How to respond to this rightwing argument?

[Karl Marx's Camel]

A lot of times rightwingers say:

"x country (say some random latin american country) under x ruler was not capitalist. Just because someone is making a profit does not make capitalism. There was no political or personal freedom; the country was corrupt, no property rights, no assurance of contract and no independent rule of law that could follow these contracts up if they were to be broken"

How to respond to this "the country was not capitalist" argument?

[Luís Henrique]

Originally posted by [email protected] 21, 2007 07:20 pm
How to respond to this "the country was not capitalist" argument?
Usually, pro-capitalists tend to enlarge, rather than restrict, the scope of the concept of "capitalism" (classical Greece or Rome commonly being considered capitalist, for instance). If you can trick them into pointing to some clearly pre-capitalist society as an example of capitalism, you can then suggest that their concept of capitalism varies to serve their points.

The surest way, though, is to discuss with them what "capitalism" is; if they start trying to make precise distinctions, you may be able to point that their concept of "capitalism" does not match any real society.

Luís Henrique

[Clarksist]

Ask them: were the means of production largely privately owned? Were products made for profit and sold on a free market?

Oh, right, they were.