accessed:10/02/2015]

 - entrepreneurial and competitive; with rugged individualism; free market; and with minimal state control over business;

”¢ the American dream of individual possibilities - ‘rags to riches’;

Online Resources:

http://www.publicagenda.org/press-releases/hard-work-is-essential-for-achieving-the-american-dream-but-is-it-enough-americans-are-divided-according-to-a-new-survey [Accessed: 10/02/2015]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvJ8YDma7Wk [Accessed: 10/02/2015]

Ӣ capitalist boom of the 1920s: strengths and weaknesses in the US economy;

Ӣ USA society in the 1920s;

Source: http://rationalrevolution.net/images/income_1918_1929.png [Accessed: 10/02/2015]

Ӣ Wall Street crash of 1929: reasons for and economic and social impact;

Black Tuesday – 29 October 1929

Source: http://rationalrevolution.net/images/income_1929_1932.png [Accessed: 10/02/2015]

http://www.economicshelp.org/blog/76/economics/wall-street-crash-1929/ [Accessed: 10/02/2015]

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Causes_of_the_Great_Depression.htm [Accessed: 10/02/2015]

Causes of the Great Depression

1.Credit boom

2.Buying on the margin

3.Irrational exuberance

4.Mismatch between production and consumption

5.Agricultural recession

6.Weaknesses in the Banking Sector

Source: http://www.economicshelp.org/blog/76/economics/wall-street-crash-1929/

Source : http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40459000/gif/_40459863_wall_street_boom_gra416.gif                          [ Accessed: 10/02/2015]

http://history-world.org/great_depression.htm [ Accessed: 10/02/2015]

Ӣ E lection of Roosevelt: offering a New Deal;

Source : http://image.slidesharecdn.com/usdepthstudy1-140929100512-phpapp01/95/usa-depth-study-new-deal-62-638.jpg?cb=1412003186 [ Accessed: 10/02/2015]

The New Deal...as proposed by Franklin D Roosevelt encompassed the following:

http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/franklin-d-roosevelt-and-the-first-new-deal-the-first-100-days.html [Accessed: 10/02/2015]

http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/the-second-new-deal-social-programs-and-their-resistance.html [Accessed: 10/02/2015]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X60Nei2560w [ Accessed: 10/02/2015]

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248 Capitalism Essay Topics & Examples

Looking for capitalism essay topics? The economic system considered the most advanced and effective is worth exploring!

• 💸 Research Questions
• 🏆 Best Topic Ideas & Essay Examples
• 👍 A+ Essay Examples
• 🎓 Interesting Essay Topics
• 📌 Hot Topics to Write about

💡 Most Interesting Capitalism Topics to Write about

✍️ capitalism essay topics for college.

• ❓ Research Paper Topics

In your capitalism essay, you might want to focus on its key features or history. Another idea is to talk about the pros and cons of capitalism, discussing why it is good or bad. One more option is to compare capitalism and socialism. Whether you are assigned to write an argumentative essay, research paper, or thesis on capitalism, this article will be helpful. Here you’ll find everything you might need to write an A+ paper! Capitalism research questions, prompts, and title ideas are collected below. Best capitalism essay examples are also added to inspire you even more.

💸 Research Questions about Capitalism

• How did capitalism in its modern form appear?
• What are the key ideas of mercantilism?
• What is the relationship between capitalism and democracy?
• How did globalization help capitalism spread worldwide?
• Is inequality inevitable in a capitalist economy?
• What are the key characteristics of modern capitalism?
• What are the ways to ensure fair competition in a capitalist economy?
• What is the role of wage labor in capitalism?
• How to protect private property in capitalist economy?
• What are the disadvantages of capitalism?

