3/11/21

In reply to 'did capitalism build civilization?'

The historian Arnold Toynbee wrote that 23 civilizations have existed in world history. One could argue that some ancient ones existed for reasons other than monetary policy or the form of economy reasonably well in some of the ancient empires like that of Sumeria and Egypt, or rather, the form of social organization was more important than a free market. When kings, emperors and royals owned everything trade and work still occurred yet there was sometimes no middle class of capitalists building up their wealth ; many people were still slaves. Political liberation and freedom from idol worship needed to develop before people could conduct their lives in civilization with more autonomy.

One might alternatively argue rather realistically that capital is anything of value, so a social order that increases to reach a level recognized as a civilization implicitly had to build up capital in the form of structures, people, ideas, culture etc. The state and political economy may have many forms of production, ownership, political power, allocation of resources. Exclusivity can take many forms too- even socialism and communism have elements of exclusivity in economics.

Toynbee in his last major work wrote that there is just one world civilization today. It has a lot of capital.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2lJUOv0hLA fall of Summeria



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