Is SF anti-capitalist?

[james_davis_nicoll]

Or at least deeply uninterested in it?

Sure, there's lots of Yay Free Marketism but how often do books focus on non-malevolent companies [1]? I think Flynn's do (but I can't read him) and so do wossname's books about the immortal time salvagers (but the Company in that does not seem all cuddles and happy songs around the campfire). There's Moon, but even her business adventure series seems to have turned into MilSF.

This may be related to the dearth of people who work for a living doing anything but stealing stuff or shooting people.


1: MARKET FORCES, for example, does focus on a particular company and its stuggle to prevail but I believe that if one looks very closely, some elements could be interpreted as being critical of modern capitalism.

Comments

[robertprior.livejournal.com]

Adam Smith was very critical of people who managed other people's money -- by his definition, a capitalist was someone who invested his capital, not someone else's.

Somewhere in "Weath of Nations" there's a lovely quote where Smith says that any advice coming from bankers should be listened to with the utmost suspicion, because they are only concerned with their own profit and care nothing for the community -- and will leave it in a trice if it profits them to do so. (Paraphrased because the bookmark fell out and I can't find the quote this evening.)

Which is why neocons remind me of fundy Christians -- both text-proof their sources and often haven't read the actual book closely, being more inclined to read accepted interpretations and commentaries...