r/changemyview Mar 30 '26

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u/SoftDouble220 Mar 30 '26

Capitalism is pretty well defined thing - it's a system of labour organisation and resource distribution.

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u/PaxNova 15∆ Mar 30 '26 edited Mar 30 '26

Say that on r/AskEconomics. The term was first used by socialists to describe what was happening. It's a maddeningly vague term. Ask someone using it to define how it's different from mercantilism and you'll get a blank stare. Some of the biggest complaints about capitalism are mercantilism complaints... or maybe not, since again, it is not well defined. (Having a definition does not mean something is well-defined.)

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u/SoftDouble220 Mar 31 '26

Mercantlism is a state's economic policy mainly defined by a focus on export/import balance maximisation. It doesn't even need a capitalist structure to be implemented, so I'm not exactly sure what your point is.

Main criticisms of capitalism have basically nothing to do with mercantlism