How many folks have even heard of the word 'capitalism'? I suspect people don't even identify a system much less place a name on it. Stuff like money, business, ownership is just taken for granted.
When I was a small child I was so frustrated because I kept trying to understand the origin and purpose of money, and why we had richer and poorer people, and adults could not answer my questions. My teachers never once used the word "capitalism." I knew I was living in some sort of system but I had no context for it. I fixated for a long time on this quote about fish not knowing what water is because it was the closest I could get to articulating the nameless frustration I was feeling.
I first heard of "system" in relation to climate change and the word "capitalism" at the very start of my radicalization well into my late teen years. In my history classes, socialism/communism was always juxtaposed not with capitalism but with democracy.
Most people I know would identify the American civic/economic system as something nebulous like democracy, freedom, liberty, etc and would only identify it as capitalism if specifically talking about large businesses or the use of money.
How many folks have even heard of the word 'capitalism'? I suspect people don't even identify a system much less place a name on it. Stuff like money, business, ownership is just taken for granted.
When I was a small child I was so frustrated because I kept trying to understand the origin and purpose of money, and why we had richer and poorer people, and adults could not answer my questions. My teachers never once used the word "capitalism." I knew I was living in some sort of system but I had no context for it. I fixated for a long time on this quote about fish not knowing what water is because it was the closest I could get to articulating the nameless frustration I was feeling.
I first heard of "system" in relation to climate change and the word "capitalism" at the very start of my radicalization well into my late teen years. In my history classes, socialism/communism was always juxtaposed not with capitalism but with democracy.
I had a similar frustration after being told "that's just life" to any questions I had about clear injustices
Most people I know would identify the American civic/economic system as something nebulous like democracy, freedom, liberty, etc and would only identify it as capitalism if specifically talking about large businesses or the use of money.
Well, in the 80's/90's when I was going through public education in the USA history text books and civics classes have sections that talk about it.
Maybe things have changed since then. :shrug-outta-hecks: