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This is exactly what drives me crazy with you. I read through the link you posted of an excerpt from Menger's book and the word capitalism doesn't appear even once in that excerpt. I even pasted the excerpt into my word processor and searched for it.
Here human self-interest finds an incentive to make itself felt, and where the available quantity does not suffice for all, every individual will attempt to secure his own requirements as completely as possible to the exclusion of others.
This is an analysis of human behavior not a definition of the economic system of capitalism.
We saw that economic goods are goods whose available quantities are smaller than the requirements for them. Wealth can therefore also be defined as the entire sum of goods at an economizing individual’s command, the quantities of which are smaller than the requirements for them. Hence, if there were a society where all goods were available in amounts exceeding the requirements for them, there would be no economic goods nor any “wealth
This is a definition of wealth (very much along the lines of Joe's law, I suspect) not capitalism.
It is difficult to keep you on task.
The United States of America, which is a corporation, a Legal Fiction, a nebulous thing to be held responsible, accountable, so as to allow the actual criminals to be untouchable, unknown, and free from any power that might compete with their exclusive monopoly of crime made legal.
The above quote is your words from another post, so when I say America is a corporation I assume you agree. And this corporation operates in an economic system known as capitalism.
The workforce are the targets, and if you feel like joining them, have at it, and who am I to rain on your parade? I am nobody. But, please leave me out of it entirely. Please, pretty please, with sugar on top.
You consider the workforce targets. I have no problem with that, but
you are living in this country so you are in the Corporation of America's workforce even though you oppose the corporation. So you should consider yourself as a workforce member who has avoided being targeted. Good for you, incidentally, that is not an easy thing to do.
"It" was the pronoun I used to represent capitalism, sorry for the confusion.
an economic system characterized by free market in which means of production and distribution are privately or corporately owned and development is proportional to increasing accumulation and reinvestment of profits.
This is the definition of capitalism. If Carl Menger were here and we could ask him I am all but certain he would say that the italicized words above is a description of capitalism.
I didn't like the surplus wealth phrase I added anyway so I removed it as well as the standard of living malarkey. I also decided the real problem you have is the phrase "operates according to" . I have changed that as well.
Please stick to this only for right now. Are the following italicized words acceptable now?
America is a corporation. The United states government is the executive offices of the corporation. We, the people are the laborers.
The corporation has a CEO, the president. It has a CFO (chief financial officer) a COO etc., the cabinet. It has a legislative department and a judicial department, congress and the supreme court. It has multiple floor managers, the FBI, CIA, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, IRS, etc.
This corporation is financed by means of the principles of capitalism: an economic system characterized by free market in which means of production and distribution are privately or corporately owned and development is proportional to increasing accumulation and reinvestment of profits.
and by the way, calling --- "Capitalism: A pricing scheme" --- a working definition of capitalism is like calling--- football: a game ----a working definition of football. I understand that you can elaborate, in other words, analyze how capitalism functions, but how would you summarize it in, say, 30 words or less.
PS the Josiah Warren piece is interesting. I will "commend it to my careful perusal."