Asia Times: The capitalist myth

[marmar]

The capitalist myth
By Dafydd Taylor


As the financial crisis rumbles on we are constantly told that what while there are a few problems, all the benefits of modernity are the unambiguous results of the capitalist system.

That the invisible hand famously documented by Adam Smith is what has brought us industrial progress from the factory system to the telegraph to the Internet. But in reality, the factory system inspired by Arkwright, more than a century before Henry Ford, grew up as a response to the effects of the Agricultural Revolution.

Vast pools of cheap labor created by the enclosure of common land coupled with mercantilist economic policies made especially effective by a growing empire allowed Britain to lead the process of industrialization. It was this interaction between state and private sector that was necessary for industrial development. These are lessons which may be lost to the West, but the current most economically successful country, China, takes heed.

Britain only adopted free trade as a policy in the later 19th century. By this time a fully industrialized nation seeking to defend an entrenched position, including limiting the development of competitors. The key driver for the development of the first electronic communications network, the telegraph, was the British Empire. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/MK16Dj06.html

[PETRUS]

1. kick

[slay]

2. K&R

we have to evolve past capitalism if we, and the planet, are to survive.