Capitalism was a revolutionary idea born from the ideas and works of Adam Smith in the 18th century. It was an advancement to the ideologies of mercantilism* and feudalism*, however, despite being such an advancement, it still has many flaws. Of the main flaws of capitalism, there are three main ones that stand out. These are the allowance and promotion of worker exploitation, wealth inequality and strict social hierarchy, and degradation of natural resources. Thus, it is only necessary that we adapt and progress human society by adopting socialism, for as capitalism was an advancement from feudalism and mercantilism, socialism is the advancement from capitalism.
The first flaw of capitalism is that it allows for and promotes worker exploitation.
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Civilization has always been defined by systems in which people on top command those at the bottom in terms of power and wealth. Capitalism is a key example of such a hierarchical system, and it is the system adopted by the majority of the countries of the world today. The ideas of capitalism promote social hierarchy as it is essential for capitalism to function, for the rich controls those at the bottom for the generation of profit, and the generation of profit is the basis of capitalism. And, as the rich continue to pursue their interests, thus expanding their wealth, they make the poor poorer since the rich sacrifices their well-being for the generation of more wealth. This creates an ever-increasing wealth inequality. This can also be seen in the several economic crises that have occurred during 20th and 21st century history, in which every economic disaster arose primarily for the reason that the rich pursued their interests to an extent that disrupted the economy entirely, and despite the economic destruction, the rich during each economic disaster always gained more wealth, and the poor became much poorer. Additionally, such social hierarchy and inequality under capitalism has led to numerous problems for those at the bottom. To elaborate on these problems social hierarchy causes, the article Social stratification: negative impacts …show more content…
To elaborate, the article mentions how mere individuals/companies are able to do such unjustifiable damage to the environment, but without much opposition. This implies that there is a preference of the interests of such individuals/companies, which are indeed affluent for they would otherwise not be able to do such actions towards the environment and government decisions, over the majority of the people, whom are poor and prefer for the environment not to be utterly destroyed. As mentioned previously, this inequality in terms of power is because of the promotion and allowance of social hierarchy and wealth inequality under capitalism. Moreover, the desire to continue to exploit and degrade nature resources is because of the desire to continue to attain profit and wealth, in which the pursuit of attaining profit and wealth, as mentioned previously, is the basis of capitalism. Based on all of the dangers posed by extensive natural resource degradation, it is critical that we combat this issue to achieve a sustainable economy for the well-being of everyone and for a promising
capitalism leads to a concentration of property and thus a concentration of resources and power in relatively few hands.
Quotes like Winston Churchill’s have become part of the political rhetoric when leaders discuss the idea of socialism. In current events you can see the exact same argumentation being used against legislation such as the Affordable Health Care Act. Conservative talking heads such as Bill O’Reilly equate it to socialism because, as Mr. O’Reilly says himself, “[i]n order to provide for the have nots, the far left wants the federal government to seize the assets of solvent Americans. That’s what ObamaCare [the Affordable Health Care Act] is all about — taking from those who can afford health care to provide for those who cannot” (O’Reilly). This simplification of socialism does not do justice to the actual paradigm itself. Instead, in this paper I will try to refute our current idea of socialism because of a lack of understanding. The explanations and descriptions by Michael W. Doyle in his chapters on Marxist and Leninist socialism paints a picture that allows one to see how socialism could be beneficial to the common man while also critiquing the negative myths held by modern society.
Although socialism may have better benefits, capitalism has it perks as well. Such as producers and consumers being able to own their own business. The upside of this is that no one other than the government can take the business away from the owner. This results in more rights for the owner. An example of improved rights of the owner could include the owner making their own regulations, deciding wages for employees, choosing how to insure their business, etc. Now the big picture that this focuses greater upon is that it greatly promotes self-interest, rather than government control.
Capitalism is an economic system which has now embedded in our roots and mindset. Communism on the other hand has not been successful for the countries that were trying to impinge upon the idea of communism have now themselves been proponent of capitalist system of economy, just because of an overwhelming expansion of capitalism throughout the world. Adding on, the capitalist system has entrenched so much in the world and in the minds of people that it has transformed into a behavior rather than just a system of governance or economic growth. Sigmund Freud has written a seminal book, ‘Civilization and Its Discontents’, which directly deals with the mindset of societies and countries with regards to their adaptability and rigidness of a system of phenomenon into their lives as a part of their
“The population of unemployed and underemployed explodes. There is a vicious circle here. Because so many seek work, wages are very low. Because one wage cannot support even a small family, more and more family members must seek employment. This move adds to the pool of labor and further depresses wages.” (Syracuse U. Press) Further, if wages begin to rise in one country, other countries seize the opportunity and lower their wages even further. With this cycle of falling wages and more and more people needing jobs, poverty increases drastically. With wages so low, the owners of these large companies get richer and richer—the vast majority of wealth in a country becomes concentrated in one small group of people. While this is good for those few, the vast majority of citizens are shorthanded. Capitalism is an excellent system for the elite and for increasing efficiency, but as far as providing for the needs of all of its citizens, it falls short. Thus, capitalism is a system that causes and perpetuates poverty, and exploits its lower class.
