Distinctive property relations generate capitalism’s market imperatives

Evidence

The critical factor in the divergence of capitalism from all other forms of “commercial society” was the development of certain social property relations that generated market imperatives and capitalist “laws of motion”… competitive production and profit-maximization, the compulsion to reinvest surpluses, and the relentless need to improve labour-productivity associated with capitalism.… Those laws of motion required vast social transformations and upheavals to set them in train. They required a transformation in the human metabolism with nature, in the provision of life’s basic necessities. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 205

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines capitalism’s laws of motion as competitive production, profit-maximization, surplus reinvestment, and relentless labor-productivity improvement.
• XREF: Lays groundwork for Zuboff’s later argument that surveillance capitalism has its own distinct laws of motion — core to this foundational read. — connects to: Capitalists themselves are compelled to innovate by impersonal market forces — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 124; Western revolutionary desire stems from frustration with opaque market mechanisms — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 69; Capitalists are as bound by market imperatives as workers are — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention, 124 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Capitalists are as bound by market imperatives as workers are #corroborates (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 124
• Monopoly capitalism destroys the very notion of property while retaining its form #contradicts (0.75)
• Capitalism is defined by private capital, propertyless wage labour, and competitive markets #expands (0.75) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 150
• Capitalism’s socialized labor is experienced by individuals as alien market relations #complicates (0.70) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 889