Of Aaron James 'Asshole Capitalism' Is It A Good Or Bad Thing?

Perhaps the definition of failure has changed as in the last century capitalism has created wealth like nothing done previously in human history. At the same time, socialism has spent the last century subjecting millions of innocent people to tyranny and poverty. But somehow, its tenets live on in the millennial of the world’s richest countries. And what has followed is an arbitrary connection between the free enterprise system and declining rates of economic and social phenomena. So with the charges against capitalism more severe than ever before, we may as well present the facts.

Capitalism is not a rigid, inflexible economic and political system—there are many forms of capitalism around the world. It is illustrated as being different variations of capitalism outside the United States; there is the Dutch version, the French version, the British version, as well as the American version. American capitalism implements free-market ideology and that makes the U.S. stand out among other nations. Other nations do not dwell on privatization and deregulation nearly as much as the U.S., which is both a major strength and critique of American capitalism. One critique of American capitalism is the Five Internal Contradiction of Capitalism. These contradictions include inevitable growth of monopolies, demand labor saving technology

According to Western Culture Global the American economic system is “Characterized by saving and capital accumulation, exchange, profit motive, freedoms of economic competition and economic inequality, economic progress and material self-interests of all the individuals who participate in it” (Western Culture Global). These characteristics of capitalism are vital for a successful development and maintenance of businesses in the Western Hemisphere. With that being said, capitalism encourages a higher standard of living of the overall quality of life in the US, through successful accomplishments of many businesses, corporations, and banks that are the heartbeat of the American capitalism (Ellis). In addition, there are other contributions made to improve the welfare and quality of life in society and that is in the form of charities, grants, scholarships, and other indirect ways by wealthy business owners, banks, and corporations which in turn boosted the development of society and advancing the general population of the US.

Additionally, all of the above comes coupled with the moral criticisms that have been leveled at the American way of running its business, or, more precisely, the way business has been allowed a nearly free reign in running America. The hands-off policies of capitalism, many argue, are solely responsible for the fact that that a small minority of the population currently enjoys a greater share of the national wealth than that of some three quarters of the nation combined. The reaction of many writers and speakers to the barrage of hurdles faced by the American way of life has been to, in effect, flush the entire experiment.

Michael Moore eagerly points out the negative impacts capitalism has on society. Capitalism no longer provides people with the long-term sustainability needed to support themselves and their families. A good example of this is when Moore speaks out about his hometown of Flint, Michigan, and the GM plant where most of the citizens worked. When the automotive company shut down, the workers lost their jobs, and they had nowhere to turn for money. Moore alluded the reason the plant shut down was for the CEOs’ benefit because they were trying to make more profit, while not giving a second thought for the welfare of the people of Flint. As a result, many families lost their homes, and Flint became an abandoned city. Capitalism does not care about the average person because it is a system where corporations compete for higher profits and more benefits for the rich CEOs. If the GM plant in Flint was planning to close, and there was any regard for its employees, why was there no effort made to retrain employees with skills needed for other jobs so that they could continue to support their families and debts? In fact, CEOs of large corporations lobby and influence government policies to permit special tax cuts and

This paper discusses the idea that capitalism is not dead but it continues to flourish.

23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism, by Ha-Joon Chang. Bloomsbury Press: New York, 2010. 288 pages. Reviewed by Emily F. White.

Capitalism is an economic system by private or corporate ownership of goods and services. They used investments that are determined by prices, production, and the distribution of goods. Its purpose is to be a social system for the people instead of the government. During the 1930s, capitalism almost crashed because of the factories and banks that were closing down. The great depression lead to millions upon millions of people losing their jobs.

However, the American dream is not all it takes in order to pave a path to economic success in our society. In fact, some would argue that American capitalism is the very foundation to social and economic collapse within a class based system. Capitalism has a way of taking advantage of the most vulnerable members of society by promoting corporate monopolies, a blind eye to social benefits, inherited wealth, as well as social divisions and unrest based on inequality. In an age and country where technology has given us so much abundance, there is still so much suffrage within our communities.

“Inequality, conflict, and regulatory corruption are all part and parcel of capitalism, history has borne this out numerous times unless someone steps in to break them up, monopolies are the natural result of unbridled capitalism.” Author John Perkins, also known as the ‘economic hitman’ describes his role as a highly paid professional who helped the U.S. cheat poor countries around the world out of trillions of dollars by providing them more money in which they could not pay back and later, taking over their economies in exchange of natural resources such as oil. In the epilogue of his book “Confessions of an Economic Hitman” he expresses his thoughts on taking ownership and changing the system by avoiding products that were

Even though some may say that capitalism is nothing more than a system in which there is an exchange of money for labor and that it is not exploitative, as the people who are performing the labor are receiving monetary compensation, and that it is a fair system of give and take, capitalism is an ethically unsound socioeconomic system. This is due to the fact that it tends to have disproportionately negative effects on people who are at a disadvantage socially and economically.

One of the concepts that this book talks about is some of the essence of the macro level process of capitalism. He tried to correlate the fact that the people who have wealth and have the control over production, or capitalists, had a different way of seeing what was in front of them. He said that capitalism acts as an

At the root of the United States, the source of an equal opportunity, and allowing its citizens to live the “American dream”, capitalism has been the systematic governmental function that has allowed for us, as a nation, to growth in both wealth and power substantially in comparison to other countries. Capitalism can be defined as a social system primarily based on the principles of an individual’s rights; regarding private ownership of an operation increasing the production of money and goods based on capital manipulation. The film “Capitalism, a Love Story” captures and elaborates this ideology, narrating the advantages and drawbacks of capitalism. Similar to previously produced Michael Moore documentaries, it recounts the experiences of individuals who have fallen to capitalism and the manipulation of major corporations.

To begin this critical review of this book, the brief and precise introduction and summary of the whole book is needed before discussing with the authors’ main arguments. However, this book is mainly emphasizing the magic relations between the capitalism and current environmental problems. In the other words, while there are some people who argued that the capitalism thinking is necessarily required for addressing all of the problem, not just environmental ones, human are encountering the authors argued for the opposite side of that, especially in terms of such all of environmental issues that the authors have listed in chapter one as “rapid speed of the melting glacier, ocean acidification due to the increase in carbon dioxide emissions, loss of biodiversity, ground water pollution and deplete, changed natural land pattern”(p. 14), the capitalism instead is a rooted problem that makes these environmental issues worse. Following that, the authors gave the enough amounts of evidences explaining why capitalism thinking changed the way in which people lived from getting natural resources for their basic necessity to unlimited calling for the never enough for luxury life. Therefore, as the needs for natural resources grew infinitely the authors thought that it is no doubt that the environmental issues would be worse with capitalism thinking

“The moral justification of capitalism does not lie in the altruist claim that it represents the best way to achieve ‘the common good.’ It is true that capitalism does—if that catch-phrase has any meaning—but this is merely a secondary consequence. The moral justification of capitalism lies in the fact that it is the only system consonant with man’s rational nature, that it protects man’s survival qua man, and that its ruling principle is: justice.” — AYN RAND (CAPITALISM)