Chapter Content
Okay, so, Chapter 41… let's talk about capital. It's one of those words, isn't it, that we use all the time, but what does it actually mean? Really?
So, first off, there's capital as a factor of production, you know? Like, for a big corporation in the 21st century. We're talking about stuff like plants and machinery, offices, warehouses… basically, all the physical stuff you need to actually, you know, *make* stuff or provide a service. And, uh, these things are usually bought from specialist suppliers. It's a pretty straightforward use of the word, right?
But then, we also use "capital" to mean the actual value of a company's net assets. That’s everything the company owns – tangible things, like those buildings and equipment, and financial things, like stocks and bonds – minus what they owe. It's the, uh, kind of the total worth of the business, basically. You know? And back in the really early days of the Industrial Revolution, these two ideas, capital as a factor of production and capital as net worth, they were often pretty similar. But now? Not so much. Things have gotten way more complicated.
And *then*, there's *another* way we use the word "capital," and that's when we're talking about personal wealth or national wealth. So, like, all the stuff a person owns or all the stuff a country owns, both tangible and financial. And that, like, that way of using the word, it, uh, it comes from a simpler time, too. I mean, back when the economy and society were less complex than they are now. You know, everything was maybe a little more… direct.
And it doesn't even stop there! In the 20th century, we started throwing around new types of "capital," like human capital, social capital, natural capital. It just, you know, kind of keeps expanding.
So, yeah, the word "capital" is, like, completely necessary. We can't really get rid of it. But maybe, just maybe, we should be a little more careful about how we use it, you know? Maybe use it a little less often, and really think about what we actually *mean* when we say it. Because if the meaning of "capital" is all over the place, then, like, who are we even talking about when we say "capitalists" in the 21st century? Is "capitalist" even, you know, a useful term anymore? Maybe it’s a historical thing we should just, like, move on from. Just a thought, you know? Just a thought.