Nine Fundamental Problems or Failures of Capitalism

The term capitalism was originally coined by Karl Marx as a derisive strawman caricature of the system which allowed exploitive factory owners and managers to abuse and underpay the able bodied yet often desperate work force in England.

While the term capitalism has really never been exactly defined, the term was quickly adopted by “the capitalists” as a badge of honor, not for their exploitation of the work force, but for the production efficiency and economic good it produced for England overall.

The plain fact is that the economic system which produced the first and second industrial revolutions has resulted in a dramatic general improvement in the standards of living for essentially everyone in western society, including the arguably exploited working classes and the poor and impoverished classes in those societies.

While it is true that, that system has also resulted in many injustices and an ever growing disparity between wealthiest and the poorest classes in society, the glaring reality is that the poor in modern Western countries are living far above the conditions their predecessors lived in 3 centuries ago.

Despite the outstandingly net good results that system has produced, capitalism has some fundamental flaws which its promoters seem hellbent to deny or ignore. There seems to be scant middle ground these days on this subject.

Follow the links below to explore first an example of good proto-capitalism, the Zeroth Industrial Revolution, and then the subsequent links to a discussion of the nine fundamental problems and failures that have resulted from capitalism.