Talk:Capitalism

{{Template:Did you know nominations/Capitalism}}

Currently, there is no mention of minimum wages in the article. They are in nearly all developed economies. A pure free market capitalism does not set minimum wages. But pure free markets are rare.

So this could be mentioned and referenced in these sections:

• Capitalism#Modernity
• Capitalism#Wage labor
• Capitalism#Role of government

Some more useful links:

• List of countries by minimum wage

US states are the size of many countries:

• List of US states by minimum wage

And here is a useful chart:

File:US federal minimum wage if it had kept pace with productivity. Also, the inflation-adjusted minimum wage.png

The above chart might be useful in this section:

• Capitalism#Corporate per Corporate capitalism and Corporatocracy.

I probably will not be coming back to this article much if at all. So do what you will with these ideas and links. --Timeshifter (talk) 01:04, 17 January 2025 (UTC)

--Timeshifter (talk) 01:04, 17 January 2025 (UTC)

:Why would we add a mention of minimum wage on a article about capitalism, it has nothing to do with it, in fact the minimum wage is anti-capitalistic, so it seems odd to add it Jjbomb (talk) 09:04, 5 February 2025 (UTC)

::"Anti Capitalistic" is a weird phrase to describe something that exists in the entirety of the global north. There's nothing anti-capitalistic about minimum wage, should the capitalists decide it is needed for whatever reason.

::But, I do agree, however, that it is not needed to be discussed here. As the graph showed itself, for a bit, minimum wage kept pace with inflation, such a thing is theoretically possible under capitalism. It generally does not do so, because of things already mentioned in the article (profit motive, etc). Thus, although, it might be an example of capitalism's contemporary affect on labor, its probably better placed in the Neoliberalism article, if anywhere. Albassort2 (talk) 21:47, 29 March 2025 (UTC)

:::Capitalism is the private ownership of the means of production, a minimum wage goes against the private aspect as it stops private business from setting Private wages, it's kind of against it Jjbomb (talk) 03:54, 30 March 2025 (UTC)

Since when is work ethic exclusive to capitalism? Almost every society has encouraged work ethic and hard work. Feudalism encouraged work ethic. Slave masters encouraged work ethic. Decentralization also needs to be removed because state capitalism doesn't believe in decentralization. And private property is mentioned twice in the lede. First it says capitalism supports private property and a few words later it says it recognizes property rights. That's the same thing. The lede is full of inaccuracies and is redudant.

It also says capitalism supports production of commodities. Really? Almost every civilization encouraged mining commodities and metals and growing agricultural commodities. I didn't realize capitalism was around during the copper age.

The lede needs to be trimmed. Maybe make it simple and write that capitalism supports profit motive, capital accumulation, competitive markets, self interest, price system, commercialization and wage labor. 2601:940:C101:26B0:C903:C023:A313:85EB (talk) 06:26, 12 February 2025 (UTC)

:Ledes summarize content within the body, per MOS:LEAD. You're welcome to edit the body with verifiable and reliable sources before you update the lede. SmittenGalaxy | talk! 07:54, 12 February 2025 (UTC)

hello,first time contributing to Wikipedia, I would like to comment in the see also section.

you see, it seems like it has concept's ranging from basic capitalistic theory (free market's) anti capitalism (communism) labels given to capitalism by others critical of capitalism (corporatoracy, bailout capitalism) etc

there's nothing particularly wrong with these, however, I did notice, and this wasn't because I was against it or anything, that the section seemed to be too critical of capitalism. there's nothing wrong with it, again, but I'd expected to find more things related to capitalism like tariffs, mercantilism, banks, monetary systems, etc. maybe even some theories of value would be valued, you know?

as it stands, it seems like the section is also failing for NPOV error. namely, it names a bunch of concepts critical of capitalism but not so much that are at least neutral or even sympathetic to it.

I don't really like capitalism much myself but this section seemed to me like a bit of a stretch to add all those things like communism or de growth (that last one I'm writing from memory). Valentín days (talk) 18:53, 18 February 2025 (UTC)

:Several of those look essay-like (tagged as such) and are really not about capitalism. Many are just about "things gone wrong in the world" with the word "capitalism" added to the term even though they are not about capitalism. North8000 (talk) 19:43, 18 February 2025 (UTC)

The key characteristics of Capitalism in the current version (21st of Feb 2025) reads: "The defining characteristics of capitalism include private property, capital accumulation, competitive markets, price systems, recognition of property rights, self-interest, economic freedom, work ethic, consumer sovereignty, decentralized decision-making, profit motive, a financial infrastructure of money and investment that makes possible credit and debt, entrepreneurship, commodification, voluntary exchange, wage labor, production of commodities and services, and a strong emphasis on innovation and economic growth."

It is obvious that one can have many opions of what is and what isn't capitalism, as with most large-scale -isms. However, I reacted on "decentralized decision-making", to my knowledge there is nothing inherent to capitalsim that suggests that it would be prone to decentralising decision-making, and I haven't seen many definitions venturing into this particular aspect of capitalism? 130.235.240.14 (talk) 12:18, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

:I analyzed the given sources and decentralized decision making was not included. Given it seems like original research, and contradictory to other reliable sources, I've removed it from the lead EarthDude (talk) 13:43, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

::That's an improvement. The original read like capitalism as a libertarian ideal, rather than as it actually operates. TFD (talk) 18:54, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

@Ideophagous reverted [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Capitalism&oldid=1290547607 my edit].

I do not believe this is correct, as, if, at this moment in time, you chose to go to the articles for socialism and communism, you would find that they clearly define said systems (under Marxist-Leninist definition) as ideologies, rather than systems. This displays a blatant bias in the article's representation (as it describes capitalism as a system, rather than an ideology), and I thus believe my edit to be necessary in order to properly comply to WP:POV.

Additionally, it would simply be naïve to refuse to accept the fact that not only communism and socialism are ideologies, but capitalism is as well. Regardless of whether there is a system on which the ideology is based, the concept itself describes the ideology that defends the system, not the system itself. What is the system in capitalism is not capitalism itself, but the market et cetera. Capitalism is, and will always remain, an ideology. 88.19.93.19 (talk) 13:53, 15 May 2025 (UTC)

:The definition of capitalism is much narrower and mechanistic than communism and socialism. Those other components in the latter is why they are commonly called ideologies. North8000 (talk) 13:58, 15 May 2025 (UTC)

:Regardless of personal opinions, Wikipedia's content is based on reliable sources, and editors must always be careful not to include any original research in the articles (even if an idea seems to "make sense" and it's tempting to include it). If most reliable sources agree to define capitalism as "a system", then that's what we should include. If reliable sources disagree, then various RS based POVs should be included, as long as they're given their due weight in the text. Ideophagous (talk) 14:15, 15 May 2025 (UTC)