1
00:00:00,269 --> 00:00:01,042
Hi, I’m John Green;

2
00:00:01,042 --> 00:00:02,679
this is Crash Course World History

3
00:00:02,679 --> 00:00:04,045
and today we’re going to talk about

4
00:00:04,045 --> 00:00:05,042
capitalism.
[off we go then!]

5
00:00:05,042 --> 00:00:06,009
Yeah, Mr. Green,

6
00:00:06,009 --> 00:00:07,058
capitalism just turns men into wolves.

7
00:00:07,058 --> 00:00:10,098
Your purportedly free markets
only make slaves of us all.

8
00:00:10,098 --> 00:00:11,789
Oh, God, Stan,

9
00:00:11,789 --> 00:00:12,076
it’s Me from College.

10
00:00:12,076 --> 00:00:13,032
Me from the Past

11
00:00:13,032 --> 00:00:14,549
has become Me from College.

12
00:00:14,549 --> 00:00:15,057
This is a disaster.

13
00:00:15,057 --> 00:00:16,061
The reason he’s so unbearable,

14
00:00:16,061 --> 00:00:16,099
Stan,

15
00:00:16,099 --> 00:00:19,012
is that he refuses to
recognize the legitimacy

16
00:00:19,012 --> 00:00:20,036
of other people’s narratives

17
00:00:20,036 --> 00:00:21,032
and that means that he will

18
00:00:21,032 --> 00:00:22,039
never, ever

19
00:00:22,039 --> 00:00:26,003
be able to have a productive conversation
with another human in his entire life.

20
00:00:26,003 --> 00:00:26,039
[harsh much, Mr. Green?]

21
00:00:26,039 --> 00:00:27,002
So, listen, Me from the Past,

22
00:00:27,002 --> 00:00:29,008
I’m going to disappoint you
by being too capitalist.

23
00:00:29,008 --> 00:00:30,057
And I’m going to disappoint
a lot of other people

24
00:00:30,057 --> 00:00:32,128
by not being capitalist enough.
[100% guaranteed]

25
00:00:32,128 --> 00:00:32,219
And,

26
00:00:32,219 --> 00:00:33,046
I’m going to disappoint the historians

27
00:00:33,046 --> 00:00:35,019
by not using enough jargon.
[and Stan. Stan loves jargon]

28
00:00:35,019 --> 00:00:35,084
But, what can I do?

29
00:00:35,084 --> 00:00:37,004
We only have 12 minutes. [ish]

30
00:00:37,004 --> 00:00:37,037
Fortunately

31
00:00:37,037 --> 00:00:40,000
capitalism is all about efficiency
so let’s do this,

32
00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:40,078
Me from College.

33
00:00:40,078 --> 00:00:42,042
Randy Riggs becomes a bestselling author;
[I love pictures & the word peculiar]

34
00:00:42,042 --> 00:00:43,007
Josh Radnor stars in a great sitcom;
[Ted Mosby is super Rad(nor), Josh]

35
00:00:43,007 --> 00:00:46,005
it is NOT GOING TO WORK OUT with Emily,

36
00:00:46,005 --> 00:00:49,073
and DO NOT go to Alaska with
a girl you’ve known for 10 days.

37
00:00:49,073 --> 00:00:50,025
[Shenanigans?]

38
00:00:50,025 --> 00:00:52,329
OKAY, LET’S TALK CAPITALISM.

39
00:00:52,329 --> 00:00:53,037
[Intro music]

40
00:00:53,037 --> 00:00:54,041
[intro music]

41
00:00:54,041 --> 00:00:55,044
[intro music]

42
00:00:55,044 --> 00:00:56,048
[intro music]

43
00:00:56,048 --> 00:00:57,052
[intro music]

44
00:00:57,052 --> 00:00:58,559
[intro music]

45
00:00:58,559 --> 00:00:59,006
[intro music]

46
00:00:59,006 --> 00:01:01,017
So, capitalism is an economic system,

47
00:01:01,017 --> 00:01:02,068
but it’s also a cultural system.

48
00:01:02,068 --> 00:01:05,289
It’s characterized by innovation
and investment to increase wealth.

49
00:01:05,289 --> 00:01:07,003
But today we’re going
to focus on production and

50
00:01:07,003 --> 00:01:09,039
how industrial capitalism changed it.

51
00:01:09,039 --> 00:01:09,209
Stan,

52
00:01:09,209 --> 00:01:10,088
I can’t wear these emblems
of the bourgeoisie

53
00:01:10,088 --> 00:01:14,081
while Karl Marx himself is looking at me.

54
00:01:14,081 --> 00:01:16,092
It’s ridiculous.

55
00:01:16,092 --> 00:01:19,039
I’m changing.

56
00:01:19,039 --> 00:01:20,085
Very hard to take off a shirt dramatically.

57
00:01:20,085 --> 00:01:21,045
[or unsuggestively]

58
00:01:21,045 --> 00:01:24,549
So let’s say it’s 1,200 CE
and you’re a rug merchant.