The forced labor for food and shelter model is exactly why communism didn’t work. Capitalism may have worked if they could beat their workers into submission like the slaves were beaten, but then it wouldn’t be “communism;” it would once again be “slavery,” a filthy word in anyone’s vernacular. And it progressed from there, as wealthy people schemed and manipulated to increase their wealth at the workers’ expense.
The main goal of capitalism is to create profit. Capitalism values private ownership of property and discourages government intervention in the economy. Cultural misconceptions have suggested that capitalism is bad because it has lead to a large separation of wealth from the wealthiest individuals in a nation. The separation of wealth is not a misconception but I believe that blaming capitalism and wealthy individuals for societies economic woes are. I also do not believe that socialism is a bad thing either. I believe that both capitalism and socialism have a place amongst our society however I would lean towards capitalism because of an emphasis on utilizing resources to create more consumer goods where as socialism emphasizes evenly distributing resources.
Capitalism has been the subject of ethical criticism since it was first introduced into society. I defend the morality of capitalism because it gives people incentive to work, establishes a web of trust between them, satisfies their material well-being, and generates a wide spectrum of prosperity.
Capitalism started up as a system of investing and sharing money in order to increase the value of resources in the future. Capitalism was just an economic system, but then soon turned into a complex system of ethical practices. Harari defines capitalism as, “a set of teachings about how people should behave, educate their children and even think” (Harari 314). This economic system evolved along with the people that were endorsing it. Capitalism enables the rich to get richer, while the poor continue to get poorer. There are many benefits to capitalism, but there are downfalls as well, and these downfalls tend to be masked because of the rapid speed capitalists grow at. Harari first presents a definition for capitalism, and soon goes into great detail on why capitalism, while fast paced and unforgiving, is able to stand unwavered while other productions fail.
There is a vast difference between the economic systems of capitalism and socialism. While both are ways to govern a country’s market, they vary tremendously when looked at in depth. Capitalism is more effective and it encourages business growth and economic risk.
Ethical issues are always the most complex topics because most of the time either side of the issue may be favorable depending on your viewpoint. For this paper I have chosen to explore the idea of socialism. As defined by Merriam-Webster dictionary socialism is “a way of organizing a society in which major industries are owned and controlled by the government rather than by individual people and companies.” It can be thought of in a theoretical sense and a real sense (when it’s put into practice). These two ways of viewing socialism make it a much more complex issue. For the purpose of this paper I will explore arguments for and against socialism in the real world. When the idea of socialism is brought up in conversation people are either
Capitalism leads to the creation of unprecedented wealth, advanced technology, and wide prosperity. Yet capitalism is denounced as a system of greed, materialism, and ruthless dog-eat-dog competition
In Capital, Karl Marx reveals the ugly truth that capitalism lays on the foundation of class exploitation. Without such exploitation, there is no profit to be made and capitalism will cease to exist. Capitalism, which relies on the reproduction of capital, creates and concentrates wealth to a small portion of society’s population while reproducing poverty and widening the size of inequality.
Capitalism is an economic system that allows free market conditions to drive innovation and wealth creation. The liberalization of the market provides freedom of choice which can either cause success or failure. On the other hand, socialism takes into account elements of centralized economic planning that ensures conformity and therefore encourage equality of the available opportunities and economic outcomes in a given market.
In seeking to highlight the key differences between socialism and capitalism, it would be prudent to first offer a concise definition of the two terms. Capitalism in the words of Brinkerhoff, White, Ortega, and Weitz (2007) "is the economic system in which most wealth (land, capital, and labor) is private property, to be used by its owners to maximize their own gain." As the authors in this case further point out, this particular economic system is largely founded on competition. Socialism on the other hand is defined as "an economic structure in which productive tools are owned and managed by the workers and used for the collective good" (Brinkerhoff et al., 2007). From the definitions, it is clear that unlike capitalism, socialism favors a situation whereby there is deliberate control as well as planning of economic activities on behalf of the entire community. In the case of capitalism, no attempt is made to have economic activities controlled from a central point on behalf of the community. Here, enterprises are allowed to compete in the supply of goods and services as they seek to rake in monetary returns. The key