KARL MARX AND CAPITALISM
49 pages
Sample pages
Introduction
The fear Americans generally have of any other form of government except their own comes from lack of information. This is a shame because as citizens we should know how other countries govern to see where we can improve, at the risk of being manipulated by leaders who do not have our best interest in mind.
Sometimes the only way to learn is the hard way. It seems like the world has to periodically go through great turmoil, and just when we thought the horror of the last War was lesson enough we are once again in for some serious grief. Our only hope is to rebuild with a better understanding of how we got into to this mess in the first place. Thomas Jefferson said that a democracy can only work if the population is informed, so let’s begin.
Let us prove that what we’ve been taught is correct, that we are truly the most advanced country as leader of the free world. The following pages compare systems of governance in Europe and where we stand in the scales (health care, education, prisons…). It details the relationship between Russia and the United States, the trajectory of the State of Israel since its conception, and why we have so many refugees at the border.
First a brief history on the rise of Capitalism, a term coined in 1776 by the Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith, when he wrote "The Wealth of Nations".
The Crusades and The Black Death
The Crusades, which lasted one hundred ninety-six years and ended in 1291, opened new trade routes and an increased demand for goods from the East, with Italy profiting the most because of its numerous ports in the Mediterranean.
Though the Crusaders did not directly cause the bubonic plague they did contribute to the slow spread of the disease in the crowded cities. It seems that rats didn’t transmit it after all, but human fleas and lice were the likely culprits, where Europeans had no immunity. The pandemic started in 1346 and lasted seven years, one of the most fatal in human history where 50 million people perished, possibly fifty percent of the population with the majority coming from poor neighborhoods due to unsanitary conditions.
When the pandemic was over farmers, spared infection because of their isolation, moved to the cities where there was a demand for their services as domestics. The scarcity in the labor market allowed for better wages, which in turn improved the local economy.
With less competition all around came a growing middle-class and the bourgeoisie (whose main objective was to marry into nobility). Artisans in Florence also profited from less competition and formed Guilds, similar to unions.
At this point in history there were two ruling powers in Europe: the Popes and the Kings. To their dismay, a third group appeared. Certain merchant families in Italy were meddling in their affairs.
The Renaissance and Banking
The increased number of trade routes to the East saw the accumulation of capital and the development of large-scale trade networks, especially in Italy where merchant families had direct access to the ports, notably the Visconti and Sforza in Milan, the Borgia and Della Rovere in Rome, the Gonzaga in Lombardy, and the Medici in Florence.
They funded public buildings, sponsored artists and translators (to translate the works of Plato and Aristotle into Latin) and provided financial support for defence. Fourteenth century Italy was divided into city-states that were constantly attempting to invade their neighbors, and Florence was the grand prize. One solution to keep the city from being plundered was mediation where Florence paid a ransom (where Machiavelli came in). If that failed, mercenary armies were employed (condottieri) or alliances were formed.
To manage accounts and to make transactions simpler regionally some families opened banks. To avoid the Church’s ban on interest - only the Templars and the Jews could loan money with interest - the Medici Bank came up with the bill of exchange, which made the family the wealthiest in Europe.
In England, the industrialization of mass enterprise from the 16th to the 18th century created a system in which accumulated capital was invested to increase productivity.
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Beers and Breweries
Americans in the colonies drank roughly three times as much alcohol as modern Americans, primarily beer and cider. Beer was the most popular drink because water in the towns was rife with bacteria, including something disgusting called black vomit. Drinking water meant risking one's life, and even children drank a cider with molasses, called ciderkin.
Which made the tavern the logical place to meet. It also kept the mail, acted as a courtroom and allowed people to catch up on the latest political news. When young Paul Revere rode around to announce the arrival of the English, he’d naturally stop at the towns’ taverns where he’d be offered a drink. Hopefully it put some of the edge off his untimely death.
George Washington had a brewery at Mount Vernon where he distilled a brown beer that he shared with friends, sold locally, and offered to voters when he was running for office, as was the practice with candidates at the time.
Though Benjamin Franklin was careful to advise temperance, he was open about his love of “the cups” and may have invented the cocktail. His Drinkers' Dictionary, printed in 1737 in the Pennsylvania Gazette, made him America's first food and beverage writer.
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Capitalism and the Industrial Revolution
The industrial Revolution, which started around the mid 1800s, propelled the expansion of capitalism (where individuals invest capital to produce goods for profit). What resulted was a small number of individuals came to possess enormous wealth and power, while factory workers laboured under dangerous conditions with low wages.
Immigration during the Industrial Revolution
Coinciding with the formation of industries came the Potato Famine of 1845. Fleeing starvation, an estimated two million Irish and 10,000 Italians from southern Italy arrived on American soil. Most remained where they landed on the East Coast as they lacked funds to go any further, and work was available in the factories.
The first communities to settle on the American continent were the Puritans in the 1630s. They tried, and for a while managed, to influence the English government to enforce their religion where music, dancing and the theatre were forbidden (Shakespeare was banned). Failing to enforce their rules in England, they headed to the New World where they were uncontested for two hundred years until this immigration thing happened.
For the Puritans, the Pope represented everything that was evil, and called him the Antichrist, so imagine the consternation when the Catholics arrived by the shiploads. If the immigrants found jobs as cheap labour in factories they were otherwise ostracized. A common sign was "No Irish Need Apply" (NINA) displayed in shop windows.
The Puritans vastly influenced American politics and shaped the national character of the country in what is called “the core of American values”.