59
00:01:24,549 --> 00:01:25,369
Just like merchants today,

60
00:01:25,369 --> 00:01:28,119
you sometimes need to borrow money
in order to buy the rugs

61
00:01:28,119 --> 00:01:29,529
you want to resell at a profit,

62
00:01:29,529 --> 00:01:31,039
and then you pay that money back,

63
00:01:31,039 --> 00:01:32,034
often with interest,

64
00:01:32,034 --> 00:01:33,067
once you’ve resold the rugs.

65
00:01:33,067 --> 00:01:35,119
This is called mercantile capitalism,

66
00:01:35,119 --> 00:01:36,289
and it was a global phenomenon,

67
00:01:36,289 --> 00:01:37,024
from the Chinese to

68
00:01:37,024 --> 00:01:38,399
the Indian Ocean trade network

69
00:01:38,399 --> 00:01:41,789
to Muslim merchants who would sponsor trade
caravans across the Sahara.

70
00:01:41,789 --> 00:01:43,002
But by the 17th century,

71
00:01:43,002 --> 00:01:44,429
merchants in the Netherlands
and in Britain

72
00:01:44,429 --> 00:01:47,619
had expanded upon this idea
to create joint stock companies.

73
00:01:47,619 --> 00:01:49,669
Those companies could finance
bigger trade missions and

74
00:01:49,669 --> 00:01:52,099
also spread the risk of
international trade.

75
00:01:52,099 --> 00:01:53,229
But the thing about international trade

76
00:01:53,229 --> 00:01:54,599
is sometimes boats sink

77
00:01:54,599 --> 00:01:56,289
or they get taken by pirates,
[Aaarrr!]

78
00:01:56,289 --> 00:01:58,369
and while that’s bad
if you’re a sailor because,

79
00:01:58,369 --> 00:01:58,819
you know,

80
00:01:58,819 --> 00:01:59,729
you lose your life,

81
00:01:59,729 --> 00:02:01,889
it’s really bad if you’re a
mercantile capitalist

82
00:02:01,889 --> 00:02:03,219
because you lost all your money.

83
00:02:03,219 --> 00:02:06,889
But if you own one tenth of ten boats,
your risk is much better managed.

84
00:02:06,889 --> 00:02:07,239
[but is mischief managed?]

85
00:02:07,239 --> 00:02:09,038
That kind of investment
definitely increased wealth,

86
00:02:09,038 --> 00:02:11,079
but it only affected
a sliver of the population,

87
00:02:11,079 --> 00:02:14,064
and it didn’t create
a culture of capitalism.

88
00:02:14,064 --> 00:02:16,069
Industrial Capitalism was
something altogether different,

89
00:02:16,069 --> 00:02:18,022
both in scale and in practice.

90
00:02:18,022 --> 00:02:21,007
Let’s use Joyce Appleby’s
definition of industrial capitalism:

91
00:02:21,007 --> 00:02:24,008
"An economic system that relies on
investment of capital in machines and

92
00:02:24,008 --> 00:02:28,046
technology that are used to increase
production of marketable goods.”

93
00:02:28,046 --> 00:02:28,073
So,

94
00:02:28,073 --> 00:02:30,035
imagine that someone made a Stan Machine.
[lots of Stantastic possibilities there]

95
00:02:30,035 --> 00:02:30,097
By the way, Stan,

96
00:02:30,097 --> 00:02:32,025
this is a remarkable likeness.

97
00:02:32,025 --> 00:02:35,069
And that Stan Machine could produce
and direct ten times more episodes

98
00:02:35,069 --> 00:02:37,096
of Crash Course than a human Stan.
[not super sure Stan's not a robot, btw]

99
00:02:37,096 --> 00:02:38,014
Well, of course,

100
00:02:38,014 --> 00:02:40,001
even if there are
significant upfront costs,

101
00:02:40,001 --> 00:02:41,091
I’m going to invest in a Stan Machine,

102
00:02:41,091 --> 00:02:44,056
so I can start cranking out
ten times the knowledge.

103
00:02:44,056 --> 00:02:44,071
Stan,

104
00:02:44,071 --> 00:02:46,006
are you focusing on the robot
instead of me?

105
00:02:46,006 --> 00:02:47,084
I am the star of the show!
[sounds like unemployment, Stanimal]

106
00:02:47,084 --> 00:02:48,024
Stan Bot,

107
00:02:48,024 --> 00:02:49,025
you’re going behind the globe.

108
00:02:49,025 --> 00:02:49,045
So,

109
00:02:49,045 --> 00:02:51,021
when most of us think of capitalism,

110
00:02:51,021 --> 00:02:52,079
especially when we think
about its downsides

111
00:02:52,079 --> 00:02:55,097
(long hours, low wages,
miserable working conditions,

112
00:02:55,097 --> 00:02:58,055
child labor, unemployed Stans)
[doing yo-yo tricks on the Indy streets]

113
00:02:58,055 --> 00:02:59,005
that’s what we’re thinking about.

