Is America a capitalist society?
Is America a capitalist society?
Introduction
The United States is regarded as having a democratic capitalist political-economic system. By 1900, the American economy had largely shifted to a capitalist model. There are three periods in the early years.
The first period, from 1600 to 1790, is marked by handicraft-subsistence production combined with elements of a semi-capitalist economy based on commercial tobacco production. Enslaved and semi-enslaved workers made up the majority of the workforce in the most commercialized sectors of the economy. Several industries became organized along capitalist lines during the second period, 1790-1865, and some sectors of agriculture lost their subsistence character until agriculture as a whole was producing for the market by the period's end.
The result is the rapid growth of a working-class made up of both free and unfree elements. Economic development accelerates dramatically in the third period, 1865-1920, as capitalist forces increasingly affect industry and agriculture. Commercialization is present in all capitalist economies, but not all commercialized economies are capitalist.
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