Memes

45661 readers

1991 users here now

Rules:

Be civil and nice.
Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

577

Capitalism (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

25 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I don't care for capitalism, but Adam Smith was an abolitionist. He absolutely hated slavery because he believed it to be immoral firstly, and economically inefficient secondly. He couldn't prove the second part, but once someone at either Cambridge or Oxford did manage to prove it, Great Britain and Europe outlawed slavery. Again, I'm not defending capitalism here, and I'm certain, from the tone of The Theory of Moral Sentiments, that, were he alive today, Smith would be railing against Capitalism. I'm just pointing out that it was supposed to be abolished far quicker than The Civil War.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

Slave labor didn't stop being integral element after the Civil War. It was scaled back, but it's still both locally an integral element of the economies of many states (via prison labor, to say nothing of how under-the-table migrant dealings go) and via imperialism, etc. used abroad.

I'm not attacking Smith. The "invisible hand" thing is silly and short-sighted, but his work more broadly was the foundation for Marx economically. I'm attacking capitalism as it has existed in history, where it has virtually always used slave labor as an integral element.