...Why is a struggle underway in Cuba between social equality and the free market? Why did Cuba permit free markets? Who in the video wants Cuba to remain socialist? Why? Who in the video prefers free markets and capitalism? Why? What is the role of incentives in this struggle? In your view, which force will win? Why? There is a struggle underway in Cuba between social equality and the free market. A conflicting of opinions of how the economy futuristically should be structured and/or organized is causing the uproar between parties. Deep veins of Russian support facilitated Cuba’s government controlled socialism economy. Then the Russian economy collapsed leaving Cuba to fend for itself. As a result without many options, Cuba permitted free markets. This meant more freedom and independent choices resulting into economic upswings (McConnell, et al, 2012). The clear individual who favors free markets and capitalism is the Cuban exile, Antonio Morales-Pita. The speaker in the video stated, “Cuba decided to sell its culture, its climate, and its beaches to foreigners”. Therefore, on the surface Cuba claims to operate under socialism however, “joint ventures with the Japanese and Koreans have brought in household gear you might see at any American shopping mall. And supermarkets offer on almost all Cuban clientele, everything from Brazilian diet gelo to Jack Daniels and Jonny Walker red.” I can understand why the fiasco over Cuba’s identity still remains today. Cuba is...
Words: 517 - Pages: 3
...Socialism is an economic system where the means of production, such as money and other forms of capital, are owned by the state or public. Under a socialist system, everyone works for wealth that is, in turn, distributed to everyone. Under capitalism, you work for your own wealth. A socialist economic system operates on the premise that what is good for one is good for all. Everyone works for their own good and the good of everyone else. The government decides how wealth is distributed among the people. In a socialist economy, there is no market as such. The government provides for the people. The taxes are usually higher than in a capitalist system. There may be government-run health care and a complete system of government-operated education. It is a misconception that people do not pay for these services. They do pay for them through higher taxes. Socialist systems emphasize equal distribution of wealth among the people. The Pros of Capitalism and Socialism The pros and cons of capitalism versus socialism have been debated for hundreds of years and there is a lot of misinformation out there. Capitalism increases the opportunities in the marketplace for personal economic growth. It increases opportunities for entrepreneurs to increase their personal wealth and for societies to grow as well. Hard work is rewarded under a capitalist economy. In a capitalist economy, consumers can work toward riches and financial freedom. A competitive market results from capitalism and consumers...
Words: 547 - Pages: 3
...Socialism is a range of economic and social systems characterised by social ownershipand democratic control of the means of production,[7] as well as the political ideologies, theories, and movements that aim at their establishment.[8] Social ownership may refer to public ownership, cooperative ownership, citizen ownership of equity, or any combination of these.[9] Although there are many varieties of socialism and there is no single definition encapsulating all of them,[10]social ownership is the common element shared by its various forms.[5][11][12] Socialist economic systems can be divided into both non-market and market forms.[13]Non-market socialism involves the substitution of factor markets and money with engineering and technical criteria based oncalculation performed in-kind, thereby producing an economic mechanism that functions according to different economic laws than those of capitalism. Non-market socialism aims to circumvent the inefficiencies and crises traditionally associated with capital accumulation and the profit system.[22] By contrast, market socialism retains the use of monetary prices, factor markets, and, in some cases, the profit motive with respect to the operation of socially-owned enterprises and the allocation of capital goods between them. Profits generated by these firms would be controlled directly by the workforce of each firm or accrue to society at large in the form of a social dividend.[23][24][25] The feasibility and exact methods of resource...
