Capitalism Isn’t Just Buying and Selling Things. It’s a System of Domination.
Capitalism’s proponents often defend it by pointing to the virtues of markets. But capitalism isn’t defined by the presence of markets — it’s defined by capitalists’ domination of workers.
A factory in India spews smoke as it burns discarded Amazon packaging on Saturday, November 19, 2022. (Prashanth Vishwanathan / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The video essay opens with battling citations of environmental activist Greta Thunberg and independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy. She says, “Capitalism will kill us all.” He says, “Free markets will save us all.” But, the narrator gently suggests, these are both untrustworthy sources. Fortunately, she’s here to break it all down for us.
The video has almost half a million views. The narrator is the German theoretical physicist and gifted science communicator Sabine Hossenfelder. Anyone on the socialist left hoping for Comrade Sabine will be disappointed. Her video is entitled “Capitalism is good. Let me explain.”
It’s an odd choice of subject. Hossenfelder’s popular YouTube channel usually tackles subjects like dark matter, the theoretical possibility of time travel, and whether the Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics makes any sense.
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