🏆 Best Capitalism Topic Ideas & Essay Examples

• Marx vs. Weber on Capitalism Besides, this time was the period of the close attention of the sociologists to the bourgeois society and the development of capitalism.”The debate over the relationship between Marx’s political economy and Max Weber’s interpretative sociology, […]
• Similarities Between Capitalism and Socialism. Compare & Contrast In this system, the government manages the overall means of production but the members have the duty of choosing the best setting for the production, the amount to produce and which product should be produced.
• What Is the Relationship Between Capitalism and Democracy? The importance of the roles played by the stock market in the capitalistic economy is related considerably to the aspects of democracy and free market.
• Max Weber – The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism Max Weber in his book the protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism sought to explain the emergence of the modern capitalism and the origin of the modern secular and industrial society.
• “The State in Capitalist Society” by Ralph Miliband According to Anonymous, this book has played a major role in the renewal of both “state theory and Marxist political thought”.”The state in capitalist society” is a piece of work that has remained to be […]
• Communism and Capitalism Through the History In this system, the means of product and service production is mainly carried out and owned by the individuals instead of the government while communism also known as fascism is contrary to this where production […]
• Nationalism Versus Capitalism: Compare & Contrast According to Marxist philosopher, Herbert Marcuse, the main disadvantage of capitalism is prosperity that seduces workers with the items of comfort and makes them forget their primarily aim of overthrowing the capitalism.
• Karl Marx’s Critique of Capitalism They were enslaved by the bourgeoisie and machinery hence, they became a majority and were empowered in the light of the competitive bourgeoisie class, which created commercial conflicts and fluctuated the earning of the working […]
• H.G. Wells’ “The Time Machine” as Critique of Capitalism In the reality of the world that the book inhabits, the Eloi, who live above ground, represent the upper class, and the Morlocks, who live below ground, represent the lower class.
• Compare of Capitalism and Socialism In light of this definition and description, one would argue that this is the most convenient system of economic governance because individuals have the freedom to conduct business in a manner that best meets their […]
• Differences Between Capitalism and Socialism In capitalist economic models, the rate of employment is determined by the pressures of demand and supply in the labor markets.
• “What Is Capitalism?” Article by Jahan and Mahmud Its main idea is based on the discussion of capitalism characteristics and its impact on the modern economy. On the other hand, inequality provokes controversies and questions the effectiveness of capitalism.
• Capitalism, Individualism, and Social Responsibility This has largely been attributed to the regulation of modern societies by the state, the localization of the life-worlds, and the crisis of the subject in the post modernist culture of intellectuals.
• Corporate Social Responsibility: Socialist and Capitalist Perspective The state should ensure that tranquility and calmness is in the society. The role of the state is to provide guidelines that would bring sanity in business.
• Arguments Against Capitalism This is in the sense that capitalistic economies are influenced by free markets where the effects of pull and push of the demand, versus the supply affects the prices that are in the market.
• “The People’s Republic of Capitalism” Documentary The central themes of The People’s Republic of Capitalism are the intricacies of the Chinese experiment with capitalism restrained by the authoritarian government and interdependence of American and Chinese economies.
• Capitalism Versus Communism In the case of capitalism this comes in the form of the widening gap between the rich and the poor while in the case of communism this comes in the form of economic stagnation due […]
• British Capitalism: Nature and Characteristics It discusses the nature and characteristics of Britain’s capitalism by outlining its history and how the principal city, London, plays a critical role in the spread of capitalism.
• Social Inequality, Capitalism, and Globalization It replaces slavery of antiquity and negatively affects almost all aspects of society, from the inequality of men and women to the sphere of science and education.
• Work Ethics in a Capitalist American Society This is unlike the employees at the restaurant who wanted to get rid of customers as fast as they could and had the contempt to the extent of provoking customers to seek management’s intervention.
• Capitalism and Colonialism These features are: divergence in wealth and technology of the West and the “Rest”, “transformation” of trade relations between colonies and empires and the very nature of this trade, appearance of new “settler-monopoly” and creation […]
• An Invisible Hand of Capitalism in the Business On the other hand, consumers have the liberty to choose on what to purchase hence both players in the market will choose product distribution and the price to be offered.
• Capitalism, Democracy and the Treaty of Waitangi are Three Ways Through Which We in Aotearoa ‘Organise’ Ourselves The treaty gave the sovereignty of the New Zealand to Britain which was supposed to oversee the government and protection of the rights of the Maori people, especially to protect them from unfair land deals.
• Lenin on Imperialism as the Highest Stage of Capitalism Lenin, in his analysis on imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism, stated that the integration of bank capital with the industrial capital facilitates the creation of financial oligarchy.
• Weber’s Ideal Type of the Spirit of Capitalism This Weber’s form of capitalism is the one prevalent in the United States America today. People are primitively accumulating wealth and the best thing they can do with it is to feast their eyes on […]
• Can Capitalism Be Ethical? In my opinion, one of the most serious ethical objections to capitalism is its unjustness that leads to the exploitation of workers by robbing them of the products of their labor.
• Rhetorical Analysis of Socialism vs. Capitalism by Thompson In order to convey this message, the author uses several rhetorical devices, the discussion of which is part of this analysis.
• The Theory of Capitalism and Its Current Context One of the main acknowledgments correlating with the Scottish philosopher is the establishment of the notion and foundation of the “free market”, the system in which supply and demand shape prices.
• Infrastructure in Capitalism and Socialism Systems The Garden City concept, based on building around the decentralized plant, does not reduce the pressure on the central part of the city and the growing population of the modern world.
• The Capitalism Development in Russia In the book The Communist Manifesto, the authors view capitalism as a brief economic form destined to fail to lead to a rise in the communist system. Capitalism was attributed to the harsh inequalities of […]
• Capitalism: Definition and History Further, this system indeed considers the needs and interests of private actors to be of vital importance and does not allow the authorities to control the trade and industry of the country.
• Discussion of Racial Capitalism Issue on Modern Society This stance contributes to the idea of the significance of political processes in the worsening of the situation for individuals who are likely to be exploited by the system.
• Discussion: Ecology and Capitalism The four laws of ecology include ‘everything is connected to everything else,’ ‘everything must go somewhere,’ ‘nature knows best,’ and ‘nothing comes from nothing.’ The four laws of capitalism are ‘the only lasting connection between […]
• Jamaica and the Modern Capitalism Countries in Western Europe and Australia, and North American countries belong to the group of core countries. On the contrary, periphery countries in most of Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe tend to have relatively […]