114
00:02:59,005 --> 00:03:00,012
Now admittedly

115
00:03:00,012 --> 00:03:02,089
this is just one definition of
industrial capitalism among many,

116
00:03:02,089 --> 00:03:04,068
but it’s the definition we’re going with.

117
00:03:04,068 --> 00:03:04,092
Alright,

118
00:03:04,092 --> 00:03:06,034
let’s go to the Thought Bubble.

119
00:03:06,034 --> 00:03:09,045
Industrial capitalism developed first
in Britain in the 19th century.

120
00:03:09,045 --> 00:03:10,067
Britain had a bunch of advantages:

121
00:03:10,067 --> 00:03:12,044
It was the dominant power on the seas

122
00:03:12,044 --> 00:03:15,011
and it was making good money off of
trade with its colonies,

123
00:03:15,011 --> 00:03:16,035
including the slave trade.

124
00:03:16,035 --> 00:03:16,076
Also,

125
00:03:16,076 --> 00:03:19,049
the growth of capitalism was helped
by the half-century of

126
00:03:19,049 --> 00:03:23,034
civil unrest that resulted from the
17th century English Civil War.

127
00:03:23,034 --> 00:03:23,078
Now,

128
00:03:23,078 --> 00:03:27,042
I’m not advocating for civil wars or
anything, but in this particular case

129
00:03:27,042 --> 00:03:28,048
it was useful,

130
00:03:28,048 --> 00:03:29,046
because before the war

131
00:03:29,046 --> 00:03:32,097
the British crown had put a lot
of regulations on the economy—

132
00:03:32,097 --> 00:03:35,044
complicated licenses,
royal monopolies, etc.

133
00:03:35,044 --> 00:03:38,022
—but during the turmoil,
it couldn’t enforce them,

134
00:03:38,022 --> 00:03:40,031
which made for freer markets.

135
00:03:40,031 --> 00:03:43,044
Another factor was a remarkable increase
in agricultural productivity

136
00:03:43,044 --> 00:03:44,099
in the 16th century.

137
00:03:44,099 --> 00:03:46,064
As food prices started to rise,

138
00:03:46,064 --> 00:03:48,319
it became profitable for farmers,

139
00:03:48,319 --> 00:03:49,065
both large and small,

140
00:03:49,065 --> 00:03:53,075
to invest in agricultural technologies
that would improve crop yields.

141
00:03:53,075 --> 00:03:57,319
Those higher prices for grain probably
resulted from population growth,

142
00:03:57,319 --> 00:04:00,029
which in turn was encouraged by
increased production of food crops.

143
00:04:00,029 --> 00:04:03,008
A number of these agricultural
improvements came from the Dutch,

144
00:04:03,008 --> 00:04:05,033
who had chronic problems feeding
themselves and discovered

145
00:04:05,033 --> 00:04:07,029
that planting different kinds of crops,

146
00:04:07,029 --> 00:04:10,015
like clover that added nitrogen
to the soil and could be used

147
00:04:10,015 --> 00:04:12,069
to feed livestock at the same time,

148
00:04:12,069 --> 00:04:14,044
meant that more fields could
be used at once.

149
00:04:14,044 --> 00:04:16,798
This increased productivity
eventually brought down prices,

150
00:04:16,798 --> 00:04:18,459
and this encouraged further innovation

151
00:04:18,459 --> 00:04:21,488
in order to increase yield to
make up for the drop in prices.

152
00:04:21,488 --> 00:04:23,006
Lower food prices had an added benefit –

153
00:04:23,006 --> 00:04:26,031
since food cost less and
wages in England remained high,

154
00:04:26,031 --> 00:04:28,002
workers would have more
disposable income,

155
00:04:28,002 --> 00:04:29,949
which meant that if there
were consumer goods available,

156
00:04:29,949 --> 00:04:31,052
they would be consumed,

157
00:04:31,052 --> 00:04:34,081
which incentivized people to make
consumer goods more efficiently,

158
00:04:34,081 --> 00:04:36,015
and therefore more cheaply.

159
00:04:36,015 --> 00:04:36,569
You can see how

160
00:04:36,569 --> 00:04:40,036
this positive feedback loop
leads to more food and more stuff,

161
00:04:40,036 --> 00:04:42,086
culminating in a world where people
have so much stuff

162
00:04:42,086 --> 00:04:45,037
that we must rent space to store it,

163
00:04:45,037 --> 00:04:46,068
and so much food

164
00:04:46,068 --> 00:04:49,229
that obesity has become a bigger
killer than starvation.

165
00:04:49,229 --> 00:04:50,037
Thanks, Thought Bubble.

166
00:04:50,037 --> 00:04:53,289
So this increased productivity also meant
that fewer people needed to

167
00:04:53,289 --> 00:04:56,008
work in agriculture in order
to feed the population.

