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RatifyGuy1776 wrote (edited )

I don't think there are any small-time capitalists. There are many entrepreneurs who believe in capitalism, and may believe themselves to be capitalists on that basis. However, knowing... basically anything about how money and power actually flows tells you that those people are dupes. The capitalists are the guys at the top who dupe them.

My understanding is that the essence of capitalism, what makes it different from other terms Americans commonly conflate it with like "free market," "fair market," "entrepreneurship," or even (ugh) "property rights," is the idea of a guy with a big pile of money, i.e., capital, financing the creation of a business that they have nothing to do with the operation of, with the common but unnecessary exception of continuing to tell everyone what to do. In other words, to be an actual capitalist, your job is getting paid because you "created the opportunity" to work for you. The small-time guys, who more often than not get started with loans, are victims of this scamming jerk, even if they've been so thoroughly hoodwinked that they'll defend him to the death.

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