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Because the generally accepted definition of capitalism isn't "a system in which private individuals own capital goods".

(Software and machines are means of labor [0]. They are not workers and they don't receive wages.)

That's a widely held misconception. We had economic systems with "private individuals owning capital goods" before and we didn't call them capitalism. [1]

One central characteristic of capitalism is wage labor. If you don't make profit from leveraging disparages between wages paid and profits made, you're playing capitalism, but some other kind of game.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Means_of_labor [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism



From your own link: "Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit". You're talking about something else.


You're wrong, in two senses.

Being "based on" means that private ownership and operation for profit are necessary conditions. It doesn't mean that they are sufficient; i.e.just because you have private ownership and operation for profit doesn't mean you have capitalism. We had private ownership and operation for profit long before there was capitalism, in systems that are not capitalism. (This is the modal fallacy)

The second error is closely related. Not everything that has private ownership and operation for profit is capitalism. It could be Syndicalism, for example, which also has private property and operation for profit. (This is the fallacy of faulty generalization)

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modal_fallacy

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faulty_generalization


So the first sentence of the wikipedia article you linked about capitalism is now wrong, based on 2 other wikipedia articles? I don't think this is a productive direction for discussion tbh.


> So the first sentence of the wikipedia article you linked about capitalism is now wrong

No, it's not wrong, the articles is perfectly fine and they don't contradict each other.

The phrase "Capitalism is based on private ownership and operation for profit" is absolutely true. But the conclusion you're drawing from these sentences is wrong.

If I say "Crêpe is a dish based on flour and eggs" that doesn't mean that if I have flour and eggs I have a Crêpe - because to prepare Crêpe I also need other stuff.

If I say "Crêpe is a dish based on flour and eggs" that doesn't mean that everything made from flour and eggs is a Crêpe - because there are many things made from flour and eggs that are not Crêpe.

Does that make it clearer?




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