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36 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Thought Provoking, December 25, 2004
This review is from: Capitalism: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) (Paperback)
Teaching capitalism in today's world is like describing water to a fish; we are surrounded by it, can't live without it and are unaware of the alternatives. Most have never experienced the depression, many have forgotten the days when communism was actually a threat. We are blind to the absolutely crucial nature of how our world works. Although we watched the stock market plummet in 1987 and have all learned valuable lessons from the internet boom & bust, I picked up this book because I wanted to know a bit more about how the scholars view capitalism.
The book takes the reader through a history of capitalism while briefly summarizing everything you forgot from college economics. While the discussion of the development of capitalism focused on some interesting questions of historical interpretation, the strength of this work is the description and analysis of how the capitalistic system works differently in different countries.
The power of capitalism is set forth as its ability to adapt. Where other systems--feudalism, communism, socialism, etc--failed was that they could not adapt to change. The book was an excellent overview; it was current, easy to read, and contains a fine list of resources for further study.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An interesting survey of the many forms that capitalism can take, November 23, 2008
This review is from: Capitalism: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) (Paperback)
My own economic position could be described as a reluctant capitalist. I am definitely not a believer in an unregulated free market simply because I know such a beast to be a chimera that never has and never will exist. The only two choices for a society is to either let the economy run along unattended wrecking havoc (as it has recently in the world economy) or subject it to regulation and intense oversight. There are always advocates for the former, but reality keeps forcing governments to take the latter track. Those advocating an unregulated free market are ideologues and utopians with little or no connection to the real world (a situation pointed out in 1944 by Karl Polanyi in his classic THE GREAT TRANSFORMATION, in which he pointed out in great historical detail that there had never in human history been an example of a self-regulating free market -- in other words, the invisible hand has been absent in history). Its opponents have also often been utopian (as with Marxists when they move from a trenchant and probing critique of Capitalism to a recipe for future historical development). But those who have been most effective are those who accept the reality of capitalism yet reserve the right to discipline and mold it, like FDR and Churchill (though described as a conservative, American's have to remember the Churchill reformed the British prison system, was crucial in developing national health insurance in Britain, suggested the idea of the European Union, and always felt -- in contrast with, say Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher -- that government was a very good thing indeed).
Every few decades reality provides a sharp rebuke to the free market ideologues. They are sure to go away in the short fun, but there is little question that in a decade or so they will be back, arguing the same kind of nonsense that plagued the U.S. economy in the 1890s, the 1920s, and more recently. I absolutely do not think that the answer is to get rid of capitalism. I do think that far greater federal intervention is needed. For instance, I would fully back the idea of a new federal administration that would have to sign off on any new financial product to be offered, such as the mortgage backed securities that recently got us into so much trouble. There were, of course, private institutions that were supposed to do this, but I think more needs to be done on a level with teeth to bring about changes.
My point is that we are in a period of revising our ideas about the kind of capitalism that we want to have. If the self-regulating free market economy is at the moment thoroughly discredited, what form should our capitalism then take? That is where a book of this type is so valuable. The neoliberalism put forward by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher has so dominated our conceptions of capitalism that we've lost sight of the very large number of forms that capitalism can take. Fulcher does touch upon capitalism in Britain and the U.S., but he also looks at various forms it has taken in the past and today in various parts of the world, including Sweden and Japan. Milton Friedman and his followers have preached a kind of free market Puritanism that simply does not coordinate with the many, many permutations that capitalism has in fact taken over the decades. Capitalism in Sweden and Japan ends up looking nothing like capitalism in the US and Britain. And it isn't that the US had the "real" capitalism and Sweden has a "socialized" capitalism. They are merely two forms of the same economic system.
The result of Fulcher's survey is to illuminate what a many-colored beast capitalism truly is. It should also reassure Americans as we could through a significant revision of the role that government plays in overseeing the economy that this definitely does not represent the end of capitalism in our country, but its salvation. Just as people sometimes have to be protected from themselves, so also the economy needs to be protected against itself. This is an important lesson that Fulcher can teach, that capitalism isn't any one thing and needn't be so.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good, quick read for a novice., June 7, 2009
This review is from: Capitalism: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) (Paperback)
The book traces the origins of capitalism right from the trading days of East India Company. It discusses the presence of feudalism, its slow transformation into socialism, and finally its metamorphosis into capitalism. Once there, James does a great job of dissecting the facets of capitalism and the various forces that defines its nature - politics, business, labor unions, markets, currency, and others. He does this by comparing three distinct forms of capitalism - Swedish, British, and Japanese. Slowly the pieces of the puzzle start falling together.
In the last chapter, he discusses the various crises that have fallen upon/by capitalism. Per him, crisis is a by-product of this system and cannot be avoided. Thanks to the ever volatile consumer demand, never ending profit increasing, and the human nature in general. Economics 101 - Every person will act in order to maximize his/her profit.
This book is very lucidly written and I would suggest all to give this book a try and keep it in your book shelf, if possible. I cannot say that I am a master of this subject, but it has nevertheless built a foundation for me to develop my knowledge and make informed opinions about the events happening around me.
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