Capitalism Authoritarianism And Capitalism

The soundbite criticisms of capitalism are legion, yet it’s harder to offer alternatives, aside from the vague notion of 'something else'. Despite the carnage of trying to socially engineer equality in the 20th century, nevertheless the myth persists that capitalist wealth creation is superfluous and money is readily available to a small number of elitists called a government under common ownership, who distribute, or simply print more paper. Ironically, the ones shouting the loudest against capitalism are often those dependent on the profits of capitalism to provide the welfare payments needed to keep them alive.

Capitalism had created the circumstances that maker worker’s lives so meaningless, joyless, and hopeless. Capitalism has turned workers into their job. It has transformed everyone from a person to a thing. Every worker is known by their job and is their job. Every worker adapts and loses their self-identity for a job.

The value of money continues to decrease, but the need for this little yet powerful piece of paper continues to skyrocket. Many people believe money magically illuminates complications and solves problems. America has been a capitalist state for decades, so money may be considered fundamental to our survival as Americans. This may be the case for many, but I disagree. I believe capitalism is the base for social, political and economic inequality and the idea of capitalism deceives us into thinking we as Americans cannot function without money. Capitalism creates complications and conceive problems. In capitalism, many private owners control the means of production, causing the government not to regulate their businesses. Thus, allowing exploitation to occur. The U.S will continue to collapse as long as we are a capitalist society. This system forces us to be greedy and greed forces us to be selfish individuals. Once an individual is selfish they will continue to make decisions that have a negative impact on the lives of many.

Bertrand Russell once expressed that “advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate” (Russell). Even in a relatively capitalist society, there are always criticism regarding the capitalism and its disregard for “the unfortunate” and the tyranny the “fortunate” exert over. The foremost proponent of this antagonism would be Karl Marx, who claimed that capitalism is ultimately hurtling toward its downfall.

Karl Marx advocated that we should omit capitalism from society because it is crisis prone and produces internal tensions. With capitalism dominating the western world, modern work becomes alienated. In order to be fulfilled at work, Marx believed workers should see themselves in the work they have created. Modern work is incredibly concentrated, making the economy efficient by achieving maximum productivity with no room for wasted expense. This makes it impossible for any worker to attain a sense of genuine effort they are contributing to humanity. Workers feel disconnected from the completion of their everyday tasks and what they could potentially be producing to society. Another flaw Marx brings up about the capitalist system is that capitalism makes individuals easily replaceable “The middle class begins to sink into the proletariat… their specialized skill is rendered worthless by new methods of production,” (Marx 299). In the force of production, the second costs begin to rise, the necessity rate for laborers is lowered due to the fact that savings can be made through technology. Marx biggest concern is that capitalists reduce the wages of laborers as much as possible in order to achieve a high profit margin “The growing competition among the bourgeois, and the resulting commercial crises, make the wages of workers ever more fluctuating,” (Marx 300). Capitalism manipulate and pays workers lower wages for producing work that can be sold for a much higher price. A capitalist’s theory of profit comes as a reward for innovation and technological achievements. Marx sees this idea of profit as theft because capitalists are stripping their work force of creativity and hard labor.

Thus the inherent structure, which capitalism has created within the society, would ultimately result in it being overthrown by the ‘working class’. He predicts, that when this occurs, there will be a change to a communist social structure where the means of production are no longer owned by a small percentage of the population, but the collective of the society owns it. Although in the past the only time that capitalist societies have broken down, was when the society was about to enter capitalism. It has not occurred regularly in a mature capitalist society as the structures of capitalism are working effectively to prevent this from occurring[6].

Although it can be said that capitalism has prospered throughout the centuries and has turned into a strong economic practice, it hasn’t been exempt of criticism. Marxist school of thought sets forth the most

According to Karl Marx in the Economic and Philosophic Manuscript of 1844, “the only wheels which political economy sets in motion are greed and the war amongst the greedy - competition.” A capitalist society, defined by the systems of competition and private ownership, is divided into two classes - the “property owners” and the “propertyless workers” (701). In this system, workers suffer from exploitation and alienation, while capitalists grow wealthier and more powerful.

