What is capital?

What Does capital Mean

The word capital comes from the Latin capitalis , which in turn derives from the term caput ( "head" ). It is, therefore, that belonging to or relating to the head .

In Christianity, the capital sins are those that are the beginning (the head) of others, such as lust, gluttony, laziness, greed, anger, envy and pride.
On the other hand, the execution of a convicted person by the state authorities is known as capital punishment or death penalty . This penalty is applied as punishment for a crime considered very serious, such as an aggravated crime.
At the population level, the capital is the main city of a state , a province or a district. For example, the capital of Argentina is Buenos Aires ; the capital of Spain is Madrid ; the capital of Uruguay is Montevideo .

In the field of economics , capital is one of the productive factors (along with work and land). In general, the term is used to designate an amount of money that can be borrowed or invested: "I have a capital of 10,000 dollars to invest" , "At the moment, the capital of the company is limited to 50,000 pesos and nothing more" .
Capital according to Marx
"Capital" ( "Das Kapital" , in its original language) is a book by Karl Marx dedicated to the critique of political economy. Marx only published the first volume of the book while he was alive, while the other two were edited by his collaborator and friend Friedrich Engels .
Karl Marx was born in Germany on May 5, 1818 and died in the United Kingdom on March 14, 1883. He is remembered for having been an essential thinker who marked a before and after in the way in which humanity understands the production processes and social hierarchies . Marx worked alongside Friedrich Engels and they laid the foundations for Communism; These ideas were embodied in two important books " Capital " and " The Communist Manifesto ".
As the German thinker expresses it in this book, the concept of capital refers to the value that is valued and explains that money in a productive process is "something" that allows its possessor (the owner of the means of production ) to obtain more of it in future productions.
This money can be used to buy raw materials and machinery that are more apt to carry out greater production in less time and at the same time buy labor, or in Marxist terms, labor power , that is, to hire workers.

In this way, with the passage of time and reaching the point of time in which the acquired machinery is so worn that it is necessary to replace it , the contracts have been terminated and it is necessary to buy more raw material, a balance will be made between what invested and certain gains from production may be noted. Hence, it is understood that it is a value that is revalued, because it generates more profit , therefore it is as if in itself it was worth more.
He later affirmed that this capital was responsible for the existence of different social classes in a society, where one group took over the work of the others (by having a greater amount of money and being able to hire them) to exploit the means of production. However, if there were a revolution where the production process had no owner, it could be lived in a balanced and utopian society .
In conclusion, for Marx Capital should be something that was owned by everyone, because in this way social classes and favoritism of the rich over the poor could be eliminated. This idea is approved by many people, however, it has not been possible to put it into practice because we live in a complex world and all those who try to carry the flag of Marxism end up falling into the clutches of ambition and abuse of power .