Modern Day Capitalism Analysis

Capitalism has undergone a numerous amount of changes over the years as it has changed and developed into what we know today as modern capitalism. Quite frankly, it is impossible to precisely identify all of the contributing factors that led to the emergence of capitalism. The exact definition of capitalism is also not entirely clear and is thus up for interpretation. For this reason, Marx, Weber, Brenner, North and Thomas all hold different beliefs as to how capitalism emerged and how it has developed into modern day capitalism. The purpose of this paper will be to demonstrate the contrasting opinions displayed by these authors as well as identifying the similarities between their writings. To begin, Karl Marx does an honorable job of laying

To clarify, the value of labor power is determined by the amount of necessary amount of labor time needed to produce a certain commodity . Workers under a capitalist system produce needless labor which they do not receive fair compensation for. The Capitalist society, in Marx’s view, is based entirely upon this concept of exploitation for profits. Next, Max Weber focuses primarily on the “spirit of capitalism” in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism rather than the actual practice of capitalism itself. Weber concentrates on the importance of religion in the formation of capitalism. Religion was a much more important aspect of the average individuals’ life in the past than it is nowadays. People believed that they should follow their spiritual calling back in this time and day because it is what God intended for them to do. So, this personal feeling of responsibility to follow one’s calling “is what is most characteristic of the social ethic of capitalistic culture, and in a sense the fundamental basis of it” . Weber believes that this universally accepted concept is what led to the

Karl Marx argues that the traces of capitalism first appeared as early as the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, but the capitalist era truly begins in the sixteenth century . Marx, as well as others, believed that capitalism emerged in these European countries after the abolition of serfdom . North and Thomas argue that the “Marxian historians” are wrong to believe that feudalism was directly followed by capitalism in Western Europe; however, the two and a half centuries following the fall of feudalism were filled with “nascent” or “commercial” capitalism