Editing Capitalism (section)

== Criticism ==
{{Main|Criticism of capitalism}}
[[File:Anti-capitalism color— Restored.png|thumb|The [[Industrial Workers of the World]] poster "[[Pyramid of Capitalist System]]" (1911)]]
Criticism of capitalism comes from various political and philosophical approaches, including [[anarchist]], [[socialist]], [[religious]] and [[nationalist]] viewpoints.<ref>{{cite book|last=Tormey|first=Simon|title=Anticapitalism|publisher=One World Publications|year=2004|page=10|isbn=978-1-78074-250-2}}</ref> Of those who oppose it or want to modify it, some believe that capitalism should be removed through [[revolution]] while others believe that it should be changed slowly through [[Reformism|political reforms]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Book: Sociology (Boundless)|chapter=16.1C: The Marxist Critique of Capitalism|url=https://socialsci.libretexts.org/@go/page/8462|date=16 December 2020|publisher=LibreTexts|access-date=21 October 2021|quote=Revolutionary socialists believe that capitalism can only be overcome through revolution. Social democrats believe that structural change can come slowly through political reforms to capitalism.}}</ref><ref name="The Cambridge History of Communism p.">{{cite book | editor-last=Pons | editor-first=Silvio | editor-last2=Smith | editor-first2=Stephen A. | title=The Cambridge History of Communism | publisher=Cambridge University Press | date=21 September 2017 | isbn=978-1-316-13702-4 | doi=10.1017/9781316137024 | pages=49–73}}</ref>

Prominent critiques of capitalism allege that it is inherently [[Exploitation of labour|exploitative]],<ref name="competition">{{cite web|url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/condition-working-class/ch05.htm|title=Competition – The Condition of the Working Class in England|last=Engels|first=Frederick|access-date=10 March 2008}}</ref><ref name="stanfordexploitation">{{Cite web|date=20 December 2001|title=Exploitation|url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/exploitation/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201127091753/https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/exploitation/|archive-date=27 November 2020|access-date=26 December 2020|website=[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Mattei|first=Clara E.|date=2022 |title=The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism|pages=17–18|url=https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo181707138.html|location= |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]]|isbn=978-0-226-81839-9}}</ref> [[Marx's theory of alienation|alienating]],<ref>"Alienation." Pp. 10. in ''A Dictionary of Philosophy'' (rev. 2nd ed.). 1984.</ref> [[unstable]],<ref name="onfreetrade">{{cite web|url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1888/free-trade/index.htm|title=On the Question of Free Trade|last=Engels|first=Frederick|access-date=11 March 2008}}</ref><ref name="isrcrisis">{{cite web|url=http://www.isreview.org/issues/32/crisis_theory.shtml|title=Marx's Theory of Economic Crisis|last=Easterling|first=Earl|publisher=International Socialist Review|access-date=13 March 2008|archive-date=27 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210227033442/https://isreview.org/issues/32/crisis_theory.shtml|url-status=dead}}</ref> [[unsustainable]],<ref name="extinction">{{cite book|last=Dawson|first=Ashley|author-link=Ashley Dawson|title=Extinction: A Radical History|date=2016|publisher=[[OR Books]]|url=http://www.orbooks.com/catalog/extinction-by-ashley-dawson/|page=41|isbn=978-1-944869-01-4|access-date=20 August 2016|archive-date=17 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160917203814/http://www.orbooks.com/catalog/extinction-by-ashley-dawson/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Nelson |first=Anitra |date=31 January 2024 |title=Degrowth as a Concept and Practice : Introduction |url=https://commonslibrary.org/degrowth-as-a-concept-and-practice-introduction/ |access-date=24 February 2024 |website=The Commons Social Change Library |language=en-AU}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Earth at risk: An urgent call to end the age of destruction and forge a just and sustainable future |journal=PNAS Nexus |date=4 April 2024 |volume=3 |issue=4 |doi=10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae106 |url=https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/3/4/pgae106/7638480?login=false |access-date=4 April 2024|pmc=10986754 |last1=Fletcher |first1=Charles |last2=Ripple |first2=William J. |last3=Newsome |first3=Thomas |last4=Barnard |first4=Phoebe |last5=Beamer |first5=Kamanamaikalani |last6=Behl |first6=Aishwarya |last7=Bowen |first7=Jay |last8=Cooney |first8=Michael |last9=Crist |first9=Eileen |last10=Field |first10=Christopher |last11=Hiser |first11=Krista |last12=Karl |first12=David M. |last13=King |first13=David A. |last14=Mann |first14=Michael E. |last15=McGregor |first15=Davianna P. |last16=Mora |first16=Camilo |last17=Oreskes |first17=Naomi |last18=Wilson |first18=Michael |pages=pgae106 |pmid=38566756 }}</ref> and [[Economic efficiency|economically inefficient]]<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BlEpAQAAMAAJ|title=Beyond the Profits System: Possibilities for a post-capitalist era|last=Shutt|first=Harry|date=March 2010|publisher=Zed Books|isbn=978-1-84813-417-1}}</ref><ref name="isrwaste">{{cite web|url=http://www.isreview.org/issues/53/garbage.shtml|title=The Conquest of Garbage|last=Rogers|first=Heather|website=isreview.org|publisher=International Socialist Review (1997)|access-date=13 March 2008|archive-date=10 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210510142346/http://www.isreview.org/issues/53/garbage.shtml|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="part6">{{cite web|url=http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~reak/eco100/100_6.htm|title=Monopoly, Imperfect Competition, and Oligopoly|last=Rea|first=K.J.