I'm in a weird place in that I'm wondering if I should simply stop using the word "capitalism."
Capitalism and Socialism are kinda, as part of our lexicon, experiencing the same phenomenon of having almost zero meaning while also being polarizing.
Socialists point to Denmark as a socialist economy despite objections from it's own prime minister and the fact that Copenhagen literally translated to "merchant's harbour."
Socialists also insist that Nazi Germany was capitalist despite it being way less free market than modern Denmark.
So, isn't that the thing? "Free market" falls into the spectrum of "capitalism" while being more specific. Do we just jettison "capitalism" as a word in favor of "free market?"
Well, here's the problem, an all too large swath of the population seems to embraced the tactic of giving up words and symbols to bad people. One racist asshole used an "okay" hand gesture, which has been around for decades, and suddenly anybody who uses it gets labeled a "racist" by these people.
The smart thing, to me, seems to be that sensible people shouldn't give up words and symbols so easily.
Yeah, give the swastika back to the Buddhists and the Jains--don't let the Nazis have it. Give the "okay" gesture back to divers--don't let the Nazis have it.
It's possibly the same with "capitalism." Don't let the freaking communists have it and turn it into something ugly.
But, maybe it's more expedient to let them have it and use another term.
Maybe, but the term "capitalism" was invented by Marx anyway.
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