Introduction
The interviewee is a collegiate senior whose passions include library science, writing, and literature. The individual has no training in economics or political philosophy in an orthodox or amateur manner. The interviewee comes from what the U.S. would colloquially deem a middle-class background. I’ve compiled excerpts of the more relevant sections of the interview below.
Question 1: How do you define capitalism?
“It’s an economic system where you- see the thing is I don’t know a lot about other economic systems so I don’t really know if I’m describing capitalism or something else. A system where you- I dunno, I feel very on the spot. I guess it’s your supposed to get paid based on the quality or quantity of the work you do. Some people get paid a lot and some people don’t and sometimes it’s arbitrary and that creates different economic classes.”
Question 2: How do you think capitalism has evolved over the years, if at all?
“Well I’m sure it started out as a good idea. I’m sure at some point it functioned properly and everyone benefitted the way they were supposed to, but now it’s evolved long beyond that and only serves a select few, leaving the rest of us suffering.”
Question 3: What is your role in capitalism?
“I mean, I guess I’m a consumer. I don’t really create anything so I don’t think I’m a producer. Like how they teach you in kindergarten that you’re one or the other. No one really elaborates on that.”
Question 4: Do you think of capitalism as beneficial to your life?
“Is one of the questions ‘do you think you benefit from capitalism’ because no, not really. I’ve never experienced any other system but if I wasn’t in a capitalist society I dunno if it would be worse. It’s certainly not great now.”
Question 5: What differentiates capitalism from other modes of production?
“I mean I don’t really know any other types of economic systems. I know socialism is an alternative but I don’t listen to you [Drew Underwood] enough to really define it. I guess I don’t really have an answer, I don’t really know enough about other modes of production. Teaching that sort of thing is extremely taboo. No school would teach it accurately, even college classes. I’d have to find that on my own.”
Analysis
The interviewee highlights a crucial and fundamental point: the dominant ideology seeks to seem like fact, and due to this many people lack the language to criticize or analyze capitalism even if they are frustrated with it. Unrest is either channeled through the vector of electorailsm which does not address the issues people are experiencing or simply chalked up to the product of the inscrutable forces that must dictate modern life. The market is so foreign to understanding that people simply assume that the economists are scientists telling them the truth about a natural phenomenon and not academics purporting a view that is not always in line with sociological or historical findings.
This is not a moral failing or the result of sloth. Take the interviewee, who is by all indication a kind, intelligent, and savvy person. They do not lack the language because they are inattentive or reluctant to improve themselves, the cultural hegemony is just inimical to understanding alternative systems beyond vague bad feelings about them and propagandic platitudes. This does not only apply to leftism, the classical foe of liberalism, but precapitalist production as well. If one asked your average St. Louis resident about the Ming economy, they would likely not be able to make comparisons beyond vague broad strokes (even if the Ming economy was first explained to them). This is even the case among economists to a certain extent.
Another key concept to note is that even the understanding of capitalism is fairly rudimentary to a collegiate level student. Granted those in economics programs are likely more familiar (even if this familiarity starts from a system taken as fact), but the interviewee could only think up an A->B interaction taught to them in elementary school. It is worth thinking about why this is and what mechanisms encourage this. Furthermore, why?
