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Have We Passed Peak Capitalism? Blair Fix [York University, Toronto, Canada] Copyright: Blair Fix, 2022
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Abstract This paper uses word frequency to track the rise and potential peak of capitalist ideology. Using a sample of mainstream economics textbooks as my corpus of capitalist thinking, I isolate the jargon of these books and then track its frequency over time in the Google English corpus. I also measure the popularity of feudal ideology by applying the same method to a sample of christian bibles. I find that over the last four centuries, biblical language fell out of favor and was replaced by the language of economics. Surprisingly, however, I find that since the 1980s, the trend has reversed. Today, the language of , . passed the peak of capitalist ideology?
The end is (not) near Among leftists, predicting the end of capitalism is a favorite parlor game. For example, as a graduate 2010 , 1976 Capital and being struck by the introduction. Written by the Belgian Marxist Erne , -century (Mandel, 1976). ( social orders rarel , a peak.
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. ,
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The goal of this post is to chart the rise (and potent ) . , . ( ). is primarily an ideology Capitalism is a set of ideas that justify the modern social order.
. , , B
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talism (2009).
Although there are many ways to chart the rise of capitalism, what interests me here is that it was the . (and potential peak) should be visible in the word frequency of written language. F
, , that capitalist jargon should become more common. And feudal jargon should become . , .B , o . , in question (capitalism or feudalism). And from there, I let the jargon of the text speak for itself. The
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