168
00:04:56,008 --> 00:04:57,034
To put this in perspective,

169
00:04:57,034 --> 00:05:01,002
in 1520, 80% of the English
population worked the land.

170
00:05:01,002 --> 00:05:06,139
By 1800, only 36% of adult male
laborers were working in agriculture,

171
00:05:06,139 --> 00:05:09,289
and by 1850,
that percentage had dropped to 25.

172
00:05:09,289 --> 00:05:11,069
This meant that when
the factories started humming,

173
00:05:11,069 --> 00:05:13,055
there were plenty of workers
to hum along with them.

174
00:05:13,055 --> 00:05:14,159
[humming < obnoxious than whistling]

175
00:05:14,159 --> 00:05:18,005
Especially child laborers.

176
00:05:18,005 --> 00:05:19,259
So far all this sounds pretty good,

177
00:05:19,259 --> 00:05:19,043
right?

178
00:05:19,043 --> 00:05:20,087
I mean, except for the child labor.

179
00:05:20,087 --> 00:05:23,569
Who wouldn’t want more, cheaper food?

180
00:05:23,569 --> 00:05:25,169
Yeah, well, not so fast.

181
00:05:25,169 --> 00:05:28,529
One of the ways the British achieved
all this agricultural productivity

182
00:05:28,529 --> 00:05:30,052
was through the process of enclosure.

183
00:05:30,052 --> 00:05:33,005
Whereby landlords would re-claim
and privatize fields

184
00:05:33,005 --> 00:05:35,009
that for centuries had been held
in common by multiple tenants.

185
00:05:35,009 --> 00:05:36,479
[they busted up hippie communes?]

186
00:05:36,479 --> 00:05:37,087
This increased agricultural productivity,

187
00:05:37,087 --> 00:05:40,018
but it also impoverished
many tenant farmers,

188
00:05:40,018 --> 00:05:41,639
many of whom lost their livelihoods.

189
00:05:41,639 --> 00:05:43,036
Okay, for our purposes,

190
00:05:43,036 --> 00:05:44,969
capitalism is also a cultural system,

191
00:05:44,969 --> 00:05:48,009
rooted in the need of
private investors to turn a profit.

192
00:05:48,009 --> 00:05:51,449
So the real change needed here
was a change of mind.

193
00:05:51,449 --> 00:05:53,077
People had to develop
the capitalist values of

194
00:05:53,077 --> 00:05:56,002
taking risks and appreciating innovation.

195
00:05:56,002 --> 00:05:58,096
And they had to come to believe that
making an upfront investment in something

196
00:05:58,096 --> 00:05:59,096
like a Stan Machine
[silent mode not optional]

197
00:05:59,096 --> 00:06:01,629
could pay for itself and then some.

198
00:06:01,629 --> 00:06:04,349
One of the reasons that these
values developed in Britain was

199
00:06:04,349 --> 00:06:08,139
that the people who initially held them
were really good at publicizing them.

200
00:06:08,139 --> 00:06:09,002
Writers like Thomas Mun,

201
00:06:09,002 --> 00:06:10,083
who worked for the
English East India Company,

202
00:06:10,083 --> 00:06:13,689
exposed people to the idea that the
economy was controlled by markets.

203
00:06:13,689 --> 00:06:13,809
And,

204
00:06:13,809 --> 00:06:16,309
other writers popularized the idea
that it was human nature

205
00:06:16,309 --> 00:06:19,068
for individuals to participate
in markets as rational actors.

206
00:06:19,068 --> 00:06:21,021
Even our language changed:

207
00:06:21,021 --> 00:06:22,052
the word “individuals”

208
00:06:22,052 --> 00:06:25,749
did not apply to persons until
the 17th century.

209
00:06:25,749 --> 00:06:25,099
And in the 18th century,

210
00:06:25,099 --> 00:06:30,039
a “career” still referred only
to horses’ racing lives.

211
00:06:30,039 --> 00:06:32,849
Perhaps the most important idea
that was popularized in England

212
00:06:32,849 --> 00:06:32,849
[other than safety pin accessories later)

213
00:06:32,849 --> 00:06:36,689
was that men and women were consumers
as well as producers

214
00:06:36,689 --> 00:06:38,055
and that this was actually a good thing

215
00:06:38,055 --> 00:06:41,071
because the desire to
consume manufactured goods

216
00:06:41,071 --> 00:06:43,389
could spur economic growth.

217
00:06:43,389 --> 00:06:47,099
“The main spur to trade,
or rather to industry and ingenuity,

218
00:06:47,099 --> 00:06:51,289
is the exorbitant appetite of men,
which they will take pain to gratify,”

219
00:06:51,289 --> 00:06:52,629
So wrote John Cary,

220
00:06:52,629 --> 00:06:55,379
one of capitalism’s cheerleaders,
in 1695.

