Why Environmentalists Hate 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.

One of the strongest arguments against capitalism is the quote “It was a monster devouring with a thousand mouths, trampling with a thousand hoofs; it was the Great Butcher – it was the spirit of Capitalism made flesh.”(334), the description of monster depicts capitalism as barbaric instead of those under the influence of capitalism being barbaric. This quote lends itself to the idea that people must fight for what they

Some argue that Capitalism is beneficial for everyone but that’s not true at all. There is this article called Capitalists, Arise: We Need to Deal With Income Inequality by PETER GEORGESCU from the new york times.

capitalism leads to a concentration of property and thus a concentration of resources and power in relatively few hands.

Capitalism fosters greed that when left unchecked can push people to their moral and physical limits in order to make a profit from others. This led to many people entering a cycle where they could not leave the factories and cities because they had no way to support themselves besides working in terrible conditions. This is illustrated in real life instances and in The Jungle. “Many Americans feared that the great industrialists were reducing ‘freemen’ to ‘wage slaves’”(Rise of Unions). This quote exemplifies that even though the workers of the factories were not slaves they were

“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.

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.

One reason why people do not necessarily feel obligated to help others less fortunate than him or herself is because the economy focuses on individualism, which leads to greed and hoarding. Another reason why capitalism is a social justice issue is that it deprives certain people of their human rights as well as the dignity and respect that all humans deserve. As a result, we can ask ourselves, "are we truly free?"

‘Capitalism’ can be loosely defined as ‘An economic and political system in which countries trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit.’ Being the driving

As mentioned above capitalism is a process through which wealth is generated concentrating on it’s creation, distribution, structure and economic relationships. Spatial divisions of labor arise where particular types of economic activity are concentrated in specific geographical locations. America’s number one cash crop is cotton. They are also the world’s largest producer of cotton for over centuries. Since the 1950’s, cotton has tripled its yield due to genetically modifying seeds. In 2013 the farm shown in the video will produce 13,000 bales of hay which is equivalent to 9.4 million T-shirts (Blumberg, 2013). In order for a capitalistic society to survive and maintain uneven development it is imperative to have international divisions of labor (Coe, Kelly, and Yeung, 42). Jasmine, a shirt maker in Bangladesh, creating the men’s shirt for Project Money generates an income of about $80 a month. Due to extreme poverty in her village resulting from family debt and hunger, Jasmine is one of 4 million workers in the Bangladesh garment industry. In contrast workers in Columbia are being paid almost four times the amount a month for producing the same shirt. Although both workers have the same job, their respective countries’ uneven economic development is a result of capitalism. This unbalanced economic system is due to the low labor costs dictated by the individual

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

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.

Capitalism is an economic system in which industry, trade and factor and means of production are controlled by private investors or owners with an aim of making profit in a market economy. It affects the rate of capital accumulation, labor wage and the control of competitive market. This usually affects the economy of different societies since the government has no control over the economy. The forces of capitalism greatly affect the societies in that the poor continues to be poorer while the reach society continues to accumulate wealthy and become richer. It widens the income disparity gap. It influences both the economic aspect and social aspect of the societies largely. This mainly is influenced by the forces that

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

The Twentieth Century conservationists like John Muir and Gifford Pinchot always argued that it was important for the government of the day to strike a balance between the two conflicting goals of economic development and environmental conservation. According to Menzel (2007; 3- 4), other environmental movements in the USA had been in constant conflict with industrial enterprises. The major root cause of conflict being the fact that industrial enterprises had ignored the fact their activities were hurting the environment through