Words: 1040 - Pages: 5
...Edexcel A2 Political Ideologies 3 Socialism A Short-answer questions 1 Why did Marx believe that capitalism was doomed to collapse? • Capitalism is doomed to collapse because of its own internal contradictions. • Capitalism embodies its own antithesis, the proletariat, seen by Marx as the ‘gravedigger’ of capitalism. • Capitalism is defined by the creation of profit. This is only possible by the exploitation of the proletariat — that is, by the extraction of surplus value from the workers by the bourgeoisie. • Marx believed that the inherent contradictions of capitalism would cause the proletariat to achieve revolutionary class consciousness. This would occur as capitalism went through a series of deepening crises, leading to the immiseration of the proletariat. This would inevitably result in a proletarian revolution which was destined to overthrow capitalism. 2 Distinguish between fundamentalist and revisionist socialism. • Fundamentalist socialism rejects capitalism entirely and seeks to abolish it. It usually attributes the flaws of capitalism to private property for private profit, and seeks to establish socialism in the form of common ownership and very substantial equality of outcome. The Marxist or communist tradition is the clearest example of fundamentalist socialism. However, some fundamentalists pursue their goals by the parliamentary road — i.e. it is possible to be ‘fundamentalist democrats’ in the parliamentary sense. Eurocommunists...
Words: 839 - Pages: 4
...What are Business Ethics? Meaning Ethics is a branch of social science. It deals with moral principles and social values. It helps us to classify, what is good and what is bad? It tells us to do good things and avoid doing bad things. So, ethics separate, good and bad, right and wrong, fair and unfair, moral and immoral and proper and improper human action. In short, ethics means a code of conduct. So, the businessmen must give a regular supply of good quality goods and services at reasonable prices to their consumers. They must avoid indulging in unfair trade practices like adulteration, promoting misleading advertisements, cheating in weights and measures, black marketing, etc. They must give fair wages and provide good working conditions to their workers. They must not exploit the workers. They must encourage competition in the market. They must protect the interest of small businessmen. They must avoid unfair competition. They must avoid monopolies. They must pay all their taxes regularly to the government. In short, business ethics means to conduct business with a human touch in order to give welfare to the society. Need or Importance of Business Ethics Stop business malpractices : Some unscrupulous businessmen do business malpractices by indulging in unfair trade practices like black-marketing, artificial high pricing, adulteration, cheating in weights and measures, selling of duplicate and harmful products, hoarding, etc. These business malpractices are harmful to...
Words: 3282 - Pages: 14
...Capitalism vs. socialism: the great debate revislted October 11 Civics CHV2D1-02 Capitalism versus socialism : the great debate revislted Page1 -debate between two isms, soicalism and capitalism are far from over. -International agencies porvide hard evidenceto discuss these 2 isms -comparisons between before and after the important events of capitalism in Europe and comparison of excommunist countries provide us with enough fact which provides us with definate conclusions -Under communism ->economic decisons/property owned by national/publicly -over the past 15 years of the transition to capitalism-> basic industries taken over by European/Us corporations and by mafia billionaires or have been shut down -In bulgaria, Rumania and some other countries, their average capita growth over the past 15 years -> far below compared to 15 years under communism. -In Armenia, the number of scientific researchers -> 20000 to 5000 in 5 years(1990-1995) Page2 -By the mid 1990s, over 50% of population lived in poverty,homelessness in Russia(Capitalist). Economy = privatized ->taken over by russian gangsters (which was led by billinaire). -the transition to capitalism in russia led to over 15million premature deaths (which would not have happened if they remained as socialism). -intro of capitalism has weaken the system of public health ->caused death/ infectious disease -The big contributor to the AIDS ->russian criminal gangs (trade in heroin and...
Words: 366 - Pages: 2
...works of literature have changed history in the United States so much as The Jungle did when it was published. Does Sinclair Lewis make a compelling argument for socialism in his book, The Jungle? I think that the answer to this question is going to be dependent on what you end up believing about socialism. A die hard socialist is probably going to point to Sinclair's ending with zeal and passion because it proves that Jurgis could only find a home when renouncing capitalism and its perverse interpretation of the American Dream. I think that Sinclair believed in the socialist ending of his novel. Yet, I want to pivot the question a bit. While the socialist claim might not be persuasive, like Marx himself, Sinclair is probably more eloquent on suggesting that the current capitalist system, the one being written about at the turn of the century, is in desperate need of repair. His persuasion might lie in his critique of capitalism more than his embrace of socialism. “The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, exposed the nauseating conditions of Chicago’s meat packing industry.” (Goldfield, David R. The American Journey: A History of the United States.) He couldn't have been very happy that the book gained fame for a different reason, but nonetheless it did gain a significant amount of fame and get that message of socialism is better than communism out to the public widely. There are a lot of different characters in The Jungle, and they all have some significance in their roles. These...