👍 A+ Capitalism Essay Examples

• Capitalism and Racism in Past and Present Racism includes social and economic inequalities due to racial identity and is represented through dispossession, colonialism, and slavery in the past and lynching, criminalization, and incarceration in the present.
• Surveillance Capitalism on Digital Platforms The appearance of capitalism was associated with the formation of the working class and affluent owners of production, but the new surveillance capitalism altered the classic perception of this system.
• Capitalism Is Not a Good Governance Solution in the Pandemic The capitalist flow of goods and services across the world and the role of governments in this was a major setback in the fight against the pandemic.
• Capitalism Development & Racial Issues in Rochester Hence, the authors show the importance of the topics about race through the extensive description of the development of the work culture in one city.
• Varieties of Capitalism and Employee Relations In providing the comparison for employee relations, the VoC approach has the strength of drawing attention to sectoral, national, and social responses to the crisis and the globalization challenges.
• Potency of Free Speech in Capitalist Society The rapid change in technology, discovery and rediscovery of the previous history, and the process of actively redefining what it means to be human, all contribute to the general diversification of the world.
• Capitalism as an Economic System: Op-Ed The main point of the letter to the editor. The letter I have chosen to respond to concerns the topic of capitalism.
• Capitalism, Black Marxism and Social Balance Thus, capitalism and racism developed as a consequence of the evolution of Western society, while Black radicalism was a response to this process.
• Abstract Dynamics of Capitalism and Daily Experiences of Business and Society Crucial historical transformations such as the back-rolling of capitalist west welfare states, decline or crucial metamorphosis of party states which were bureaucratic in the communist East, and weakening of the economic sovereignty of nation-states have […]
• Capitalism Approach: Attributes and Disadvantages It also offers theoretical and analytical methods to recognize the commonalities and dissimilarities between countries and groups of nations in the region.
• Varieties of Capitalism in China The field deals with the relationship between the labor market and investors within a country and the dynamics that govern them.
• Flint Water Crisis: Environmental Racism and Racial Capitalism The Flint crisis is a result of the neoliberal approach of the local state as opposed to the typical factors of environmental injustice; a polluter or a reckless emitter cutting costs. The two main factors […]
• Modern Capitalism in Great Britain This leads to the emergence of social classes in society, with the elites who own most business enterprises at the top of the hierarchy.
• Is There an Ethical Case for Capitalism? The most essential feature of capitalism is the incentive to make a profit based on the canonical principles, including private property, self-interest, competition, market mechanism, freedom of choice, and the limited role of the state.
• Financial Markets as an Element of the Capitalist Economy Model The story demonstrates various use of the financial market by involved stakeholders such as Credit Suisse, Archegos, investors and lenders for the Archegos, as well as shareholders of Credit Suisse.
• Christians in Communism and Capitalism After viewing the video “The Cold War in Context,” the role of Christians in analyzing the war and the concepts of capitalism and communism can be clarified.
• The Supply of Money in the Capitalist Economy In the capitalist economy that the world is currently based on, the supply of money plays a significant role in not only affecting salaries and prices but also the growth of the economy.
• “Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist” by R. Lowenstein The book provides an avenue for Investors and businessmen to learn a lot from the thoughts of Warren Buffett on issues pertaining to business and the methods he applies when making investments.
• Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism I agree with the statement because people with different cultures have different ways of doing things and architecture is one of the crucial tools used to express the culture of the people.
• Shared Value: Business Organizations and Capitalism Systems The intention of the review, authors and the title of the article: This paper will review the views presented by the authors on business organizations and capitalism systems to draw informed and objective conclusion.
• The Various Aspects of Capitalism Communism is a sociopolitical faction whereby the means of production, such as land, labor, and machinery, are possessed and managed by “the state”, and individuals control only a small portion of the means of production.
• Edward Luttwak’s Turbo-Capitalism: Danger or Blessing? And these are some of the reasons to read his book and agree or disagree with the writer’s points of view on the present and future world economy. The main points of the author lie […]
• Saving Capitalism: Video and the Articles Analysis The video and the articles analyzed in the paper allow for a comprehensive understanding of current issues, with the increasing income inequality that undermines the virtues of capitalism being the major challenge.
• Stages of History, Capitalism, Class Conflict, and Labor Theory in Adam Smith’s Writings The stages of history in Adam Smith’s writing, as reiterated by Paganelli, are the age of hunters, the age of shepherds, the age of agriculture, and the age of commerce.
• Trans-Atlantic Chattel Slavery and the Rise of the Modern Capitalist World System The reading provides an extensive background of the historical rise and fall of the African nations. The reading gives a detailed account of the Civil War and the color line within its context.
• Triumph of Capitalism and Liberalism in Kagan’s “The Jungle Grows Back” In this situation, Kagan argues that it is not rational for the US “to mind its own business and let the rest of the world manage its problems”. It is to demonstrate the need to […]
• “Capitalism in America: The History” by Alan Greenspan and Adrian Wooldridge Such books are now divided into the synchronic and diachronic ones, where the latter ones examine the economics in the context of history, and the first focus on modern development. Hence, the major value of […]
• Capitalism: Contemporary Political Culture Various theories and ideologies have been introduced to try to establish awareness of the socio-economic and political nature of the life of various people in different societies.
• Anti-Capitalism: Social Phenomenon Thus, the younger generations are most likely to be polarized by the ideology of anti-capitalism, which is a divisive issue, since they are opposed to the idea of a few individuals in society controlling trade […]
• The Relations Between Capitalism and Socialism On the other hand, Marx defined socialism as a principle that ensures the most of these production factors are owned and controlled by the society or the state for the benefit of the whole community […]
• Phenomenon of the Capitalism and Socialism The system values private ownership with the price system as the system of determining the rate of exchange of goods and services.
• Capitalism in America in 1865-1930’s The capitalist economy of the US between the 1865 and 1930 laid a framework for the present American economic system. The objective of the union was to protect the rights of the workers, who were […]
• Capitalism vs. Communism: Economic Ideologies Clash A positive example of this mix is Israel, where socialism is dominant in the rural areas and capitalism, is dominant in the urban areas, this has led to an increase in the welfare of the […]
• Jonathan Prude: Capitalism, Industrialization, Factory The aspects of historical industrialization were based on rural capitalism of the North-West regions and the co-existence of nonprofit factories along with private properties makes it difficult to understand the milieu of the factory of […]

