My Opening statement.
In this debate it will be my position that capitalism is unjust, unhealthy, authoritarian/statist and far from the best possible system that humanity can enter upon in order to satisfy its needs and desires.
The distinguishing features of actually existing capitalism.
To start my opening statement and my argument as a whole I feel it is necessary to point out the distinguishing features of the actually existing capitalism I will be critiquing.
Capitalism is a commodity producing , largely market system, where the means of production have been appropriated in the hands of an elite minority by the state, which maintains this regime. So the majority of people lack access to the means of production without agreeing to work for one the minority elite ie the capitalists.It is important to note capitalism was never and is not a free market and is not based on any reasonably legititimate property rights and despite the anti-state claims of some apologists, it is so riddled with state intervention as to be inconceivable without.
I intend to use the five body posts in order to give my five distinct, main arguments against capitalism.
Argument onerimitive accumulation.
First off I will the historical argument of primitive accumulation to show how capitalism developed out of feudal society and how it was not an natural outgrowth of a market system,as Karl Marx wrote.
"Nature does not produce on the one side owners of money and commodities and on the other men possessing nothing but their own labour power"
I will therefore show how it was born largely due to massive state coercion, violence and fraud needed in order separate most from their means of production, and therefore capitalism lies on an unjust basis.
I will be using the sources of historians and radical writers.As has been said the facts of primitive accumulation are largely beyond debate.
Here are some preliminary sources on this.(I will also be using the work of historians like the Hammonds,Edward Thompson and others.)
F.8 What role did the state take in the creation of capitalism?
Chapter Four--Primitive Accumulation and the Rise of Capitalism
Oppenheimer, The State (1922): The Online Library of Liberty
Our Enemy, The State by Albert J. Nock, Introduction
Argument Two: The ongoing and massive state intervention necessary to keep capitalism afloat.
Then I intend to show the later, ongoing and increasing state intervention that has marked capitalism and is necessary to keep it alive.
I will show that the capitalists use state intervention to maintain their privilege, to keep the majority without access to the means of production and to help solve crisis tendencies within capitalism such as the chronic tendency to overaccumulation of capital as well as the legimitation crises caused by the disruptive nation of capitalism.
I will also attempt to show the extra problems caused by this intervention, which often necessitates even more intervention as well as the different approaches used by different factions in the capitalist classes.
I will generally be relying heavily on Mutualist and free market socialist analysis in this argument as well as of that of the New left and the left-libertarians like Karl Hess.
Here are some preliminary sources for this argument.(It should be noted that the left-libertarians tend to use capitalism to mean completely free markets rather than the actually existing variety.)
The Iron Fist Behind the Invisible Hand
http://mises.org/journals/jls/15_3/15_3_3.pdf
Roy Childs - Big Business and the Rise of American Statism
Our Enemy, The State by Albert J. Nock, Introduction
Argument three: The social process of production and unearned income from property.
Thirdly I intend to show how production is in reality a social process and how in reality labour is the only true productive human activity and therefore that income on property is unearned income, that comes through coercive social relations and not through any productive contribution made by the onwer of property, particularly in light of the two previous arguments about how this property was created and maintained.
I will mainly use the general and time honoured socialist, anarchist and radical arguments here.
Here are some preliminary sources.
C.2 Why is capitalism exploitative?
The Labor Theory of Value - A FAQ
Thorstein Veblen Linkpage
THE CONQUEST OF BREAD
Argument four: Capitalism causes alienation and is emotionally, psychologically and socially damaging.
In my fourth argument I will attempt to show that capitalism is damaging to people in many ways, including psychologically, emotionally and socially.
I will show ways in this damage occurs and what its consequences are.
I will use the arguments of many anarchists, socialists, Marxians and other Radicals.
Here are some preliminary sources on it.
Thorstein Veblen Linkpage
Erich Fromm: freedom and alienation, and loving and being, in education
I. Origins of the Concept of Alienation
B.1 Why are anarchists against authority and hierarchy?
Argument five: The alternative(s); what libertarian socialism can offer.
In my final argument I will attempt to show just what humanity could really archive in a libertarian socialist system, where it is completely emancipated from its chains and the human spirit is free to satisfy all its basic needs as well as its higher desires using free agreement.
I will use the the works, ideas and insights of many libertarian socialists and anarchists for this arguments.
Here are some preliminary sources.
Section I - What would an anarchist society look like?
Kropotkin Archive
Godwin Archive
Proudhon Archive
Benjamin Tucker -- Anarchy Archives
To End.
And in my closing statement I will thread all these arguments together together to create a compelling denunciation of capitalism that highlights its unjust and coercive origins, the coercion used to maintain it, the negative effects it has on most of the people subjected to it and the alternatives that offer so much more.