Which is better mercantilism or capitalism

Oh Howie, get back on your meds! You have more opportunity here in American than virtually any other nation. You can go to schools, learn a trade, start a business or sit on your assets…but you choose to do none of those things, right?

You just complain because the world is so mean to you. Come on now, you can sit on your phat butt on the sofa and collect money and benefits, and oh yeah, to get free healthcare, without any input on your part whatsoever. Why is that Howie? See if any other nation provides you with the same…in equal measure. This nation does NOT owe individuals a thing! Now get off your rear and find a job! My my, Ben, you certainly have assumed a lot about Howard based on such a brief post.

Seems you have an axe to grind, and opinions to project. Have you considered that he might be using sarcasm rather than identifying as a socialist?

Oh Dear, dear Byron…. Life is too short for these games. An axe to grind? Clearly all the socialists and communists have axes to grind, as they have put more people in the graves than any other form of government. Stalin was a tyrant upon his own people, far in excess of Adolf Hitler, and Mao Tse Tong was at least 3 times worse than Stalin.

At least capitalism offers industrious individuals a way out of the economic chaos. Is it a perfect system? And it is not solely about economics here either, but are political maggots. They also attack freedoms of personal expressions and beliefs, and promote the state as the greatest good.

Face it, those are evil bastards fare far worse than any capitalist nation by all measures. But what is mercantilism, exactly, and why has it suddenly become relevant? A mercantilist economy tries to increase its wealth by maximizing exports and minimizing imports. This school of thought teaches that there is a limited amount of wealth in the world for which all nations compete against each other. Exports make an economy richer because they bring money into the economy.

Imports enrich competitors at the economy's expense. The logic of mercantilism makes trade a zero-sum transaction in which exporters have an advantage over importers. To increase their wealth and power mercantile nations rely on tariffs, trade leverage and military power to maximize their trade balance. They want to ensure that the nation remained a net-exporter. As a school of thought mercantilism is highly associated with specie gold and silver currency.

This is because specie, or "hard money," economies have a fixed amount of currency in circulation. Unlike fiat currencies the more gold an economy spends the less it has. This aligns with mercantilism's belief that trade and wealth are fixed resources for which nations compete. This belief is one of the theory's greatest weaknesses. It is by definition impossible for both parties in a trade agreement to be net exporters.

As a result, mercantilism depends on a relationship in which one nation wins and the other loses. This relationship lends itself either to an involuntary trade relationship or to trade wars in which both nations mutually ratchet up tariffs.

Mercantilism dominated economic thought in Europe from the 16th through the 18th centuries. During this era, European nations often used military power to ensure markets for their exports, as a mercantile trade relationship is almost always a net-negative for at least one trading partner and because mercantilist nations often saw military and economic power as inextricably linked.

It entered its decline as a dominant philosophy in the 19th century. Mercantilism has returned to the news because it is the school of thought upon which President Donald Trump has conducted U. Trump has argued that the U. It is his position that a strong economy must run a trade surplus.

Further, the language of the president often suggests that any money spent on imports enriches foreign competitors at the expense of American businesses and workers. He has expressed this through rounds of tariffs designed to slow down U. In capitalism, most property and tools of production are held in private hands. While the government can, and typically does, produce a range of goods and services for general consumption, this role is typically limited.

The default position for a capitalist economy is that, unless otherwise specified, a given product or service will be produced and marketed by private individuals using privately-held wealth.

Under capitalism, prices are set by competition in the free market. The most important factor is supply and demand. As consumer demand grows against limited supplies, producers will either create more or raise prices. When demand falls, the market will respond in kind. The logic of capitalism is built around productivity and the idea that wealth can increase over time.

This was the idea that Adam Smith introduced. Capitalism encourages free trade and lower tariffs to ensure the continuous flow of foreign trade. By: Editorial Staff Updated: Mar-2, Mercantilism Capitalism Accumulate wealth for the country with the state controlling the whole economy. Usually operates without government intervention. Export commodities and accumulate precious metals such as gold and silver. Generate profit to expand industry.

High tariff rates on foreign goods are imposed. Free trade and low tariff rates are imposed. Did this article help you? Yes No. Current rating: 9. Thank you! What was wrong? The facts are wrong.