🎓 Interesting Capitalism Essay Topics

• Moore’s “Capitalism: A Love Story” Documentary The results of the research are deplorable, because the rate of unemployed people increases every day, people have nothing to pay for their homes, insurances, and education. Is it possible to make fortune in the […]
• “Turbo-Capitalism: Winners and Losers in the Global Economy” by E. Luttwak Consequently, the thesis of the book may be formulated in the following way: human society should beware of the present state of capitalism, turbo-capitalism, which can bring very harmful results of its existence that will […]
• Capitalism History: Ancient and Modern Capitalism During the 1st century, the double currency was stable and towards the end of 2nd century, the denars equivalent to gold started to rise.
• Capitalism and Industrialization in the “Communist Manifesto” by Marx In fact, the Communist Manifesto is clear in indicating that industrialization was a process that led to the overall improvement of society in doing away with the hardships of the majority of the population.
• How Best To Ensure US-Style Global Capitalism This research work aims to analyze the peculiarities of global capitalism and the impact that the United States has on other nations.
• Boltanski and Chapello: New Spirit of Capitalism Analysis For example, in their book, Boltanski and Chapello describe the new paradigm of production to be one of the forms of workers’ exploitation.
• The Concept of Capitalism in China In actual by capitalist state Chinese dreamt of living a life style free of bureaucracy so that they may be able to offend their sense of pride and demean the life-style of the workers’ families.
• Capitalism: Competitional Free Trade This essay will try to highlight the first problem area of Competition and Free Trade, what some of the known authors had to say about the effect of capitalism on it, and finally the overall […]
• The Synergy Between Capitalism and Democracy Democracy and its success: Democracy refers to a political system in which the political part of the government is elected through adult suffrage.
• Capitalist System in America The market forces of demand and supply determine the prices of goods and services without the interference of the government. The capitalist argues that the government must protect its citizens who are the production units […]
• Capitalism Characteristics and American Identity The aim of colonization was occupation of new lands and new ways of wealth accumulation for France and Britain. The plantation was an instrument in the growth of trade and industrial development, and can be […]
• Does American Capitalism Allow Social Mobility? Sometimes, this process is called the distribution of talent, even though ratio can not be perfect, the more close it is to the ideal, the better principle of justice is applied in the society.
• The Result of Western Capitalism Fueling Communism The paper starts with the history of China and elucidates the entry of western capitalism into China in different stages, including the historic opium wars.
• Financial System, Financial Markets and Understanding of Capitalism in Germany and the U.S. The reason for this has been primarily identified as to the experiences and the events the countries have had to face in the past century.
• A. Smith and K. Marx: Contrasting Views of Capitalism One important aspect of society that helps balance the needs and wants of the people is Economics, the social science that deals with goods and services.
• Canada as a Liberal Capitalist Democracy It includes also the re-organization of the enterprises in order to make a profit, for instance, changing management of the enterprise or adding new departments in the organization.
• Urban Democracy and Capitalism For example, surveys show that people increasingly identify with the planetary scale, the local scale, and a whole series of spaces in between.
• Supermarkets. The Machinery of Capitalism Even the meat, which is placed in the market, seems to be losing the imprints of nature, as it is boneless and entirely processed out of human hands.
• Capitalist Modernity After Feudal Mode The division of labor contributed immensely to the demise of feudalism and the rise of capitalism. Both lords and peasants sought to participate in the trade as a way of accessing markets for their products.
• Environmental Sociology. Capitalism and the Environment Some evident examples of remarkable economic development in modern capitalism encompass the enormous industrial development of England in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the outstanding development levels of Western Europe, the emergence of East Asian […]
• American Individualism vs. Capitalism Norms However, a large number of people would agree that the possibility to satisfy one’s basic needs is one of the constituents of contentment.
• Reciprocity in the Capitalist Workforce Thirdly, the majority of companies have failed to implement the policy of employee engagement despite the fact that the requirements are quite common and easy to follow.[1] All of these factors separately or in a […]
• Profit and Capitalism on the Facebook Example Milton and Friedman’s school of thought discusses the power of the market in the sense that the majority of economic fallacies are driven by the lack of attention to simple insight and the tendency to […]
• Race and Ethnicity: Capitalism, Law, and Biology Stemming from the bigoted perspective that the colonialist thinking provided, legal regulations and biological theories have aggravated the quality of relationships between members of different racial and ethnic groups, creating the scenario in which the […]
• Capitalism and Its Influence on the Environment The characteristic will be determined by both benefits to the environment and the overall result for the company, as companies should implement the changes willingly. The results are expected to be a set of suggestions […]
• Economics: Socialism vs. Liberal Capitalism Karl Marx, a great proponent of socialism, refers to the ethical, economic, and political contribution of socialism to the welfare of the society in asserting his position on the debate of the best economic model.
• Federici’s “Caliban and the Witch” and Capitalism The main thesis of the book is multilayered and addresses the development of capitalism and the role women, as well as violence, played in the process.
• Weber’s “The Protestant Sects and the Spirit of Capitalism” Much of the book focuses on the concept of capitalism as witnessed in northern Europe and the United States of America due to the influence of the Protestants.
• David Harvey’s Movie “Crises of Capitalism?” According to the opinion of the expert, the problem is that every system has some risks and the crises that society is experiencing today are the result of how the conflicts were managed and mitigated […]
• 2008 Global Financial Crisis: Crises of Capitalism? Although I had an idea of the possible catalysts of the 2008 global financial meltdown before watching the video, Harvey presented a clear report of the events that occurred before the crisis and put them […]
• Karl Polanyi’s Theory: Market Systems Critique In the meantime, while Keynes simply rejects the potential of the invisible hand of the market, Polanyi develops this idea and comes to a conclusion that the liberalistic attempt to establish the self-regulating market system […]
• Keynes vs Hayek: Debating Economic Stability The pivot point of the Hayek’s theory is the consideration of those factors that illustrate the market’s failure to coordinate human’s actions in an appropriate manner and the consequences of this failure such as unemployment.
• Astrology in Socialist, Capitalist, Psychological Views The fact that many people overlook what astrologers do or say has resulted in the unavailability of information in the area of study.
• The Protestant Sects and the Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber At the time of producing the document, society expected its people to believe in something. The sociologist used the concept of Ascetic Protestantism to investigate the origin and nature of capitalism.