|access-date=11 March 2008|archive-date=12 June 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100612201706/http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~reak/eco100/100_6.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>—and that it creates massive [[economic inequality]],<ref name="King 2021">{{cite web|last=King|first=Matthew Wilburn|title=Why the next stage of capitalism is coming|website=BBC Future|date=25 May 2021|url=https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210525-why-the-next-stage-of-capitalism-is-coming|access-date=21 October 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Ghodsee|first1=Kristen|last2=Orenstein|first2=Mitchell A.|author-link1=Kristen Ghodsee|date=2021|title=Taking Stock of Shock: Social Consequences of the 1989 Revolutions|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|page=192|doi=10.1093/oso/9780197549230.001.0001 |isbn=978-0-19-754924-7|quote=Without an accompanying welfare state in which social programs funded by a progressive income tax redistribute from the rich to the poor, capitalism can be a deeply unfair system where a small, well-connected elite captures a majority of the wealth and power, and not necessarily through meritocratic processes.}}</ref> [[commodity|commodifies]] people,<ref name="openDemocracy">{{cite web | title=Commodification: the essence of our time | website=openDemocracy | url=https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/commodification-essence-of-our-time/ | access-date=21 October 2021 | author= Colin Leys | date = 2 April 2021}}</ref><ref name="Renegade Inc 2019">{{cite web | title=The Commodification of Everything | website=Renegade Inc | date=25 August 2019 | url=http://renegadeinc.com/the-commodification-of-everything/ | access-date=21 October 2021 | author=Daniel Margrain | archive-date=21 October 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211021224916/https://renegadeinc.com/the-commodification-of-everything/ | url-status=dead }}</ref> [[environmental degradation|degrades the environment]],<ref name="extinction" /><ref>{{cite book|last=Hickel|first=Jason|author-link=Jason Hickel|title=Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World |year=2021|publisher=Windmill Books|pages=39–40|isbn=978-1-78609-121-5|quote=It was only with the rise of capitalism over the past few hundred years, and the breathtaking acceleration of industrialization from the 1950s, that on a planetary scale things began to tip out of balance.}}</ref> is [[undemocratic]],<ref name="Merkel pp. 109–128">{{cite journal | last=Merkel | first=Wolfgang | title=Is capitalism compatible with democracy? | journal=Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft | publisher=Springer Science and Business Media LLC | volume=8 | issue=2 | date=26 July 2014 | issn=1865-2646 | doi=10.1007/s12286-014-0199-4 | pages=109–128| hdl=10419/270951 | s2cid=150776013 | hdl-access=free }}</ref><ref name="Reich 2009">{{cite web | last=Reich | first=Robert B. | title=How Capitalism Is Killing Democracy | website=Foreign Policy | date=12 October 2009 | url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2009/10/12/how-capitalism-is-killing-democracy/ | access-date=21 October 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Slobodian|first=Quinn |author-link=Quinn Slobodian|date=2023 |title=Crack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World Without Democracy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tIlrEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT10|location= |publisher=[[Henry Holt and Company|Metropolitan Books]]|page=10 |isbn=978-1-250-75389-2}}
