All Kinds of Capital?

Where did the idea come from that all resources and relationships of value are some type of capital?

If our society was based on the domination of resources, we could have resource-ism. But, in fact, our actual system, capitalism, is characterized by the domination of capital, a particular type of resource, which is or can be relatively easily converted to money. Capitalism is a specific historical phenomenon that emerged in a specific historic economic context.

At a point in time when more and more people are understanding the problems associated with capitalism and beginning to criticise capitalism, it is not an accident that all forms of value are being called one or another type of capital, thus muting or silencing the critique of the domination of capital. More and more people recognize the need for ending the unlimited accumulation of capital and ending the domination of capital over communities of people, replacing it with authentic, deep democracy.

Gifts, grants, social relations, civic involvement, political influence, spiritual values, knowledge and moral consistency are all important, but they are not capital. Of course, they have value, but in this world it is important to recognize the particular role that money that is used just to get more money, plays. We need to understand that money as capital takes on an intermediate form as the means of production. The control over the means of production sets the conditions of life for us all.