📌 Hot Capitalism Topics to Write about

• Chapters 4-6 of “After Capitalism” by D. Schweickart Also, the act of democracy does not seem to have any place in such a system since individuals who are wealthy take over the control of every process.
• Chapters 1-3 of “After Capitalism” by Schweickart According to the author, moral and pragmatic failures of capitalism are vividly evident in the modern world. In order to comprehend these lessons, it is necessary to compare and contrast socialism both in the 20th […]
• Economy of Capitalism, Communism, Fascism and Socialism Government structure: the structure of the government in the two countries, involves federal governments that are led by the political elites in the countries. The government has the duty of formulating policies that regulate the […]
• “Capitalism and Freedom” by Milton Friedman In turn, the competition will be one of the factors that can improve the quality of education. Moreover, the increased competition can make school administrators more responsive to the suggestions and critique of parents who […]
• “State Capitalism Comes of Age” by Ian Bremmer Thus, Bremmer concentrates on the discussion of the opposition of the models realized in such countries as Russia, China, Brazil, and India with basing on the principles of state capitalism and the model of free […]
• Labor Market, Social Organizations and Wages in Capitalism Therefore, employers are forced to pay efficiency wages to increase work intensity and the cost of job loss. The intention is to reduce wages as employees are pressurized to work harder and to the extreme.
• Socialist vs. Capitalist Approach to Social Issues Capitalism also refers to a system where the economy is independent of the state. In a Socialist economy, the intellectual property belongs to the government.
• “Redeeming Capitalism” by Kenneth J. Barnes With such gaps, the central thesis of the text is that there is a need for the global society to combine aspects of morality and ethics with modern capitalism and ensure that it meets the […]
• Capitalism in Poland and Its Transitional Stage The decades of socialism had a significant impact on the transition countries and resulted in the lack of institutions involved in the provision of the functioning of a market economy.
• Stakeholder and Shareholder Capitalism Models In the shareholder capitalism model, shareholder interests are the main concern, while in stakeholder model shareholder interest is on equal ground with concerns and interests of other stakeholders, such as the community, the employees, the […]
• Protestantism, Capitalism, and Predestination Calvinism and Predestination are central to the book because Weber considers the actions and beliefs of Calvinists as two of the major factors in the development of capitalism.
• Saving Capitalism: Its Role in Modern World This type of economic structure is called capitalistic, and one of its central conditions is the right to private property and free trade within the limits of the norms established by the law.
• Capitalism in Flux: Reevaluating Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand In the meantime, the latest change in the economic trends shows that the economist’s expectations were inflated as well as the potential that he assigned to the free market turned out to be exaggerated.
• The Destructive Nature of Capitalism The author emphasizes the tendency in the modern popular culture to humanize the technological aspects of our lives, probably in order to compensate for the exacerbated violence and a lack of compassion that human beings […]
• Poverty: An Echo of Capitalism Poverty is a word that has always been a part of people’s lives at different stages of the development of human society. Relative poverty is often defined as the lack of material resources needed to […]
• The Dutch Republic and Capitalism The production of silk brought by merchants from China to Italy and Turkey is an excellent example of the influence that merchants had during that time period.
• Capitalism in Milanovic’s and Ferguson’s Views Other economists establish that there is a need for the government to intervene to avoid the risk of monopolies. The question of wages in labor also calls for the intervention of the government to make […]
• Nature, Technology, Society, and Capitalism For the majority of human history, the approach towards the relationship between Humanity and Nature was perceived through the lens of binary interactions.
• Division of Labor: Aspects of Capitalism The paper then focuses on the differences between the social division of labor and the detailed division of labor. It is important to look at the difference between the social division of labor and the […]
• Capitalism in Marx’s, Weber’s, Durkheim’s Theories Conceptualizing change as a feature of social modernity using analogies such as growth, cyclical renewal, progress, modernity, development, and evolution gives us presuppositions for understanding the world and the concept of individual, society, and culture. […]
• Russia’s Transition to Capitalism First, lack of a robust system of property rights was the greatest drawback to the successful implementation of the transition policies. Russia experienced the assassination of famous economists and lawyers that advocated the transition from […]
• The Development of Capitalism in Canada To begin with, Pentland states that by the middle of the nineteenth century there were a plenty of signs indicating that the changes of the course of the economy “had gone too far to be […]
• Society, Culture, Economy in “Capitalism” Mini-Series While certain points, such as the historical, sociological, and anthropological grounds for the Smith’s work are persuasive and present a solid basis for further inquiry, some of the conclusions, such as the inherent malevolence of […]
• Capitalism and Its Influence on Globalization Some of the approaches in the varieties of capitalism include the modernization approach. Varieties of capitalism approach help in the study of globalization and employment relations.
• “The Protestant Sects and the Spirit of Capitalism” by Weber While faith was a consideration, if one was found to be unreliable in their business dealings, it could result in their ex-communication or denial of admittance into the congregation.
• Capitalism in Adam Smith’s and Karl Marx’s Views Specifically, the paper examines some of the key concepts and the underlying assumptions of each theorist concerning factors that drive capitalism in the 21st century. The rise of capitalism in the 21st century is largely […]
• Globalization, Art and Capitalism It would seem that the cultural legacy of humanity was an indispensable and logically integrated part of the process and it was, up to a certain point in history.
• Karl Marx: Critique of Capitalism His point of view was that the globalization would inevitably lead to the concentration of wealth in the hands of relatively small groups of economic actors, and that will entail the emergence of the economic […]
• Varieties of Capitalism – Comparative Advantages It is important to recognize that corporate governance is subjected to change as shown by the case of Germany and Japan in the 1990s.
• Shared Value Capitalism by Porter and Kramer Though the authors could have been more precise, the article can be regarded as effective as it provides a brief account of the concept of shared value. In conclusion, it is possible to note that […]
• Capitalism and Just Eat It Documentaries Contrast They should scrutinize the impacts of the film and highlight how it depicts its subjects. They emphasize the necessity for leftover reduction in the documentary.
• The Effects of Capitalism on People’s Diet Food capitalism has brought about new changes in the human diet and has changed the nutritional value of foods eaten by human beings.
• Evolution of Capitalism: Concept, Origin and Development The central idea in the ‘Evolution of Capitalism’ is that western society is archetypical of a radical change and gradual development of the capitalist system.
• Capitalism in the US: Criticism and Alternative In the beginning of the 19th century, there was a labor movement that is described by the organized approach from people to the businesses and governments.
• Globalization and Its Impact on Capitalism
• Documentaries – Capitalism: A Love Story by Michael Moore
• Capitalism and Globalization Effects
• Capitalism Spirit and the Protestant Ethic
• Capitalism in Canadian Society
• History Fukuzawa Yukishi: From Samurai to Capitalist
• Capitalism Versus Environmental Sustainability
• Capitalism Critique: Revisiting Joan Robinson’s Economic Theories
• Marxist Critique of Capitalism: Expropriation of Surplus Value
• Clean Capitalism in Organizations
• Weber and the Rise of Capitalism
• Natural Capitalism in Economic
• Relationship Between Capitalism and a Logically Formal Rational Legal System
• Marxist Critiques of Capitalism: Theory of Surplus Value
• Socialist Market Economy of China Shift Toward Capitalism
• Robert Brenner on the Development of Capitalism
• Biggart and Swedberg Views on Capitalist Development
• The Transition of Russia to Capitalism
• Capitalism: Theoretical and Operational Limitations
• The Role of Capitalism and the Life of Workers: XX Century
• Global Capitalism and Its Discontent
• Market Structure during Post-Mao China: Capitalism or Socialism?
• Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Dynamic Capitalism
• Marxists’ Critique of Crises With the Capitalist System
• Climate Change: Is Capitalism the Problem or the Solution?
• Taxes, Capitalism, and Democracy: Karl Marx vs. Plato
• Racial Capitalism and Colonialism
• Racial Capitalism and Colonialism in African Diasporic Culture and Western Culture
• Capitalist Societies Economic Disparities
• How Is Today’s Capitalism Society Changed by the “New Left?”
• Video Report “China’s Capitalist Revolution”
• Capitalism in Modern Societies
• The Political and Economic Spheres in Capitalist Societies
• The Global Financial Crisis and Capitalism for the Elite Rich
• David Harvey About Capitalism
• Understanding Economics: The Nature and Logic of Capitalism
• Richard Sennett’s Account of the ‘New Capitalism’ in Relation to Current Organizations
• Labor in Capitalism System
• “New Capitalism” by Peston
• Economic Principles and Theories of Adam Smith: A Case for Free Markets and Capitalism
• Capitalism and World Inequality
• Weber’s Conception of the Capitalist Entrepreneur and the Modern Bureaucrat
• Capitalism Concept Evolution
• British Capitalism Development
• Capitalist Economy Support
• John Gray: Fast Capitalism and the End of Management
• Running Economies: Capitalism and Socialism
• Capitalist Economies in the US
• Scholars on the Effects of Capitalism
• Political Ideologies: Capitalism vs. Socialism
• Adam Smith’s Understanding of Capitalism
• Capitalism and Its Role in Commodity Exchange and Value
• Capitalism and Poverty
• Alienation and Capitalism
• Karl Marx: From Feudal Society to Modern Capitalism
• Capitalism: A Love Story: A Reflective Paper
• Development of the Atlantic Trade Triangle a Colonial Capitalism (Mercantilism)
• How Capitalism Beat Communism/Socialism
• Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism by Weber
• US Economic Success: Rise of Capitalism
• Capitalism: Exploitation of the Poor and Resource Monopoly
• Forced Labor and Free Enterprise on Sugar Plantations Created a Feudal and Capitalism Society