221
00:06:55,379 --> 00:06:56,086
And in talking about our appetite,

222
00:06:56,086 --> 00:06:59,036
he wasn’t just talking about food.

223
00:06:59,036 --> 00:07:02,009
That doesn’t seem radical now,
but it sure did back then.

224
00:07:02,009 --> 00:07:03,219
So here in the 21st century,

225
00:07:03,219 --> 00:07:05,039
it’s clear that industrial capitalism—

226
00:07:05,039 --> 00:07:06,689
at least for now—

227
00:07:06,689 --> 00:07:07,619
has won.

228
00:07:07,619 --> 00:07:08,499
Sorry, buddy.

229
00:07:08,499 --> 00:07:10,759
But, you know, you gave it a good run.

230
00:07:10,759 --> 00:07:12,719
You didn’t know about Stalin.
[or the bright future of manscaping]

231
00:07:12,719 --> 00:07:14,027
But capitalism isn’t
without its problems,

232
00:07:14,027 --> 00:07:15,029
or its critics,
["haters" in the parlance of our times]

233
00:07:15,029 --> 00:07:16,749
and there were certainly
lots of shortcomings to

234
00:07:16,749 --> 00:07:19,129
industrial capitalism
in the 19th century.

235
00:07:19,129 --> 00:07:20,509
Working conditions were awful.

236
00:07:20,509 --> 00:07:23,249
Days were long, arduous, and monotonous.

237
00:07:23,249 --> 00:07:25,069
Workers lived in conditions
that people living

238
00:07:25,069 --> 00:07:28,619
in the developed world today
would associate with abject poverty.

239
00:07:28,619 --> 00:07:30,249
One way that workers responded
to these conditions

240
00:07:30,249 --> 00:07:32,169
was by organizing into labor unions.

241
00:07:32,169 --> 00:07:33,919
Another response was in many cases
purely theoretical:

242
00:07:33,919 --> 00:07:35,339
socialism,
[gasp, clutch the pearls]

243
00:07:35,339 --> 00:07:37,018
most famously Marxian socialism.

244
00:07:37,018 --> 00:07:38,169
I should probably point out here

245
00:07:38,169 --> 00:07:41,002
that socialism is an
imperfect opposite to capitalism,

246
00:07:41,002 --> 00:07:43,099
even though the two are often juxtaposed.
[consider that before commenting maybe?]

247
00:07:43,099 --> 00:07:45,249
Capitalism’s defenders like to
point out that it’s “natural,”

248
00:07:45,249 --> 00:07:47,043
meaning that if left to our own devices,

249
00:07:47,043 --> 00:07:51,009
humans would construct economic
relationships that resemble capitalism.

250
00:07:51,009 --> 00:07:52,999
Socialism,
at least in its modern incarnations,

251
00:07:52,999 --> 00:07:55,849
makes fewer pretenses towards being
an expression of human nature;

252
00:07:55,849 --> 00:07:58,619
it’s the result of human choice
and human planning.

253
00:07:58,619 --> 00:08:01,008
So, socialism,
as an intellectual construct,

254
00:08:01,008 --> 00:08:03,849
began in France.
[he spins the whole world in his hand]

255
00:08:03,849 --> 00:08:05,043
How’d I do, Stan?

256
00:08:05,043 --> 00:08:07,027
Mm, in the border between

257
00:08:07,027 --> 00:08:08,229
Egypt and Libya.

258
00:08:08,229 --> 00:08:10,479
There were two branches
of socialism in France,

259
00:08:10,479 --> 00:08:11,999
utopian and revolutionary.

260
00:08:11,999 --> 00:08:13,024
Utopian socialism is often associated

261
00:08:13,024 --> 00:08:15,479
with Comte de Saint Simon
and Charles Fourier,

262
00:08:15,479 --> 00:08:17,669
both of whom rejected
revolutionary action

263
00:08:17,669 --> 00:08:20,589
after having seen the disaster
of the French Revolution.

264
00:08:20,589 --> 00:08:21,759
Both were critical of capitalism

265
00:08:21,759 --> 00:08:24,033
and while Fourier is usually a
punchline in history classes

266
00:08:24,033 --> 00:08:26,909
because he believed that,
in his ideal socialist world,

267
00:08:26,909 --> 00:08:28,419
the seas would turn to lemonade,
[wut]

268
00:08:28,419 --> 00:08:30,409
he was right that
human beings have desires

269
00:08:30,409 --> 00:08:32,010
that go beyond basic self interest,

270
00:08:32,010 --> 00:08:34,008
and that we aren’t always
economically rational actors.

271
00:08:34,008 --> 00:08:34,097
[truth]

272
00:08:34,097 --> 00:08:37,001
The other French socialists
were the revolutionaries,

273
00:08:37,001 --> 00:08:39,539
and they saw the French Revolution,
even its violence,

274
00:08:39,539 --> 00:08:40,919
in a much more positive light.
[Vive Goddard!]

