The Absurd Claim that “Capitalism Kills”
Background
In response to declarations that communism and/or socialism have killed in excess of 100 million people, it has become common on social media to see claims that capitalism is responsible for an even greater number of deaths. Here are some examples:
The infographics featured in the banner of this post are also common, which present various statistics (including death tolls) that are supposedly attributable to capitalism. The reasoning behind these assertions is rarely made clear, but ultimately it amounts to blaming a significant portion of humanity's problems on a notion of capitalism so all-encompassing as to be meaningless, either by inflating its definition or by declaring causality where none exists.
In a recent article on The Guardian website, Owen Jones listed the trans-atlantic slave trade, colonialism and the rise of 20th century fascism as either components or consequences of capitalism. Add starvation, disease, war and natural disasters into the mix and it… continue reading