The Definition of Capitalism

This post, along with the two that follow it, were originally written as one long post.  However, I think a blog is more manageable if the posts are shorter and to the point, so I split that original post into three.  I don't know if it really makes a difference whether anyone knows that, but I thought I would share.

I realized after the last post that I should make a cautionary remark about my use of the term "capitalism."  There is absolutely no consensus, even among Marxists, on how the word should be defined.  Following from the arbitrary nature of language, there is no limit to the number of different ways I could define it, depending on my purposes.  My purpose here, however, is to promote awareness of the nature of the current world economic system, and therefore, for the sake of convenience (not having to use an unwieldy phrase like "current world economic system") I am using the word "capitalism" to denote this system.  Of course, it is more than just convenient:  it also accords with the historical use of the word "capital," from whence the concept of "capitalism" arose (see next post).