❓ Capitalism Research Paper Topics

• Why Has Liberal Capitalism Failed To Stimulate a Democratic Culture in Africa?
• What Is the Connection Between Capitalism and Modern Culture?
• How Government Policies Affected Global Capitalism?
• What Are the Positive and Negative Outcomes of Market Capitalism?
• How Does Capitalism Differ From Socialism?
• What Is the Connection Between Slavery, the Rise of Capitalism, and Colonization?
• What Is the Relationship Between Race and Capitalism?
• How Does Modern Capitalism Looks Like?
• Will Global Capitalism Fall Again?
• What Is the Relationship Between Capitalism and Democracy?
• How Capitalism Contributes Towards Unemployment?
• What Is the Difference and Similarity Between Socialism and Capitalism?
• How Does Shared Capitalism Affect Economic Performance in the UK?
• Why Doesn’t Capitalism Flow to Poor Countries?
• How Does Capitalism Affect Population Growth?
• Did the New Deal Strengthen or Weakened the USA Capitalism?
• How Has the Rise of Capitalism Contributed to the Persistent Gender Inequity?
• How Can Capitalism Take Control of People’s Lives?
• What Is the Conflict Between Socialism and Capitalism?
• What Can Marx’s Work on Capitalism Tell Us About Modernity?
• How Does the Spirit of Capitalism Affect Stock Market Prices?
• How Capitalism and the Bourgeois Virtues Transformed and Humanized the Family?
• Who Are Capitalists and What Is Capitalism?
• How Does the Capitalism Influence the Debt of Developing Countries?
• Why Does Market Capitalism Fail To Deliver a Sustainable Environment and Greater Equality of Incomes?
• How Can Capitalism Save American Healthcare?
• How Slavery Shifted the Economy Towards Capitalism?
• How Has the Internet Changed Modern-Day Capitalism?
• Why China Chose the Socialism Instead of Capitalism as the Country Political System When Prc Was Established?
• How Capitalism Thwarts Creativity?
• Feudalism Titles
• Colonialism Essay Ideas
• Democracy Titles
• Fascism Questions
• Nazism Topics
• Socialism Ideas
• Totalitarianism Questions
• Marxism Essay Ideas
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

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HISTORY Gr. 11 T1 W5: Capitalism in USA 1900-1940

Capitalism in USA 1900-1940

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In Architecture from Below , Sérgio Ferro’s lectures and writings address the relationship between architecture and capitalist development

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“Courtiers of Capitalism”

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Architecture from Below: An Anthology | Sérgio Ferro | Edited by Silke Kapp and   Mariana Moura   Translated by Ellen Heyward and Ana Naomi de Sousa   | Mack Books   | $38  

Sérgio Ferro was schooled in a progressive vision of architecture. He learned from his teacher, the great Brazilian modernist Vilanova Artigas, that architecture should be “humane, magnanimous, and socially oriented,” or, “the primary art of a free people.” However, Ferro’s belief in the immediate possibility of realizing this vision was profoundly undermined by the experiences and circumstances of his youth. A new book published by MACK, titled Architecture from Below: An Anthology, tells this story through a collection of essays.

In 1957, Brazilian president Juscelino Kubitschek proposed a gargantuan project for a new capital city for the country. What Ferro and his collaborator Rodrigo Lefévre discovered working as architects at Brasilia, however, shook his faith in his profession. The appalling conditions in which construction workers were living and working stood in stark contradiction of the project’s intended social mission. When Brazil was shaken by the 1964 coup d’état that brought a right-wing military dictatorship to power, many on the left, including Ferro, took up armed struggle against the new regime. Serving a prison term for his actions, Ferro found himself in the company of jailed construction workers who shared with him their experiences of exploitation on building sites. After such experiences Ferro determined he could no longer practice architecture. “For the sake of coherence,” he wrote, “it would have been impossible to continue designing projects while denouncing the exploitative role of design.”

From such experiences Ferro forged a unique perspective on architecture. Appositely captured in the title of this anthology, Architecture from Below , his lectures and writings address the relationship between architecture and capitalist development from the perspective of their conditions of production. This perspective, framed through Ferro’s Marxism, affords important insights into the discipline, the profession, and its relations with capitalism. Until now, these writings were largely unavailable to English readers. These insights bear substantially on the history of architecture, from the late medieval period up to the present, yet they also suggest critical frameworks with which to grasp contemporary issues in architectural labor.

