Haymarket Books

Overcoming the crises that are endemic to capitalism requires changing more than the form of capitalism. It requires changing the internal organization of capitalist production itself.

The Major Problems of Private Capitalisms

The functioning of capitalist economies depends crucially on the decisions made by a relatively small number of capitalists. In the typical larger corporations that prevail in the United States and many other capitalist economies, boards of directors selected by the enterprise’s major shareholders are the decision makers. Usually composed of nine to twenty individuals, these boards are very small collectives of capitalists. They make the basic decisions of what to produce (which goods and services), how to produce (what technologies and inputs to utilize), and where to produce (what geographic locations to occupy for producing and distributing their outputs). These decisions are part of what directing the enterprise means.

How capitalists direct enterprises plays a major role in shaping capitalist societies. For example, to whom and for what purposes capitalists distribute the surplus influences the culture and politics, as well as the economics, of capitalist societies. If capitalists are concerned about matters of crime and security, they can and will distribute large portions of the surplus to preventing crime, prosecuting those they deem criminals, and obtaining security.