Last time we saw each other, my friend Ivan and I had a looooong and energetic discussion sparked by the question, “What is capitalism, anyway?”
Few days ago he emails me this cartoon, with the subject line: “pretty sure we had this conversation once.”
Don’t know where the piece is from, but it made me smile. Thanks, friend!
Kloncke 
Workers of the world, UNITE!
Too bad they never will.
Well, the whole world is a pretty lofty goal.
I’d settle for place by place, nation-state by nation-state. :)
History’s a pretty difficult thing to predict, especially on the “never” side. Margaret Thatcher’s “There is no alternative” to modern capitalism is the same thing that romans, greeks, genghis khan, chinese emperors, kings, sultans, nobles, stalins etc. said about the society that they’re in charge of. I think that part of what is so interesting about history is the way that societies transform, disintegrate…a central part of that seems to be struggles between people with different economic interests, or “classes”.
I love this comic! Awesome illustration of how production works, and what “exploitation” means under all of the connotations.