</ref> embeds [[uneven and combined development|uneven]] and [[underdevelopment]] between nation states,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Patnaik |first1=Utsa |title='Neo-Marxian' Theories of Capitalism and Underdevelopment: Towards a Critique |journal=Social Scientist |date=1982 |volume=10 |issue=11 |pages=3–32 |doi=10.2307/3516858 |jstor=3516858 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3516858 |issn=0970-0293|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Warke |first1=Thomas W. |title=The Marxian Theory of Underdevelopment: A Review Article |journal=The Journal of Developing Areas |date=1973 |volume=7 |issue=4 |pages=699–710 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4190085#:~:text=it%20is%20Lenin%20who%20laid,modern%20Marxian%20theory%20of%20underdevelopment.&text=and%20tends%20to%20perpetuate%20the,masses%20in%20the%20backward%20country.&text=world%20production%20and%20trade%20and,dualisms%20within%20under%2D%20developed%20economies. |issn=0022-037X}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Martins |first1=Carlos Eduardo |title=The Longue Durée of the Marxist Theory of Dependency and the Twenty-First Century |journal=Latin American Perspectives |date=January 2022 |volume=49 |issue=1 |pages=18–35 |doi=10.1177/0094582X211052029 |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0094582X211052029 |language=en |issn=0094-582X|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Peck |first1=Jamie |last2=Varadarajan |first2=Latha |title=Uneven Regional Development |journal=International Encyclopedia of Geography: People, the Earth, Environment and Technology |date=6 March 2017 |pages=1–13 |doi=10.1002/9781118786352.wbieg0721 |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781118786352.wbieg0721 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons, Ltd |isbn=9780470659632 |language=en|url-access=subscription }}</ref>  and leads to an erosion of [[human rights]]<ref>{{cite journal|last=Abeles|first=Marc|date=2006|title=Globalization, Power, and Survival: an Anthropological Perspective|url=https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00125880/file/M_Abeles_2006_AQ.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00125880/file/M_Abeles_2006_AQ.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live|journal=Anthropological Quarterly|volume=79|issue=3|pages=484–486|doi=10.1353/anq.2006.0030|s2cid=144220354}}</ref> because of its [[wikt:incentivize|incentivization]] of [[imperialist]] expansion and [[military–industrial complex|war]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Farid|first=Hilmar|date=2005|title=Indonesia's original sin: mass killings and capitalist expansion, 1965–66|journal=[[Inter-Asia Cultural Studies]]|volume=6|issue=1|pages=3–16|doi=10.1080/1462394042000326879|s2cid=145130614}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Blakeley|first=Ruth|date=2009|title=State Terrorism and Neoliberalism: The North in the South|url=http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415462402/|publisher=[[Routledge]]|pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=rft8AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA4 4], [https://books.google.com/books?id=rft8AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA20 20–23], [https://books.google.com/books?id=rft8AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA88 88]|isbn=978-0-415-68617-4}}</ref><ref>''Lenin's Selected Works'', Progress Publishers, 1963, Moscow, Volume 1, pp. 667–766</ref>

Other critics argue that such inequities are not due to the ethic-neutral construct of the economic system commonly known as capitalism, but to the ethics of those who shape and execute the system. For example, some contend that Milton Friedman's (human) ethic of 'maximizing shareholder value' creates a harmful form of capitalism,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stout |first=Lynn |author-link=Lynn Stout |title=The Shareholder Value Myth |publisher=Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-60509-813-5 |location=San Francisco, CA |pages=15–23}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Gelles |first=David |author-link=David Gelles |title=The Man Who Broke Capitalism |publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=2022 |isbn=978-1-9821-7644-0 |location=New York |pages=1–13}}</ref> while a [[Millard Fuller]] or John Bogle (human) ethic of 'enough' creates a sustainable form.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fuller |first=Millard |author-link=Millard Fuller|title=The Theology of the Hammer |publisher=Smyth & Helwys Publishing |year=1994 |isbn=1-880837-92-7 |location=Macon, GA |pages=31–39}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Bogle |first=John |title=Enough |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-470-52423-7 |location=Hoboken, New Jersey |pages=229–248}}</ref> Equitable ethics and unified ethical decision-making is theorized to create a less damaging form of capitalism.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Knowlton & Hedges |title=Better Capitalism |publisher=Wipf & Stock Publishers |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-7252-8093-9 |location=Eugene, OR |pages=34–37, 235–242}}</ref>

[[Inheritance]] has been argued to not be a fundamental part of capitalism,<ref name="x107">{{cite journal | last=Haslett | first=D. W. | title=Is Inheritance Justified? | journal=Philosophy & Public Affairs | publisher=Wiley | volume=15 | issue=2 | year=1986 | issn=0048-3915 | jstor=2265382 | pages=122–155 | url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/2265382 | access-date=17 August 2024}}</ref> instead part of [[nepotism]].<ref name="e543">{{cite journal | last=Pérez-González | first=Francisco | title=Inherited Control and Firm Performance | journal=American Economic Review | volume=96 | issue=5 | date=1 November 2006 | issn=0002-8282 | doi=10.1257/aer.96.5.1559 | pages=1559–1588}}</ref>