Words: 731 - Pages: 3
...amounts of nutrients in such forms as sewage, detergents, and fertilizers to enter the ecosystem. 2. Compare and contrast the traits and growth patterns of opportunistic versus equilibrium populations. Provide one example of each. Opportunistic species use the r-strategy. They produce millions of eggs and sperm since only a small percent will actually meet, join, and become offspring. Opportunistic species are often the first to colonize a new environment with a “boom and bursts” growth pattern, with a short life cycle. They tend to “crash” when they run out of food, space, oxygen, sunlight, or whatever the limiting factors is in that environment. Examples are most insects, and corals, barnacles, clams, scallops, and oysters, who spawn and fertilize their eggs in the water. Equilibrium species use the K-strategy. The carrying capacity of the environment. These species produce much fewer offspring and usually brood them and/or take care of them in other ways. The populations of these species may first grow exponentially, but the growth levels off when they reach the carrying capacity of the environment. They prefer a stable predictable environment and have a long life cycle. Most birds and mammals use this strategy, as well as some live-bearing fish like dogfish sharks. 3. Compare and contrast indirect versus direct values of biodiversity, and provide examples. 4. Describe two...
Words: 388 - Pages: 2
...In a way, communism is an extreme form of socialism. Many countries have dominant socialist political parties but very few are truly communist. In fact, most countries - including staunch capitalist bastions like the U.S. and U.K. - have government programs that borrow from socialist principles. "Socialism" is sometimes used interchangeably with "communism" but the two philosophies have some stark differences. Most notably, while communism is a political system, socialism is primarily an economic system that can exist in various forms under a wide range of political systems. Comparison chart | |Communism |Socialism | |Philosophy |From each according to his ability, to each according to |From each according to his ability, to each according to| | |his needs. Free-access to the articles of consumption is |his contribution. Emphasis on profit being distributed | | |made possible by advances in technology that allow for |among the society or workforce to complement individual | | |super-abundance. |wages/salaries. | |Economic System |The means of production are held in common, negating the |The means of production are owned by public enterprises | | |concept of ownership in...
Words: 3092 - Pages: 13
...has to live under and those who neither resources nor the political power to have a say what those rules will be. Examples of these economic or political systems are lord versus serf, capitalist versus proletariat and master versus slave. The capitalists are those who own means of production and the proletariats are those who work for them. Crime of the wealthy and powerful is attributed to the greed generated by capitalist economic system, and crime by the powerless is attributed to the need violate the law in order to survive. Marxist asserts the relationship between capitalism and crime, but they offer little evidence that capitalism generates crime to a greater degree than alternative economic systems, such as socialism. Marx used a base structure metaphor to describe the role of social institutions, with the economic mode of production providing the base of that structure. For Marx, the mode of production determines the characteristics of other social institutions, examples the social, political, ethnical and spiritual institutions. Not all conflict theories are Marxist but most conflict theories acknowledge that control of the economic system is an important means by which less powerful groups are dominated. Marxist theory states that society is basically the struggle between social classes. Capitalism is really the mistreatment of the working class and to stop this, the working class has...