Edited by Silke Kapp and Mariana Moura and translated by Ellen Heyward and Ana Naomi de Sousa, Architecture from Below: An Anthology collates essays by Ferro spanning the period from 1967 to 2014 (with two further volumes already in preparation). Accompanied by illustrations and footnotes, these writings range across the author’s research into the politics and history of architecture, as well as the history of art. Ferro’s overriding concern might well be described as seeking to trace the circumstances and conditions through which architecture came to be a practice distinct from that of construction. To this end, he locates the emergence of the modern figure of the architect in the Italian Renaissance, as a product of the class struggles being played out at this time.

Ferro’s critical history of architectural production, and indeed the historical production of the architect, is relayed across several essays in this anthology. Rather than charting a linear narrative, these essays overlap in their historical content but address this across a range of themes and concerns. Taking the reader from the late medieval period to the present day, their cumulative effect presents a substantial challenge to the received historiography of architecture.

Among Ferro’s overriding concerns is the identification of how and why architecture came to be a practice distinct from that of building. Up until the late medieval period, the various building trades enjoyed a substantial degree of autonomy in the organization and execution of their work. The labor of these workers came, though, to be increasingly directed and determined by external and exploitative social actors. Especially in the development of techniques of architectural drawing—as a means to plan and project building works with and for a wealthy class of patrons—architects accomplished the separation of design from construction, of knowledge from execution. The work of building was effectively deskilled and the status of builders correspondingly diminished.

For good reason Ferro bluntly describes architects then and now as “courtiers of capitalism.” Filippo Brunelleschi is called out for special attention in this respect, particularly for the control he exerted over construction workers in building the famous cupola of the Santa Maria del Fiori in Florence. In the service of patrons wanting to mark their victory over the ciompi workers’ uprising of 1378–1382, Brunelleschi “hired workers from a neighboring city in order to break a local strike for higher salaries—only allowing the locals to return once they accepted even lower wages (thus increasing absolute surplus-value).”

The turn from gothic to classicism in the architecture of the Renaissance, seen from the perspective of the building site, also appears in a different cast from that of its usual historical treatment. Rather than marking a significant stage in a linear progression of styles, Ferro argues in the essays “From Strasbourg to Paris” and “From Paris to Dubai,” the turn to classicism was a means for architects to make the existing crafts skills of the stonemason, familiar only in working with the traditional forms of the gothic, redundant. An entire workforce was robbed of skills that it could once have used to negotiate better conditions and compensation for its work. Ferro argued that “[t]he workers from the Gothic period knew the rules, made a fair income, worked only nine months of the year, and above all, were in full possession of their priceless know-how. For the nascent economy, this was unacceptable. These workers had to be tamed, dominated.”

Ferro applies this same logic to our view of the late-19th- and early-20th-century transition from wood and stone to steel and concrete, as addressed in the essay “Concrete as Weapon.” Rather than straightforwardly signaling architecture’s embrace of modernity, these new materials were wielded as weapons in a class war waged by capital against the construction worker. Working in modern materials required different, more abstract forms of knowledge: calculations, structural studies, precise technical details, and exact quantities. The change in building materials thereby transferred knowledge, and with it power, again from workers to architects and engineers and from the building site to the studio or office.

Mobilizing a Marxist understanding of political economy, Ferro effectively captures the logic of class struggle driving these developments: “This turnaround reinforced relative surplus-value, meeting capital’s interests in the face of the increasing pressure for shortening the workday, that is, reducing absolute surplus value.”

Ferro also criticizes changes in the outward appearance and material composition of architecture as dishonest and illogical. Classicism conceals the labor of building. Concrete is used counter to the “logic of construction.” “The design which places itself in front of the real construction,” Ferro argues, “has the tendency to appear as a mask.” This line of argument, though, tends to be conflated by Ferro with Marx’s theory of commodity fetishism: where a commodity appears as the immediate expression of its own economic value. Of course, this value is really the product of labor. The “aesthetic dimension” of architecture, Ferro argued, “has an essential subterraneous function for capital: It deviates attention from the place and the moment where the dramatic extortion of surplus value occurs.”

Capitalism is an upside-down world where relationships between things really do dominate those between people. The conflation of architectural appearance with commodity fetishism (Ferro is not the first or the only one to have done this) has the unfortunate effect of implying that addressing the issues of one would resolve those of the other. It would not. Neither by following the logic of construction, nor by allowing the unconcealed expression of labor, could architecture actively undo its role in producing and accumulating value. Even if we know how and where value is so cruelly extorted from the construction worker, the architecture in question serves capitalism no less effectively.

Ferro’s larger perspectives concerning the class-based distribution of knowledge and technique remain pertinent. Many architects today find themselves now subject to deskilling—reduced to drones of design software to which they must accommodate themselves as their labor in large and globalized practices is increasingly directed by a small elite. Ferro’s understanding of the relations between capital, labor, and design could not be more important or essential to this predicament, making this new book required reading.

Doug Spencer is a critical theorist of architecture working on his next book, Form and Fetish: Architecture and the Ends of Capitalism (Bloomsbury Academic, 2025).

Mahdi Sabbagh’s Their Borders, Our World explores Palestine through the lens of architects, journalists, and scholars

An exhibition about Robert Caro’s The Power Broker debuts this fall at New-York Historical Society for the book’s 50th anniversary

A new AR-guided collection of essays defines “Purpleness” in architecture

New York Times Editorial Board: Biden should drop out after debate with Donald Trump

The New York Times Editorial Board is calling for President Joe Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential race after his disastrous debate performance Thursday night with former President Donald Trump.

"The United States needs a stronger opponent to the presumptive Republican nominee," said the Times editorial board, which operates separately from its newsroom. Editorial writers cited the "stakes for the country and the uneven abilities of Mr. Biden."

Biden's debate performance against Trump Thursday night has sparked panic amongst Democrats and numerous calls for him to step down from the presidential ticket. His voice sounded unsteady and feeble and he noticeably froze while attempting to answer a question about the economy.

The Times argues in its op-ed piece that "the president is engaged in a reckless gamble," adding that "it's too big a bet to simply hope Americans will overlook or discount Mr. Biden's age and infirmity that they see with their own eyes."

Biden attempted to reframe the debate at a boisterous campaign rally in Raleigh, N.C. on Friday, where he addressed the sparring match with Trump. "I know I'm not a young man − to state the obvious," Biden said. "Folks, I don't walk as easy as I used to. I don't speak as smoothly as I used to. I don't debate as well as I used to. But I know what I do know: I know how to tell the truth."