275
00:08:40,919 --> 00:08:43,729
The most important of these revolutionaries
was Auguste Blanqui,

276
00:08:43,729 --> 00:08:47,071
and we associate a lot of his ideas with
communism, which is a term that he used.

277
00:08:47,071 --> 00:08:49,085
Like the utopians,
he criticized capitalism,

278
00:08:49,085 --> 00:08:51,007
but he believed that
it could only be overthrown

279
00:08:51,007 --> 00:08:54,039
through violent revolution
by the working classes.

280
00:08:54,039 --> 00:08:54,085
However,

281
00:08:54,085 --> 00:08:58,028
while Blanqui thought that the workers
would come to dominate a communist world,

282
00:08:58,028 --> 00:08:59,041
he was an elitist.
[by which you mean an arugula eater?]

283
00:08:59,041 --> 00:09:01,066
And he believed that workers on their own
could never, on their own,

284
00:09:01,066 --> 00:09:04,048
overcome their superstitions and
their prejudices in order to

285
00:09:04,048 --> 00:09:06,002
throw off bourgeois oppression.
[interesting]

286
00:09:06,002 --> 00:09:07,008
And that brings us to Karl Marx,

287
00:09:07,008 --> 00:09:11,052
whose ideas and beard cast a shadow
over most of the 20th century.

288
00:09:11,052 --> 00:09:13,017
Oh, it’s time for the Open Letter?

289
00:09:13,017 --> 00:09:15,092
[roll all you want, i'm not looking]

290
00:09:15,092 --> 00:09:18,006
[aloha miss hand]
An Open Letter to Karl Marx’s Beard.

291
00:09:18,006 --> 00:09:19,013
But, first,

292
00:09:19,013 --> 00:09:21,082
let’s see what’s in
the secret compartment today.

293
00:09:21,082 --> 00:09:24,000
Oh, robots.

294
00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:24,091
Stan Bots!

295
00:09:24,091 --> 00:09:26,024
Two Stan Bots,

296
00:09:26,024 --> 00:09:27,077
one of them female!
[a featured female, on Crash Course? ha]

297
00:09:27,077 --> 00:09:30,002
now I own all the means of production.
[no evil laugh and/or mustache twisting?]

298
00:09:30,002 --> 00:09:31,041
You’re officially useless to me, Stan.

299
00:09:31,041 --> 00:09:33,001
Now, turn the camera off.

300
00:09:33,001 --> 00:09:33,039
Turn the ca--

301
00:09:33,039 --> 00:09:37,002
I’m going to have to get up
and turn the camera off?

302
00:09:37,002 --> 00:09:37,052
Stan Bot,

303
00:09:37,052 --> 00:09:38,083
go turn the camera off.

304
00:09:38,083 --> 00:09:40,063
Hey there, Karl Marx’s beard.

305
00:09:40,063 --> 00:09:42,094
Wow, you are intense.
[and probably pretty grody]

306
00:09:42,094 --> 00:09:43,003
Karl Marx,

307
00:09:43,003 --> 00:09:44,089
these days there are a lot of young men

308
00:09:44,089 --> 00:09:46,009
who think beards are cool.

309
00:09:46,009 --> 00:09:47,013
Beard lovers, if you will.
[beardos]

310
00:09:47,013 --> 00:09:47,006
Those aren’t beards,

311
00:09:47,006 --> 00:09:49,001
those are glorified milk mustaches.

312
00:09:49,001 --> 00:09:49,039
I mean,

313
00:09:49,039 --> 00:09:50,089
I haven’t shaved for a couple weeks,
Karl Marx,

314
00:09:50,089 --> 00:09:52,004
but I’m not claiming a beard.
[nothing a solid scrubbing couldn't fix?]

315
00:09:52,004 --> 00:09:53,007
You don’t get a beard by being lazy,

316
00:09:53,007 --> 00:09:55,099
you get a beard
by being a committed revolutionary.

317
00:09:55,099 --> 00:09:59,068
That’s why hardcore Marxists are literally
known as

318
00:09:59,068 --> 00:10:01,097
“Bearded Marxists.” [not to be confused
w/ "Mulleted Marxists" from the 80's]

319
00:10:01,097 --> 00:10:02,044
These days, that’s an insult.

320
00:10:02,044 --> 00:10:03,022
But you know what, Karl Marx,

321
00:10:03,022 --> 00:10:06,077
when I look back at history,
I prefer the bearded communists.

322
00:10:06,077 --> 00:10:09,026
Let’s talk about some communists
who didn’t have beards:

323
00:10:09,026 --> 00:10:10,021
Mao Zedong,

324
00:10:10,021 --> 00:10:11,016
Pol Pot,

325
00:10:11,016 --> 00:10:12,011
Kim Jong-il,

326
00:10:12,011 --> 00:10:14,092
Joseph freakin’ Stalin
with his face caterpillar.

