(Why) Americans Don’t Understand What Capitalism Really Is

Or, How The Opposite of Capitalism Isn’t Socialism — It’s My Local Record Store

Feb 21, 2019 · 11 min read

Here’s tiny question. Across the street from me, a while ago, a little record shop, with a charming little cafe in the back, opened up. Confession time, my friends love it. They go there to have little coffees and buy some vinyl and just generally pootle around.

Now, as far as I can see, there’s a huge difference between the local hipster record store across the street from me, and Goldman Sachs. They couldn’t be more different — sharks in bad suits, versus aging hipsters and folk guitar nights. Yet we’re supposed to think they’re both “capitalism.” Are both these things really “capitalism”? If they are — aren’t we failing to think clearly or well about the subject at all, because we’ve lumped two things that are totally dissimilar together? If you agree with me that my local record store seems a whole lot like the opposite of Goldman Sachs — you should also agree that it’s the opposite of capitalism, and therefore, the opposite of capitalism isn’t socialism, but my little record store.

And yet I read a tweet today that went like this: “the problem isn’t capitalism! It’s this rigged system! America’s never been socialist and never will be!” Sigh. My friends, let me say this gently. Americans have no idea what capitalism actually is, and that is a big part of America’s troubles. Americans have the same relationship to capitalism as the Soviets did to socialism — since it’s the only idea allowed in society, nobody really understands or thinks about it well at all. One consequence of growing up in a Soviet society — in this case capitalism, not communism — is that people grow miseducated about that very system. It becomes all things, everything, and in the end, nothing.
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https://eand.co/why-americans-dont-understand-what-capitalism-really-is-155ab92203d8