I agree. People who say, "nuhuh, capitalism works!" are 99% of the time thinking of the basic concept of markets or money. Which ... Very specifically, are NOT capitalism.

They are used (and abused) by capitalists, but they are not inventions of capitalists.

[–] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

Reason 1 that I'm happy to ditch reddit for Lemmy completely is watching these ideas explained by other people, every day.

Not having to explain the difference between capitalism and commerce feels 😩🔥

[–] SuckMyWang@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

So what’s the difference between capitalism and markets? I would have thought the freer the market the more capitalistic it was, not so much that there’s a separation of the two.

[–] Cowbee@lemm.ee 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Ownership of Capital. Capitalism has markets, but not all market systems are Capitalist.

Market Socialism, for example, has competing worker-owned entities like Co-operatives in a market system, with no Capitalists.

Capitalism is a relatively new phenomena in the grand scheme of things.

[–] SuckMyWang@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Can a cooperative compete in a capitalist market? As in shouldn’t the better system win out in a free market?

[–] Cowbee@lemm.ee 1 points 11 months ago

Kind of. The market can have Capitalist entities and Socialist entities, but the market itself isn't Capitalist.
Not necessarily. Co-operatives are more difficult to start in a predominantly Capitalist system, and Capitalist entities usually can exploit their workers more in order to gain temporary competitive advantage. I don't believe this is sufficient reasoning to value Capitalism over Socialist entities.

I'm not a Market Socialist, for clarification, as I do think there are issues. However, Capitalism isn't markets.