The Pros And Cons Of Capitalism

Some believe that Capitalism is the cause for much of the poverty in the nation today, but any hardcore capitalist will tell you that capitalism inherited poverty, and far from being a cause of poverty, it is the only solution.

In the late 1700s-early 1900s utopian idea and industrialization changed social life and influenced government. This was by the cause of three main topics Capitalism, Socialism, and Communism. It influenced the government each time within the end results not as how they predicted. Adam Smith is a Scottish economist laid the foundation of capitalism. Also, the evolution from Utilitarianism to socialism. Lastly, about the Karl Marx idea of the best and a fixed mind set on things. Utopian idea and industrialization led to development progress in social life and positively influenced government from the late 1700s-early 1900s through abusive capitalism, idealistic socialism, and realistic communism.

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 can be defined as a political and economic system where private owners control industries and trades to make profit. Capitalism leads to economic growth because it is efficient. Capital businesses have incentives to be efficient and produce goods in high demand for the public. These incentives end up cutting costs for consumers. State owned businesses are not as efficient, keeping surplus workers and having fewer incentives for innovation. When businesses work harder to be innovative, it catalyzes economic expansion. Economic expansion increases GDP and, in theory, is supposed to improve living standards. In capitalism, the market determines prices rather than the government, which leads to economic growth. Private property rights allow for anyone to produce items and services to sell in the market. Capitalism allows for economic growth because fast growing economies produce more jobs and more wealth. Capitalism envourages

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.

“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.

Part 1: Hilary’s book, ‘The Poverty of Capitalism,’ questions capitalism in modern day societies and focuses on the three economic sectors of extraction, garments, and food production. The accumulation of capital has led to the impoverishment of millions of people around the world and corporations have even gained enough power to outmaneuver states (ie Vattenfall sues Germany). Capitalism is about ambition, and the wheels of production need to keep turning to keep pace with the demand for more profit. However, the cost of making the wealthy more prosperous is that half of the global south now lives in poverty. Furthermore, after the 2008 financial crisis, the G20 gave more power to the World Bank, the IMF, and the WTO to police world trade, despite how those institutions were responsible for economic crashes to begin with. Corporate Social Responsibility is also criticized by Hilary, who explains how large corporations use this hegemonic strategy as a mechanism for expanding their reach by aligning themselves with NGOs so they can continue their exploitation of people and resources under the protection of a philanthropic name. Inequality is increasing both between and within countries and Hilary proposes that the solidarity created by the struggle for alternatives to capitalism (ie Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, La Via Campesina) shows that there is hope for a new future.

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.

eyes of the government. For example if you are a poor nobody from the lower

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

An obsession of any kind is usually unhealthy, but obsession with money can destroy the soul. Karl Marx believed that human activity is paralyzed by the capitalist system. To be sure, the all-encompassing passion for wealth and power is unchristian, but is all capitalism evil? If the answer were yes, then abandoning capitalism, with its central goal of profit, would seem to be an obvious solution to the social ills of mankind. Of course, eliminating capitalism is not the answer. The fact is that capitalism, based on free competition without deception or fraud, can lead to justly obtained profits, while serving the common good.

The advent of the ideal of capitalism is often attributed to Adam Smith. Sometimes called “The Father of Economics,” Smith was an 18th century moral philosopher from Scotland. Smith is perhaps most known for writing the book “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.” In this book Adam Smith considers and advances the ideas of the division of labor, the invisible hand, the pursuit of self-interest, the proper role of government and the idea of a Laissez-Faire (or noninterventionist) economy. Each of these ideas were considered heavily during the establishment and development of the United States. Because of their adoption into the new American government, the United States became the forerunner to the free-market.

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.

Even though capitalism has its advantages such as fueling technological innovations, there are some downsides to it. For example, capitalism creates inequalities and clear “winners” or “losers” in society. However, some people blame the poor for their circumstances and attribute their economic misfortune as due to a lack of morality (Lecture April 22, 2015).Those who blame the poor for their “laziness” are unlikely to support welfare programs, such as food stamps, because they see those as handouts.

Capitalism is when the rich gets richer and the poor gets poorer. Capitalism has mercy on no one. Each individual lives in a society where the mass crowd complain about how the big business are buying the smaller ones but just doesn’t grasp the idea that all this is happening because of the consumers themselves. Within a system just as there is pros there are also cons, cons that are costly in the end. One of the biggest cons that capitalism promote is wealth inequality. Wealth can be inherited, so some people can be rich just due to luck of their ancestors. The others that are not so lucky has to work hard for their earnings. So this becomes a problem because not only does it promotes wealth inequality, it also promotes inequality of opportunity. Capitalist societies are failing to create both equality of outcomes and equality of opportunities. Example of this is the Great depression which lasted from 1929 to the beginning of World War II, profoundly shook the world’s confidence in the capitalist system. The crisis began with the crash of the New York stock market and resulted in widespread economic damage throughout the world, including bank failures, massive unemployment, and bankruptcies. According to the article Capitalism it states, “In addition, the suffering that resulted from the Great Depression highlighted the vulnerability of the labor force. In the United States, 25 percent of workers lost their jobs, and bank failures wiped out many people’s life savings.”