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Comment by jkhdigital | Hacker News Reader

I don’t get it either... capitalism isn’t some intentional decision that society somehow collectively makes, it is more like the natural order of economic transactions that arises in the presence of (1) property rights, and (2) freedom of association. Most of the things Ray talks about are not intrinsic features of capitalism, but simply institutions that seem to interact with a capitalist economic structure in notable ways e.g. central banking.

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Property rights are the name of the game though right? The extent to which you are allowed to own property is the fundamental design mechanism for an economy system. Simple versions being taxation, more extensive being things like collectivist anarchism.

> capitalism isn’t some intentional decision that society somehow collectively makes,

Yes, it is. Historically, it is an intentional decision society collectively makes at the behest of and for the benefit of thr mercantile class.

> that arises in the presence of (1) property rights, and (2) freedom of association

Property rights are much older than capitalism, freedom of association as a widespread normn is newer and not super consistently found with capitalism. The particular structure of property rights that characterizes capitalism, which is very different from the system of property rights that characterized, say, feudalism, is not the same thing as “property rights” generally, though supporters of capitalism often confuse the two concepts.

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