Structural Analysis of The Economist Blog

The blog has got a revealing title: Schumpeter. Since he is a an Austrian-American economist who likened capitalism to a "perennial gale of creative destruction"  you can immediately understand that the blog will be about capitalism. In fact as you can see from the subheading, that is An A-Z of business quotations you can notice that the site records definitions and quotations about typical words of business according to the English alphabet. Sure enough, the text that goes under the title “Capitalism” starts with the words “we have reached letter C”.

The first paragraph of the text has the function of introducing the whole analysis of capitalism. Since its thesis is “Capitalism means different things to different people” keeping reading you can find different quotations from different people about capitalism.

Al Capone’s quotation is the first. His idea of capitalism is strictly linked to the concept of power. In order to describe his idea he used words belonging to the semantic field of mafia, such as “racket”.

Winston Churchill claimed that everyone has a different idea of capitalism. He conveyed this idea thanks to the use of metaphors.  

Thomas Freeman has got a positive opinion about capitalism. But he makes a difference using “freemarket”. So, according to Freeman capitalism is a good economic system only if it linked to a freemarket system.

John Mayanrd Keynes has not got a positive vision of capitalism because he parodies it in his quotation.

Likewise, Naomi Klein declared her negative idea of capitalism using words such as crisis in order to convey her perplexities about this economic system.

The following quotation is from Karl Marx. His idea of capitalism seems to be a positive one but the adjective “occult” will immediately make your thought change. On one hand he found capitalism as a commodity to use in economy but on the other he described it as an occult system.

Keeping on reading you can find two quotations from Schumpeter who named the blog page. He hasn’t got a positive idea about capitalism and it describes it as a strange process that can never reach its achievement.

Instead Samuel Smiles’ quotation conveys the idea of capitalism as saving. Thomas Sowell‘s quotation contains a metaphor that explains his concept: he thinks that capitalism is a blind process that doesn’t consider anyone.

The final quotation explains the main cause that allows the survival of capitalism, that is “to became rich is glorious”.

So it is interesting to notice that through these quotations capitalism isn’t definitely stated.