She isn't the only person needing a history lesson.

She’s right. Alexander Hamilton set us on the course of capitalism in founding the US Treasury. Thomas Jefferson wanted the country’s economy to be agrarian. When he became president he tried to dismantle the treasury but its financial system was so intertwine between public and private entities he couldn’t.
Read the best and most fun to read history book I ever read, Hamilton.
FYI - Personal income tax wasn’t a thing until 1913. Corporations funded our government and built the railroads.

It’s funny when idiots. Try to give history lessons that they have no knowledge of.!!! like claiming capitalism in a country that literally had just been founded… The U.S. Constitution (1787) was created to establish a strong federal government, replacing the weak Articles of Confederation. Its primary purpose is to outline the government's structure (separation of powers), protect individual freedoms, and create a supreme law that balances federal authority with state, community, and individual

I mean it literally didn’t, most countries when they first form don’t follow the establishments that they are striving for right off. This happens for many reasons, some is it is fiscally and functionally not possible while the country is developing because of lack of initial structure and resources available. This is less of a need for a history book and more of a need for people to learn some basic economic, analytics and system development classes.

. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) graduated cum laude from Boston University in 2011 with a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations and Economics. Known as the youngest woman ever elected to Congress (at age 29), she is a U.S. Representative, former Educational Director for the National Hispanic Institute, and a 2019 Forbes “30 Under 30” honoree.
National Women's History Museum
National Women's History Museum
+4

"bUt ShE jUsT a BaRtEnDeR!" -some MAGA chud that spent years begging for "Normal people" to be elected instead of politicians.

And even if she were just a bartender without an impressive education, I'd still vote for any random bartender over Trump. At least you know a bartender has done a day of honest work.

This meme only works if you pretend “capitalism” in 1776 = capitalism in 2026.
It doesn’t.
Early America was agrarian, pre-industrial, and heavily reliant on slavery and non-wage labor. The modern capitalist system people are defending didn’t really take shape until the 1800s.
So yeah, you can argue with her. But acting like she’s historically clueless is… kinda telling on yourself.

Well, she has a point. Both Virginia and Plymouth started as communist experiments. They led to starvation and death and had to be rescued by a system of personal responsibility and private property. The next harvest produced abundance and trade, as people had planted different things. Good old capitalism. Wrote the first historian in 1643: “And we have not had hunger since then.”

The United States has not always been a capitalist nation, although it contained early capitalist elements. It evolved from a mercantilist, agrarian society into a modern capitalist one. While colonialists used markets, early American economic life in the 17th-18th centuries relied heavily on subsistence family farms and non-wage labor, which was not purely capitalist.

Yeah, I mean, she’s correct, because capitalism barely existed as a concept at the time. It was a mix of agrarianism and mercantilism. Or do you think that capitalism is just the natural base-state of the universe in absence of any sort of collectivist/socialist system? Because if that’s what you think, then you’re the one who needs to read.

Adam Smith was only just formulating his economic theories at the time of independence, Wealth of Nations didn't make it to America until after the declaration was signed. There wasn't even a bank until 1781. Mercantilism was the dominant economic paradigm not capitalism. Ilhan Omar knows the country's history better than you.

AWWWWW, Little Stevie is jealous of a woman of color who is smarter, more successful, more respected and better looking than he. In 1776, the American economy was a pre-industrial, agrarian system, with households largely focused on subsistence farming, yet possessing one of the highest standards of living in the world.

The U.S. at its founding (late 1700s) had mixed economic features:
• Markets and private property (capitalist traits)
• Heavy reliance on agrarian production
• Slavery, which is not capitalism in the modern free-labor sense
• Significant government involvement (tariffs, land policy, infrastructure support)

None of the founding fathers were capitalist:, she’s not wrong…

But then you rightwing degenerates still think that America was Christian when most founding fathers were Deists, and Ben Franklin specifically was a member of a religious fringe group known as “the Hellfire club” which held Satanic rituals!

The USA at its start was primarily an agrarian society, which is the rest of the quote in this interview, which this meme conveniently elides. Capitalism as a term wasn’t even in use until about the mid nineteenth century. https://www.pbs.org/wnet/firing-line/video/alexandria-ocasio-cortez/

She was right in the sense that it wasn't capitalist like it is now. The economy was agrarian and was influenced by mercantilism inherited from England, and slavery was a major part of the economy in many states. Industrial capitalism wasn't fully developed at beginning of the United States.

If i was maga and I hated AOC and didnt know what capitalism was or how it was started and then I saw this meme I'd get excited to post it and I would google it and then be sad I couldn't post it bc it would make me look really really stupid if I did. You skipped the googling it part huh?

I am not real comfortable trying to fit a system where a significant part of the population were chattel property into economic terms, but if I were to use the best possible definition of capitalism (free markets and competition) I don’t think the early U.S. would fit that definition.

When this country was started, it was not meant to be a Judeo-Christian nation. Some of the Founding Fathers were freemasons, who collectively are pantheist. All of the Founding Fathers were inspired by the Enlightenment/Age of Reason. None of them were pushing for a theocracy.