Biden vowed not to drop out of the campaign and said he was confident he could do the job if reelected. If he were to serve a full second term, he would be 86 by the time he left office. Trump, 78, and Biden are the oldest presumptive nominees for president in American history.

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Defendants Acquitted in Panama Papers Money-Laundering Trial

The case focused on the law firm at the heart of the 2016 scandal, in which leaked documents revealed a vast network of offshore tax havens.

By Leila Miller

Reporting from Mexico City

In a striking verdict for a money-laundering case associated with the Panama Papers scandal, a Panamanian judge on Friday acquitted all 28 defendants, among them former employees of the law firm Mossack Fonseca, the source of the leaked documents that set off a worldwide furor in 2016.

The verdict came eight years after a partnership of media outlets published an explosive investigation into 11.5 million documents leaked from the Panama-based firm. The leak exposed the offshore banking industry, prompted international tax investigations and brought down heads of state.

Among the original 29 defendants were the shuttered firm’s co-founders, Jürgen Mossack, 76, and Ramón Fonseca, who died in May at age 71 while awaiting the verdict. In her 339-page ruling, the judge, Baloísa Marquínez, said that the case against Mr. Fonseca was dropped because of his death.

Prosecutors had alleged that Mossack Fonseca had created shell companies with the purpose of hiding money earned in illicit activities, and that the firm failed to act with due diligence and take the necessary care when reviewing its clients.

In a written statement published Friday evening, Panama’s judicial branch said that the judge had found that electronic evidence presented by prosecutors did not meet chain of custody protocols and had suffered from authentication issues. It also said that the judge had not found sufficient evidence to hold the accused responsible.

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Opinion: As conservatives target same-sex marriage, its power is only getting clearer

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It’s been two years since the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the Dobbs case that overturned the federal right to an abortion, and the troubling concurring opinion by Justice Clarence Thomas in which he expressed a desire to “revisit” other landmark precedents, including the freedom to marry for same-sex couples, codified nationally by the Obergefell Supreme Court decision, nine years ago Wednesday

Since that ruling, the LGBTQ+ and allied community has done much to protect the fundamental freedom to marry — passing the Respect for Marriage Act in Congress in 2022; sharing their stories this year to mark the 20th anniversary of the first state legalization of same-sex marriages, in Massachusetts; and in California , Hawaii and Colorado launching ballot campaigns to repeal dormant but still-on-the-books anti-marriage constitutional amendments.

California Democratic Party endorses ballot measures on same-sex marriage, taxes, rent control

The party’s executive board voted Sunday on which measures they would endorse.

May 19, 2024

This winter, I worked with a team at the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law to survey nearly 500 married LGBTQ+ people about their relationships. Respondents included couples from every state in the country; on average they had been together for more than 16 years and married for more than nine years. Sixty-two percent married after the court’s 2015 Obergefell marriage decision, although their relationships started before before that. More than 30% of the couples had children and another 25% wanted children in the future.

One finding that jumped out of the data: Almost 80% of married same-sex couples surveyed said they were “very” or “somewhat” concerned about the Obergefell decision being overturned. Around a quarter of them said they’d taken action to shore up their family’s legal protections — pursuing a second-parent adoption, having children earlier than originally planned or marrying on a faster-than-expected timeline — because of concerns about marriage equality being challenged. One respondent said, “We got engaged the day that the Supreme Court ruled on the Dobbs decision and got married one week after.”

World & Nation

Same-sex marriage ruling creates new constitutional liberty

The Supreme Court’s historic ruling Friday granting gays and lesbians an equal right to marry nationwide puts an exclamation point on a profound shift in law and public attitudes, and creates the most significant and controversial new constitutional liberty in more than a generation.

June 26, 2015

As we examined the survey results, it became clearer than ever why LGBTQ+ families and same-sex couples are fighting so hard to protect marriage access — and the answer is really quite simple: The freedom to marry has been transformative for them. It has not only granted them hundreds of additional rights and responsibilities, but it has also strengthened their bonds in very real ways.

Nearly every person surveyed (93%) said they married for love; three-quarters added that they married for companionship or legal protections. When asked how marriage changed their lives, 83% reported positive changes in their sense of safety and security, and 75% reported positive changes in terms of life satisfaction. “I feel secure in our relationship in a way I never thought would be possible,” one participant told us. “I love being married.”

The evolution of same-sex marriage

I’ve been studying LGBTQ+ people and families for my entire career — and even still, many of the findings of the survey touched and inspired me.

Individual respondents talked about the ways that marriage expanded their personal family networks, granting them (for better and worse!) an additional set of parents, siblings and loved ones. More than 40% relied on each other’s families of origin in times of financial or healthcare crisis, or to help out with childcare. Some told of in-laws who provided financial assistance to buy a house, or cared for them while they were undergoing chemotherapy for cancer.

Analysis:: Antonin Scalia’s dissent in same-sex marriage ruling even more scornful than usual

The legal world may have become inured to wildly rhetorical opinions by Justice Antonin Scalia, but his dissent in the Supreme Court’s same-sex marriage decision Friday reaches new heights for its expression of utter contempt for the majority of his colleagues.

And then there was the effect on children. Many respondents explained that their marriage has provided security for their children, and dignity and respect for the family unit. Marriage enabled parents to share child-rearing responsibilities — to take turns being the primary earner (and carrying the health insurance), and spending more time at home with the kids.

The big takeaway from this study is that same-sex couples have a lot on the line when it comes to the freedom to marry — and they’re going to do everything possible to ensure that future political shifts don’t interfere with their lives. As couples across the country continue to speak out, share their stories — and in California, head to the ballot box in November to protect their hard-earned freedoms — it’s clear to me that it’s because they believe wholeheartedly, and with good reason, that their lives depend on it.

Abbie E. Goldberg is an affiliated scholar at the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law and a psychology professor at Clark University, where she directs the women’s and gender studies.

More to Read

Your guide to Proposition 3: Affirming gay marriage in California’s Constitution

July 5, 2024

Opinion: Interracial marriage went from criminal to commonplace. Could it go back?

June 9, 2024

Newsom urges California voters to protect same-sex marriage amid Supreme Court distrust

June 7, 2024

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