327
00:10:14,092 --> 00:10:15,097
So, yeah, Karl Marx’s beard,

328
00:10:15,097 --> 00:10:17,043
it’s my great regret to inform you

329
00:10:17,043 --> 00:10:22,024
that there are some paltry beards trying
to take up the class struggle these days.

330
00:10:22,024 --> 00:10:23,058
Best Wishes,
John Green

331
00:10:23,058 --> 00:10:25,068
Although he’s often considered
the father of communism,

332
00:10:25,068 --> 00:10:27,009
because he co-wrote
The Communist Manifesto,

333
00:10:27,009 --> 00:10:30,005
Marx was above all a philosopher
and a historian.

334
00:10:30,005 --> 00:10:33,013
It’s just that,
unlike many philosophers and historians,

335
00:10:33,013 --> 00:10:34,009
he advocated for revolution.

336
00:10:34,009 --> 00:10:36,035
His greatest work, Das Kapital,

337
00:10:36,035 --> 00:10:38,007
sets out to explain the world
of the 19th century

338
00:10:38,007 --> 00:10:40,095
in historical and philosophical terms.

339
00:10:40,095 --> 00:10:42,058
Marx’s thinking is deep and dense

340
00:10:42,058 --> 00:10:45,019
and we’re low on time,
but I want to introduce one of his ideas,

341
00:10:45,019 --> 00:10:45,097
that of class struggle.

342
00:10:45,097 --> 00:10:46,059
[yeah buddy, here we go]

343
00:10:46,059 --> 00:10:47,015
So, for Marx,

344
00:10:47,015 --> 00:10:49,091
the focus isn’t on the class,
it’s on the struggle.

345
00:10:49,091 --> 00:10:53,006
Basically Marx believed that classes
don’t only struggle to make history,

346
00:10:53,006 --> 00:10:56,035
but that the struggle is what
makes classes into themselves.

347
00:10:56,035 --> 00:10:59,071
The idea is that through conflict,
classes develop a sense of themselves,

348
00:10:59,071 --> 00:11:01,019
and without conflict,

349
00:11:01,019 --> 00:11:03,035
there is no such thing
as class consciousness.

350
00:11:03,035 --> 00:11:03,085
So,

351
00:11:03,085 --> 00:11:07,032
Marx was writing in 19th century England
and there were two classes that mattered:

352
00:11:07,032 --> 00:11:09,041
the workers and the capitalists.

353
00:11:09,041 --> 00:11:12,005
The capitalists owned most
of the factors of production

354
00:11:12,005 --> 00:11:15,069
(in this case, land and
the capital to invest in factories).

355
00:11:15,069 --> 00:11:17,085
The workers just had their labor.

356
00:11:17,085 --> 00:11:20,034
So, the class struggle here
is between capitalists,

357
00:11:20,034 --> 00:11:22,058
who want labor at
the lowest possible price,

358
00:11:22,058 --> 00:11:25,083
and the workers who want to be paid
as much as possible for their work.

359
00:11:25,083 --> 00:11:28,048
There are two key ideas that underlie
this theory of class struggle.

360
00:11:28,048 --> 00:11:28,099
First,

361
00:11:28,099 --> 00:11:31,011
Marx believed that “production,” or work,

362
00:11:31,011 --> 00:11:34,017
was the thing that gave
life material meaning.

363
00:11:34,017 --> 00:11:34,047
Second,

364
00:11:34,047 --> 00:11:36,078
is that we are by nature
social [St]animals.

365
00:11:36,078 --> 00:11:38,088
We work together, we collaborate,

366
00:11:38,088 --> 00:11:41,096
we are more efficient when
we share resources.

367
00:11:41,096 --> 00:11:43,063
Marx’s criticism of capitalism is

368
00:11:43,063 --> 00:11:48,072
that capitalism replaces this
egalitarian collaboration with conflict.

369
00:11:48,072 --> 00:11:52,002
And that means that it isn’t
a natural system after all.

370
00:11:52,002 --> 00:11:55,033
And by arguing that capitalism actually
isn’t consistent with human nature,

371
00:11:55,033 --> 00:11:56,095
Marx sought to empower the workers.

372
00:11:56,095 --> 00:12:00,021
That’s a lot more attractive
than Blanqui’s elitist socialism,

373
00:12:00,021 --> 00:12:01,098
and while purportedly Marxist states

374
00:12:01,098 --> 00:12:02,095
like the USSR

375
00:12:02,095 --> 00:12:05,076
usually abandon worker empowerment
pretty quickly,

376
00:12:05,076 --> 00:12:09,025
the idea of protecting our
collective interest remains powerful.

377
00:12:09,025 --> 00:12:10,086
That’s where we’ll have to
leave it for now,

378
00:12:10,086 --> 00:12:12,064
lest I start reading from
The Communist Manifesto.

379
00:12:12,064 --> 00:12:13,000
[noooooo!]

380
00:12:13,000 --> 00:12:16,035
But, ultimately socialism has not
succeeded in supplanting capitalism,

381
00:12:16,035 --> 00:12:17,007
as its proponents had hoped.

