I agree with everything said here and appreciate your nuanced take, but:
Capitalism’s obsession with wealth as the primary means of accumulating power means the old notion of noblesse oblige, wherein the social contract could be invoked against the elite, is greatly weakened. Instead, our social contract is directly with the state, creating a ‘middleman’ situation wherein we struggle to make demands directly against capitalist elites, who are not reliant on our direct cooperation the way feudal and clientistic societies are. The capitalists do not need goodwill - the state they rely on needs goodwill. The capitalists need only cold, hard capital.
Is this not at least partially counter-balanced by labour unions?
Yes, but labor unions were a fairly late innovation (only picking up speed in the 19th century), and largely sprung out of socialist opposition to capitalism, so I don’t know how integral I’d count them as a plus or minus to capitalism itself.
I agree with everything said here and appreciate your nuanced take, but:
Is this not at least partially counter-balanced by labour unions?
Yes, but labor unions were a fairly late innovation (only picking up speed in the 19th century), and largely sprung out of socialist opposition to capitalism, so I don’t know how integral I’d count them as a plus or minus to capitalism itself.