This question <710|710> overall <707|709> Melissa: <625|82>. graded A–  
  Question 749: Which violent means did capital use in its infancy to sweep away the bounds imposed on its accumulation by the natural limits of the exploitable working population?   
  [708] Melissa: Violence is not the answer.   Where to start? The capitalists used many different violent means in its infancy, some still used today. One of the violent means, turning one laborer against the next laborer, this is one that was used and is still being used today. If the pool of laborers is quite higher than the number of laborers needed, you will have people who will do anything to keep a job or get a job. Including work for a lesser wage, or working longer hours. Both of these will result in more profits in the Capitalists pocket. Child labor is another violent mean, capital used in its infancy. A Capitalist could pay a child far less than what he would have to pay an adult to do the same work. Laws that have been put in place to restrict some of these violent means have certainly helped the issue. However, you really wouldn't have to look too hard to find some form of them still being used today. You hear more often of companies “ranking” their employees. I feel this is just another violent means the capitalist can use to exploit the laborer even more. Hanging the worry of a lay-off or firing over the laborer's head makes them work harder to get the higher ranking. We certainly have come a long way, but we still have a ways to go...   
  Hans: You are right to call these contemporary means violent. They are violent in essence, although not outwardly violent. A Marxist would say that this inherent violence of the system is the reason for the hight incidence of crime and war in a capitalist system.   
  Nevertheless it would be informative to compare today's means with those from the infancy in capitalism.   
  In its infancy, capitalism was indeed outwardly bloody and violent. None of the answers in the archives so far give describe these methods, except for a brief allusion in my comment about [2005fa:1834]  
 
 
 
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