Workforce Education : The Nexus Between Capitalism And Democracy

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.

Two of the world’s most popular and diverse economic systems are Communism and Capitalism. Capitalism, or a free enterprise economy, is an economic system constructed by the freedoms of the marketplace. The capitalist economy has several promising advantages. The capitalist government subtly changes and adjusts to the current conditions with ease. A communist system can be defined as an economic system where many, if not all, factors of production are controlled and owned by the government.

One citizen in particular that thrives due to the corrupt system is Asha Waghekar. Asha comes from a childhood of rural poverty, and when she sees the opportunity to become part of the middle class, she takes it. However, this route is not the most noble of routes. She turns to political corruption in order to come out on top, and hopefully someday become Slumlord. Asha starts down her path of corruption, when she decides to start helping her neighbors solve their problems. She believes that “when she ha[s] real control over the slum, she could create problems in order to fix them … she’d learned [this] by studying the Corporator” (20). Asha’s way of thinking allows her to not only overcome the corruption in Annawadi, but become entrenched in it. She sees the good in this, because it allows her to skip all of the usual steps to make money. She is also able to reason it to herself, she states “[h]ow can anyone say I am doing wrong when the big people did all the papers—when the big people say that it’s right?” (228). Some people are able to reason corruption, in order to allow them to feel okay with it and Asha is one of those people. Fortunately for Asha, she is able to become one of the most powerful people in Annawadi. Therefore, Asha is able to use corruption to allow her to get ahead and take advantage of powerless individuals. Corruption is able to improve the lives of the

The idea that capitalism allows for the most freedom out of any political structure has been long perpetuated by proponents of capitalism. The thinkers in favor of capitalism, according to socialist thinkers, misinterpret what it means for a person to be truly free in a society, and capitalism cannot achieve that goal of making everyone truly free. Cohen believes that socialism not only is more attractive, morally, but also less constraining on liberty than the capitalist theorists believe because capitalism forces the proletariat to “sell their labor power” (Cohen, The Structure of Proletarian Unfreedom, 3). Cohen’s explains why socialism is morally acceptable as a theory of government through the example of the camping trip thought experiment, where the principles of community and egalitarianism are brought out. In this essay I will explore how Cohen forms these arguments, and then form counter arguments from a capitalist standpoint to try to derail his arguments.

Perhaps the most important priority in fixing the corruption and chaos from unregulated capitalism is giving the people their power back. This can be done through improving democracy and giving people a more direct control over what

     Throughout history, there have been many systems developed in order to have a better society. Two of the most analyzed, and debated systems that have tired to change an economy for the best are communism, and capitalism. Communism, and capitalism have been compared on many levels, such as why they will or will not work, and which one works better. Throughout this essay I will concentrate on the differences, and similarities of how each operates, along with the benefits, and problems that each of them produces.

To some, "capitalistic democracy" conjures up the picture of a utopia where the free market is accompanied by individual liberty and social justice. To others, however, the term is more like a paradox—despite tremendous economic power, the advanced industrial nations are not immune from the evils of socio-political inequality as well as economical disparity. Amongst the capitalist democracies of the world, it is an established and well-known fact that when compared with the advanced industrial countries in Europe, the United States has the worst condition of economical-political inequality and social injustice. Its government is the least progressive, and

Today, more than ever, there is great debate over politics and which economic system works the best. How needs and wants should be allocated, and who should do the allocating, is one of the most highly debated topics in our current society. Be it communist dictators defending a command economy, free market conservatives defending a market economy, or European liberals defending socialism, everyone has an opinion. While all systems have flaws and merits, it must be decided which system is the best for all citizens. When looking at both the financial well being of all citizens, it is clear that market economies fall short on ensuring that the basic needs of all citizens are met. If one looks at liberty and individual freedom, it is evident

After the readings of last week I see Capitalism seems to work efficiently (not perfectly) when the government is not efficient. And here is my question: Why has capitalism succeeded while democracy has steadily weakened? Government's role should be to ensure that and capitalists are accountable for their actions. Answering the question of this assignment, I will point Galbraith’s idea of “The New Class”, where he expressed hopes for a better social balance coming from a growing “a new class” of mostly educated people, believing that this new class would see the problem clearly and fight politically for adequate public service and against the overpowering need of the giant firms. (Sackrey et al, 2013, 187). He argues about the need of citizen organization and mobilization for check and balance the corporate power and interest. Through the

“How Capitalism is killing Democracy” is a paper written by Robert Reich to present that although capitalism prevails in more areas of the world, Democracy has not taken hold as promised. Democracy is a very difficult concept to verbalize and define. In our other readings, we saw Becker define Democracy as “a government where the source of political authority is with and remains with the people.” Becker also wrote that the definition of democracy is capable of distortion as to include most government types. We see evidence of this while reading the paper from Reich. Reich has some socialist viewpoints and when he sees a government not meeting a perceived need of the people, he passes this off as a shortcoming of democracy. Reich wrote “runaway economics gets in the way of

As citizens of the United States, we are members of the leading capitalist economy in the world. Our production and distribution is mostly done privately and we operate in a “profit” or “market” system. The capitalist system has been a target for criticism throughout the last three hundred years and is being discussed now more than ever due to the recent recession and financial crisis (Shaw and Barry n.d., 1). Its effects,

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.

The unlawful use of a person’s position while in power leads to multiple problems with today’s government. The corrupt methods politicians use are ideas that are strictly in place for personal gain. Present throughout history and still prevalent within today’s world, government corruption has consisted of a number of negative issues including bribery, economic and social impacts, and the misuse of power. Government’s role within daily life has been shown to have negative effects as seen in many aspects of life as well as in literature.

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

Rather than eradicate capitalism, socialism exists within it. Moreover, democratic socialism is characterised through the balance and compromise between free market capitalism and the Governmental state (Bernstein 1993: 142, Heywood 2012:128, Anderson 1985: 10). Marx considered socialism as a class movement, which is what subsequently played out in the political realm, once universal suffrage had been achieved. For previously powerless people it was the only peaceful way to be heard: “Electoral politics constitutes the mechanism through which anyone can as a citizen express claims to goods and services.” (Przeworski 1985:11).