382
00:12:17,007 --> 00:12:18,084
In the United States, at least,

383
00:12:18,084 --> 00:12:21,008
“socialism” has become something
of a dirty word.

384
00:12:21,008 --> 00:12:21,051
So,

385
00:12:21,051 --> 00:12:23,057
industrial capitalism certainly
seems to have won out,

386
00:12:23,057 --> 00:12:25,028
and in terms of material well being

387
00:12:25,028 --> 00:12:28,063
and access to goods and services for
people around the world,

388
00:12:28,063 --> 00:12:29,085
that’s probably a good thing.

389
00:12:29,085 --> 00:12:30,018
Ugh,

390
00:12:30,018 --> 00:12:31,042
you keep falling over.

391
00:12:31,042 --> 00:12:32,052
You’re a great bit,

392
00:12:32,052 --> 00:12:33,071
but a very flimsy one.

393
00:12:33,071 --> 00:12:34,048
Actually, come to think of it,

394
00:12:34,048 --> 00:12:35,041
you’re more of an 8-bit.
[haha… um, crickets]

395
00:12:35,041 --> 00:12:36,047
But how and to what extent

396
00:12:36,047 --> 00:12:41,028
we use socialist principles to regulate
free markets remains an open question,

397
00:12:41,028 --> 00:12:43,063
and one that is answered
very differently in, say,

398
00:12:43,063 --> 00:12:45,037
Sweden than in the United States.
[lingonberries & Skarsgards pwn]

399
00:12:45,037 --> 00:12:46,019
And this, I would argue,

400
00:12:46,019 --> 00:12:48,045
is where Marx still matters.

401
00:12:48,045 --> 00:12:50,068
Is capitalist competition
natural and good,

402
00:12:50,068 --> 00:12:52,012
or should there be systems in place

403
00:12:52,012 --> 00:12:54,088
to check it for the sake of
our collective well-being?

404
00:12:54,088 --> 00:12:57,002
Should we band together to
provide health care for the sick,

405
00:12:57,002 --> 00:12:57,038
[and that's Jenga]

406
00:12:57,038 --> 00:12:58,079
or pensions for the old?

407
00:12:58,079 --> 00:13:00,019
Should government run businesses,

408
00:13:00,019 --> 00:13:01,042
and if so, which ones?

409
00:13:01,042 --> 00:13:02,073
The mail delivery business?
[stamps are awesome.<3 you USPS]

410
00:13:02,073 --> 00:13:04,043
The airport security business?

411
00:13:04,043 --> 00:13:05,088
The education business?

412
00:13:05,088 --> 00:13:06,063
Those are the places where

413
00:13:06,063 --> 00:13:09,009
industrial capitalism and socialism
are still competing.

414
00:13:09,009 --> 00:13:12,048
And in that sense, at least,
the struggle continues.

415
00:13:12,048 --> 00:13:12,093
Thanks for watching,

416
00:13:12,093 --> 00:13:14,013
I’ll see you next week.

417
00:13:14,013 --> 00:13:14,086
Crash Course is

418
00:13:14,086 --> 00:13:16,001
produced and directed by
Stan Muller.

419
00:13:16,001 --> 00:13:17,088
Our script supervisor is
Danica Johnson.

420
00:13:17,088 --> 00:13:20,019
The show is written by
my high school history teacher,

421
00:13:20,019 --> 00:13:21,041
Raoul Meyer and myself.

422
00:13:21,041 --> 00:13:23,048
We’re ably interned by
Meredith Danko.

423
00:13:23,048 --> 00:13:25,044
And our graphics team is
Thought Bubble.

424
00:13:25,044 --> 00:13:26,087
Last week’s phrase of the week was

425
00:13:26,087 --> 00:13:27,011
“the TARDIS,”

426
00:13:27,011 --> 00:13:29,005
so you can stop suggesting that now!

427
00:13:29,005 --> 00:13:30,081
If you want to suggest
future phrases of the week

428
00:13:30,081 --> 00:13:31,073
or guess at this week’s,

429
00:13:31,073 --> 00:13:32,085
you can do so in comments,

430
00:13:32,085 --> 00:13:34,072
where you can also ask questions
about today’s video

431
00:13:34,072 --> 00:13:36,055
that will be answered by
our team of historians.

432
00:13:36,055 --> 00:13:37,065
Thanks for watching Crash Course,

433
00:13:37,065 --> 00:13:38,078
and as we say in my hometown,

434
00:13:38,078 --> 00:13:40,064
don’t forget You are my density.

435
00:13:40,064 --> 00:13:41,026
Alright, Stan,

436
00:13:41,026 --> 00:13:42,072
bring the movie magic...

437
00:13:42,072 --> 00:13:42,082
Yes!

438
00:13:42,082 --> 00:13:42,093
[outro]

439
00:13:42,093 --> 99:59:59,999
[outro]