Karl Marx argues in Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 that “The worker becomes all the poorer the more wealth he produces, the more his production increases in power and range. The worker becomes an ever cheaper commodity the more commodities he creates. With the increasing value of the world of things proceeds in direct proportion the devaluation of the world of men” (653). This statement holds true to today’s economy for companies mass produce goods such as smartphones and clothes while paying theirs workers low wages and having them work long hours under harsh conditions.

Capitalism, as Karl Marx describes it, is an economic system, but economics itself is simply a perpetual condition of the current standard for production in any given period of time. Therefore, capitalism is simply the people’s response to an ever-changing world; the evolution of economic systems, such as capitalism, follow man’s discovery and the emergence of a market society, changes in technology, the Industrial Revolution, and changes in political institutions. This concept doesn’t only apply to the flow of money and resources in society; it also governs the mindsets of those contributing to it. Capitalism is best explained using its three most significant perks: the right to private property, a fully-functional market system, and genuine economic freedom. While all three of these ideologies seem to be rooted in commerce, they really can all be combined into one concept; capitalism, in a free market, is nothing more than the promotion of competition and self-interest in society.

In my opinion, capitalism works in unjust ways. I would explain capitalism as a process where a person or a company takes advantage of the working class. The working class produces high cost goods for a company. Capitalist are then able to profit from the amount they charge for their products because of the unfortunate amount of money that they provide to the people who are actually making the goods. Also, with capitalist’s main job being able to make a profit, it makes their company appear to be very careless and not genuine. Johnson also mentions how the system of capitalism will do whatever it pleases, whether it is causing harm or not, “… [because] the system itself doesn’t depend on such moral or ethical considerations, because profit is profit and there’s no way to tell ‘good’ money from ‘bad’” (2006). I believe that it is unfair on how capitalism works because people need jobs, and they often would settle for a lower paycheck instead of not having one at all. However, I also believe that if there were no such thing as capitalism people would not be able to have a chance to provide for their families. It does seem to open up some doors of opportunity. I would be hypocritical if I said I didn’t take part in this process. In my opinion, costumers are the main reason as to why there is such a thing as capitalism, and why

Capitalism (according to Marxist theory) can no longer sustain the standards of life of the population, due to the need to compensate for the decline in profit rates by diminishing wages, reducing social benefits and chasing

The problem with capitalism is that it often creates inequality. When there is a capitalist economy, the entire market is controlled by the competition between the big companies for where their products are sold and where the profits are (Lecture on capitalism). Labour starts to be seen as a commodity and this creates conflict between the employers and their workers because the workers often feel powerless, oppressed. (Lecture on capitalism). Additionally, a capitalist market tends to make job security quite poor for its workers. Even if a worker has managed to keep a decent job in this market, there is always the chance that it can disappear in an instant and this causes costs to the working class people and their families that can push them into poverty. This is caused by the oppression that the large companies carry out due to their immense power on a population in a capitalist economy. To prove that, just look at Hamilton. Hamilton has monthly unemployment data that more often then not shows Hamilton to have the lowest unemployment rates of anywhere in Ontario, and sometimes Canada. What this means is that without an capitalist economy oppressing its workers, economies

Marx defined capitalism as a social economic relation between people, rather than between people or things in the grand scheme of it. Furthermore, individuals or the general population wanted to abolish capitalism. They believe that private ownership of the means of production enriches capitalists’ owners of capitalism, sadly, at the expense of workers who needed to support their families. Lastly, individuals argue that the owners of the means of production exploit the workforce to the point of overworking

Capitalism is known to be the most creative, productive, and successful engine for growth and prosperity ever devised. Lifting billions from poverty, creating peaceful networks of trade, and driving regular waves of innovation and wealth creation; however, capitalism is seriously flawed. It has evolved to become narrow, short-term, disconnected, unstable, inequitable, and, perhaps most troubling, unsustainable. Our production systems have become so over grown and wasteful that they’ve externalize and undervalued natural capital to the point of pushing up against our planetary boundaries. Threatening to destroy our ecosystem on which we all depend on.