A PEOPLE’S GUIDE TO CAPITALISM – Hadas Thier

A People’s Guide to Capitalism covers all the basics of economics from a Marxist point of view. The author reminds us that economics is, at a base level, about how we get the things human beings need to survive. She intends to show what “modes of production” we used throughout history and how we decided “who gets what”. Hadas Thier takes us all the way from subsistence-based, tribal societies to feudal kingdoms. From there, we see the early development of capitalism in societies starting to build modern industry. The key to it all? Surplus. This emerged when human labor became efficient enough to have more left over from work than they themselves needed to survive. Once you have a surplus, not everyone has to spend all day working to secure food and shelter. We can diversify the work we do, and we have to appoint someone to manage that surplus and decide who gets what. Hadas Thier explains how Marx and Engels’ ideas built upon the ideas of earlier thinkers in economics, history and philosophy. She does this in a refreshing and clear way, with not a little humor thrown in.

I won’t go through every core concept introduced here. It’s just about every essential idea from Marx and Engels’ work. Thier even includes some of the concepts that later theorists like Antonio Gramsci (with his theory of hegemony) and Vladimir Lenin (and his views on imperialism) contributed to Marxism in the 20th century. Everything from the destruction of the commons, the nature of price and money, to how labor creates value and how capitalists appropriate it are discussed. Thier maps out how supply and demand work. She explores why the drives to innovate, compete, and profit govern the behavior of capitalist firms. The author describes how capital is accumulated in modern society. The book touches on Amazons and Wal-Marts, plastic islands and Google Maps, supermarkets and real estate. Marxists believe capitalism inevitably leads to worker exploitation, environmental destruction and economic crisis. Hadas Thier explains why.

This book also focuses on giving Marx’s theories real-world context. For instance, Marx liked to use a textile factory in 1850s England as an example. Thier would rather port these economic principles into our current system. Enron and AIG, Apple and Bitcoin feature as examples of globalized, digitalized capitalism. The book features a useful explanation of the Great Recession’s immediate causes. It also chronicles events decades earlier that set us on the road to the 2008 crash. The author also brackets the whole book with an intro and afterward about the COVID-19 pandemic. She speculates on how the ongoing pandemic may continue to destabilize capitalism and make space for something more. She thinks the pandemic exposes governmental impotence and corporate inefficiency. It’s awakening the sleeping giant that is the global working class.

I made a commitment to finally dive deep into the waters of Marxist theory and other radical ideas this year. I have no shame in admitting I needed a contemporary guide to help equip me for this journey. In that sense, I can think of no better hitchhiking companion than Hadas Thier’s A People’s Guide to Capitalism.