Said the idiot that can’t define capitalism. Show me where it says that in the constitution? Our founding fathers were intelligent men that knew how to use words and they laid out a lot of things. None of which gave you the obligation to simp for the Epstein class BTW

 it sounds like you are seriously triggered by smart successful women because they shine a spotlight on your inadequacy, failure, and chubby homely appearance. There isn’t a subject the AOC could not out debate you on, including history.

Hahahah imagine thinking you thought this made sense. America was an agrarian society, personified by the yeoman farmers. Thomas Jefferson actually talked about the harm of wealth inequality. lol dumb conservatives don’t know history.

Wealth of Nations, which really defined what “capitalism” is, wasn’t published until 1776. The term itself wouldn’t be coined until the mid 1800s.

The US economy was first built on mercantilist logic inherited from Britain.

For a functional illiterate she gets a lot of attention by the leftist media machine. We would have thought by now she would have stolen enough money to get an education or support staff. She is the poster child for the Useful Idiots.

What can one expect from a woke liberal? Some even celebrate her academic achievement as a Cum Laude graduate from Boston University. One can only hope that such honors were awarded purely on merit and not influenced by anything else.

History books: America didn't start as a capitalist nation. Instead of relying on for-profit transactions, America was predominantly agrarian in nature. It wasn't until after the Civil War that capitalism really took root.

Umm, try looking up what Madison had to say about "the concentration of wealth" and "oligarchy". Or what Washington, or Adams or Jefferson had to say about citizen ownership. Get back to us when you're up to speed.

Noticed how many trumplickers appeared this days? They use bot attacks, ban this fucker and don't give him any attention.

And Steffie: if we want to know your opinion we will ask your husband. Shut the fuck up.

She's right. American started as a merchantile system: the Americas sold minerals, agriculture, and lumber to Britain. Britain sold it back as manufactured goods for more than they bought the raw materials.

The dumbing down in America is really showing. She was actually born in Puerto Rico. She alleges to have some kind ov College Degree in something but it’s apparent it was not American History.

No need, as she is correct. The idea of a capitalist society didn't exist until some decades after the revolutionary war.
Maybe the o.p. should learn history instead of spreading lies.

If that wasn’t capitalism, then, what was it, girl? You have no idea what you’re talking about and are incapable of studying and learning like an animal you just act on impulse.

Agrarian or mercantilism, it depends on how specific you are about the term capitalism.

The point is she doesn’t even know what capitalism is. Those United States we’re both agrarian capitalist and capitalist. Agrarian , because so much of the country was rural. But there was a mercantilist class of peoples living in Boston Providence, Newport, New Haven, New York, Philly, Baltimore, and Savannah

She’s right. The term capitalism didn’t exist until 1850. Capitalist vs socialist wasn’t a thought anyone had in 1776. They spoke in terms of ‘agrarian vs industry’

Lol all the history books I have available here at the library say America was not a capitalist country from the start. Maybe you all are reading that Prager U slop.

You need to look up what capitalism is.
It’s not just ownership of a for profit business.
It’s owning other people’s businesses that you then profit off of.

That’s funny coming from the same people who still think that the Democratic Party were the ones having slaves and that the parties didn’t switch over time

All three of those men were agrarians, not capitalists. Capitalism never really flourished until the industrial revolution so maybe you need a history lesson.

You posted this, YOU need the history book. First of all, she didn’t say it just because someone put it into a meme. But the quote itself is not inaccurate.

https://www.factcheck.org/2018/12/quote-falsely-tied-to-ocasio-cortez/

You chucklecucks... 😂

The truth is even funnier.

Y'all quoting MAD Magazine.

OK. But the factcheck article you linked is not in any way related to the OP's post. It's about an entirely different quote that was even then only mentioned by, but not attributed to, AOC.

Did you bother to read the article?
No. Had you, you would have learned that the phrase first appeared in mad magazine.

It was later used by comedians, it's been falsely attributed to many people.
Just one being AOC.

The amount of people who participste in roasting and/or debunking said roast, over fuckin technicalities…is disgusting.

Feel validated…but go away.

I really think we should have a moratorium on responding to obvious clickbait/ragebait accounts from pictureless profiles with fewer than 50 followers.

Is it capitalism, the way the term is commonly understood, if hereditary owners of humans get to work them—until those workers die—for no wages?

She really has a set of balls thinking that she could become the president of the United States when she knows shit about the United States.

Industrial revolution didn't start in the states till mid 18 century.. now open you history book and tell me when the USA were funded.

Just say you don’t understand anything & kneejerk accept any ridiculous crap that “offends” you. We’ll get you a library card.

Well, technically, she’s correct. The first pilgrims tried socialism. It almost killed them all so they switched to capitalism.

This wasnt a country when the Pilgrims landed on North America. The Founding Fathers were definitely capitalists even though they did not use that term

Hmmm. No they weren’t.

Get one yourself. Look up when the concept of "capitalism" was created. Hint: it was well after the founding of our nation.

Make sure it is an actual history book with all of our history still in it and not one where it has been re written ….

They owned their own land and worked it for a profit. I’d say they were farmer capitalists. A free market profession.