Who is called the capitalist? First of all, it is a man who exploits the working class to increase his own wealth and welfare. Typically, this is the one who takes the surplus product and always seeks to get rich.
What is a capitalist?
The capitalist is a representative of the ruling class in bourgeois society, the owner of capital, who exploits and applies wage labor. However, in order to fully understand what a capitalist is, it is necessary to know what “capitalism" as a whole is.
What is capitalism?
In the modern world, the word "capitalism" is quite common. This describes the whole social system in which we now live. In addition, many people think that this system existed hundreds of years ago, successfully functioning for a large amount of time and shaping the world history of mankind.
In fact, capitalism is a relatively new concept that describes a social system. For a brief historical introduction and analysis, you can refer to the book of Marx and Engels “Manifesto of the Communist Party” and “Capital”.
What exactly does the concept of "capitalism" mean?
Capitalism is a social system that now exists in all countries of the world. Under this system, the means for the production and distribution of goods (as well as land, factories, technologies, transportation systems, etc.) belong to a small percentage of the population, that is, certain people. This group is called the "capitalist class."
Most people sell their physical or mental labor in exchange for wages or remuneration. Representatives of this group are called “working class”. This proletariat must produce goods or services that are subsequently sold for profit. And the last class disposes of the capitalists.
In this sense, they are exploiting the working class. Capitalists are those who live off the profits that come from exploiting the working class. Subsequently, they reinvest it, thereby increasing the next potential profit.
Why is capitalism what every country in the world has?
In the modern world there is a clear division of classes. This statement is explained by the realities of the world in which we live. If there is an exploiter, there is a hired one - that means there is capitalism, because this is its essential feature. Many can say that the current world is divided into many classes (for example, the "middle class"), thereby killing all the principles of capitalism.
However, this is not the case! The key to understanding capitalism is when there is a dominant and subordinate class. No matter how many classes are created, everyone will still be subject to the dominant, and so the chain.
Is capitalism a free market?
It is widely believed that capitalism means a free market economy. However, this is not quite true. Capitalism is possible without a free market. The systems that existed in the USSR and exist in China and Cuba fully prove and demonstrate this. They believe that they are building a "socialist" power, but they live on the motives of "state capitalism" (in this case, the capitalist is the state itself, namely, people holding high ranks).
In supposedly “socialist” Russia, for example, there is still commodity production, buying and selling, exchange, and so on. "Socialist" Russia continues to trade in accordance with the requirements of international capital. This means that the state, like any other capitalist, is ready to go to war to protect its economic interests.
The role of the Soviet state is to act as a functionary of capital and the exploitation of wage labor by methods of setting targets for production and control over them. Therefore, such countries really have nothing to do with socialism.