>> You act like there was no capitalism until recently. History is replete with capitalism.
While capitalism evolved over an extended period of time, capitalism in the form it exists today was an outgrowth of modern entities for capital formation -- essentially, the corporate form (with the understanding that trusts historically resembled the corporate form, other than free transferability of shares).
It was the corporate form with its features -- limited liability, centralization of management, and free transferability of interests that really created today's capitalism. In addition, the daily meeting under the "Tree" on Wall Street for share owners to trade stocks for profit created a ready supply of capital.
These are the things that created capitalism as we know it today. Of course, it existed in a recognizable form in the 1500s (and the earliest corporations, IIRC, dated back to about 600 AD, but they were not structured as the modern American corporation is).
As recently as 1960, American corporations had major advantages over most other countries which was the reason we could do bigger things than other countries. So, when it came to major innovations, there were smart people all over the world but to raise capital, it was often necessary to go to the US. Old companies in foreign countries might have money, but for new money, the US was the place.
Capitalism itself derived from "trade" -- two people negotiating a deal, which was obviously around for centuries (evidence of merchant trade dates back to Mesopotamia and the Fertile Crescent, with travel from as far away as India). But it is the capital that makes an economy into the United States, still, by a wide margin, the best place to be for economic success.
Takes more than 8 years of Obama to totally kill American superiority. |