Words: 306 - Pages: 2
...mechanism for economic coordination contrasted with the market mechanism. There are various types of planning procedures and ways of conducting economic planning. As a coordinating mechanism for socialism and an alternative to the market, planning is defined as a direct allocation of resources and is contrasted with the indirect allocation of the market. The level of centralization in decision-making in planning depends on the specific type of planning mechanism employed. As such, one can distinguish between centralized planning and decentralized planning. An economy primarily based on central planning is referred to as a planned economy. In a centrally planned economy the allocation of resources is determined by a comprehensive plan of production which specifies output requirements. Planning may also take the form of directive planning or indicative planning. A distinction can be made between physical planning (as in pure socialism) and financial planning (as practiced by governments and private firms in capitalism). Physical planning involves economic planning and coordination conducted in terms of disaggregated physical units; whereas financial planning involves plans formulated in terms of financial units. Different forms of economic planning have been featured in various models of socialism. These range from decentralized-planning systems, which are based on collective-decision making and disaggregated information, to centralized systems of planning conducted by technical experts...
Words: 873 - Pages: 4
...To preface his argument, he says that through the growth of Capitalism, the existing economic system, man becomes distance to himself, and thus to his “nature” as a species. As he is stripped of species characteristics, such as freedom and spontaneity, and instead become s product of the force of the bourgeoisie production model. Thus, inherently embedded into the structure of the capitalist economic system is the notion that the worker is miserable, and the person who performs the labor does not reap the reward of that labor. The result of this phenomenon is the division and estrangement of labor, and the rise in power of private property. Marx concludes that this cannot be true to the essence of human beings, who are estranged not only from the product and process of their labor, but also their own nature. Capitalism, which is the first negation of man, thus abolishes the possibility of real...
Words: 2047 - Pages: 9
...CHAPTER 2 THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT SUMMARY A. The economic environment is a major determinant of global market potential and opportunity. In today’s global economy, capital movements are the driving force, production is uncoupled from employment, and capitalism has vanquished communism. Based on patterns of resource allocation and ownership, the world's economies can be categorized as market capitalism, centrally-planned capitalism, centrally-planned socialism, and market socialism. The final years of the twentieth century were marked by transitions toward market capitalism in many countries that had been centrally controlled. However, great disparity still exists among the nations of the world in terms of economic freedom. B. Countries can be categorized in terms of their stage of economic development: low income, lower middle income, upper middle income, and high income. Gross domestic product (GDP) and gross national income (GNI) are commonly used measures of economic development. The 50 poorest countries in the low-income category are sometimes referred to as least-developed countries (LDCs). Upper middle-income countries with high growth are often called newly industrializing economies (NIEs). Several of the world’s economies are notable for their fast growth; the BRIC nations include Brazil, Russia, India, and China. The Group of Seven (G7), Group of Eight (G-8), and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) represent...
Words: 8143 - Pages: 33
...The Role of Banks in a Market Economy The presence of banks are crucial for the economy of each country in the world, since no expansion or growth can be obtained unless the savings of money are funneled into investment efficiently. In this aspect, the shortage of a full-fledged banking and investment system has been identified multiple times as a clear cut weakness of the centrally enforced and planned economies. Reforming the banking sector in former countries unlike the United States, that displayed communism and creating a new and improved culture of trust and confidence has been an important task in the process of transition to a market economy. In the financial system that we have as a dominant country, different flow from those people who have extra funds to those who don’t have a lot of funds, either by direct deposit, financing that is market based or by an indirect finance that has a bank based. The financial system brings together and involves all types of financial markets, financial instruments and any other of the institutions involving the financial system. The main issue that everyone wants to know is whether the make up of our financial system exhibits the potential for economic growth? The answer to the million dollar question is yes our system does exhibit economic growth. “According to cross-country comparisons, individual country studies as well as industry and firm level analyses, a positive link exists between the sophistication of the financial system...
Words: 1940 - Pages: 8
...| | |The 2008 Financial Crisis | |A Review and Critique | | | |Nicholas Makris | |12/4/2012 | | | Introduction The 2009 economic crisis was significant for two reasons: the rapid rate at which the free market constraints were dropped, and the lack of any stable resolution by the Left (Mellor, 2009). Tenets pertaining to market domination suffered a lethal crack owing to multiple nations realizing the inessential communization, rather than the actual, of economic arrangement (Mellor, 2009). The core of the problem was complicated, but simplification showed...
Words: 7080 - Pages: 29
