A brief history of capitalism: book review

Name: Talking to my daughter: A brief history of capitalism

Author: Yanis Varoufakis

Number of pages: 209

Publisher: Penguin.co.uk.vintage

Published in Greek language in 2013

published in translated version in 2017 and later in 2019 by Vintage

Yanis Vaorufakis was born in Greece, Athens, in 1961. He worked as a professor of Economics in Britain, Australia and the USA, before becoming the finance minister of Greece in 2015. He believed that economy is not merely a matter of economists, but everybody who shares it. Since most books are written in a technical language, undecodable  by the target audience, the author aimed at writing a formula that is fathomable and doesn't complicate a young reader's mind.

Originally written in Greek language and later having the honor of being translated by the author himself, the book was motivated by distance that stood as a barrier between Xenia, the daughter who lives in Australia, and her father, a man of his own country. I was really touched when the author admitted" Talking as if to her about things that scarcity of time never allowed us to discuss felt good"

What could be a better tool than writing to express your life experiences to your loved ones?

A brief history of Capitalism is divided into 8 chapters each of them having embraced a fascinating title such as' the black magic of banking' or ' the marriage of debt and profit'. In an attempt to explain Capitalism and its birth, the author dived into the details of how debt fuels markets. Everything  started with one businessman/woman who borrowed a handsome sum of money from the bank, and promised to return with an added interest. Unaware of how much, if any, profit was decreed for this entrepreneur's venture, he runs into a vicious cycle of generating more and more money to avoid defaulting. In order to repay the loans, the entrepreneur's main focus becomes getting a surplus. Business remains nothing but a competition, the winner of which lost most of what he earned, beforehand.

But where did the bank lent the money from, like Xenia and all of us think? From 'thin air'. The same 'thin air' that the state or government owned banks will lend money from, when conventional banks come to the reality of paying depositors willing to withdraw real cash. 

One key idea of the book formed the idea of experiential value being replaced by exchange value. Capitalism, referred as market societies in the book, caused everything to appear as a commodity. For example, If fresh red apples are deemed to have an exchange value, a capitalist would perhaps add, so does the tree they are hanging from. Hence plucking an apple or flattening a tree tantamount to each other with regards to both of them having the capability of producing a an exchange value. However, our ancestors who had the luxury of leaning against the trees, looking at the sky and enjoying the juicy apple may be the only people to describe to us the experiential value of an apple tree.

The problem of capitalism is that it promises a plenty before anything is actually out there to be promised for. Therefore the collapse is destructive and there is no in between.  Market societies can either give birth to 'too rich' or 'too poor' because they are products of the same equation. The author writes this quite meticulously " But we do not for a moment allow ourselves to think that their deprivation may be the product of the same process that led to our affluence"

I could connect the above-stated notion with things that I have learned regarding businesses in Islamic jurisprudence. for example, it is not allowed to sell a thing that has yet not come into existence or is not tangibly present in the seller's hand,( exceptional cases and opinions do exist) unlike today's market where goods are sold before being produced. If implemented thoroughly and principally, Islamic jurisprudence has all the principles to prevent Capitalism and it's harms. My disagreement with the book also lies in the same spectrum where the author placed Islam with all other religions and used a general approach towards commenting on them. I believe  he could have been more vigilant or at least done greater research on the Islamic system of economics.

Reading , as I do, in a way that helps me appreciate and accommodate different writing styles into that of my own, I discovered that jargon is not always the key to a good book. The Greek writer was a real example of writing an interesting book without adding unnecessary technicalities. The writing style of the author which revolved around stories and Greek tales that he used, quite effectively, to connect the concepts and build a bridge between economy and a father-daughter conversation, lightened the book and decreased any uncanniness with the subject. 

The book ends with an interesting epilogue and creates an analogy that hinted toward the vision of author behind giving Xenia her name. 

I felt that the book is a good-read for everyone and for young audience in particular. We tend to be  the new victims of market societies and hence it falls on our shoulders to educate ourselves and save our economic futures from the fake promises of Capitalism. 

The End