...The origins of capitalism can be traced back to the man who is considered its founding father, Adam Smith. In 1776, Smith published The Wealth of Nations, a magnum opus that described the philosopher’s views on topics such as the division of labor and productivity, and how each played a role in the implementation of laissez-faire economics. Smith believed that the adoption of this type of system would create an ideal society through supply and demand enterprise. Karl Marx once prophesized that a working-class revolution was inevitable due to effects of capitalism and free-markets. Drawing his ideologies from his observations during the Industrial Revolution, Marx realized that social inequality existed between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie....
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...The wealth chasm: a dangerous cocktail The street demonstrations of 2011 and 2012 are still fresh in our minds. Thousands of voices chanting, “We are the 99%!” and blockading the stock exchange have not left the psyche of American’s, and were successful in getting their message across. Before 2011, it was heard in whispers: “They have too much.” Now, it’s a shout. The rich are indeed doing very well for themselves. In fact, the wealth gap is almost unprecedented, except for right before the great depression, and the subsequent rebellion that shook the United States that ultimately resulted in the New Deal. (DeSilver, 2013) History doesn’t necessarily repeat, but we are seeing a world eerily similar to that which was in place before 1929: The rich hoarding all the money and anger simmering in the proletariat. Globally, the reaction against this sort of systemic looting of the people by the capitalist class is taking form and is becoming increasingly better organized and more violent. The global wealth gap is a combustible recipe for insurrection, and will result in a collapse of capitalism and the rise of radical left, and right wing ideologies if it is not fixed. The wealth gap in the world is at astonishing levels. A simple browse of the news, or the Facebook feed of any liberal-leaning page will bring up statistics that would seem like they were made up if we weren’t bombarded by them at all times, and the data to back them up. According to William Domhoff of the University...
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...Capitalism is one of the most distinguishing feature of American society, and its success sets our country apart from others in many ways. Economic market exchanges promote freedom and individual power. Yet, in some ways, capitalism may undermine democracy and increase inequality both within the United States and across the globe. The role of capitalism is to increase economic activity, and the role of democracy is to enable citizens to collectively decide how this economic wealth generated should be divided and to decide what rules apply to public and private goods. This sounds ideal, but capitalism can widen inequalities of income and wealth, created a heightened sense of job insecurity, and create environmental hazards. Ownership of wealth gives you the upper hand; once you have it, it will only get easier for you to attain more. Children who are born into families with immense amounts of wealth are guaranteed money and a greater quality of life, therefore setting them up for more success than those children of underprivileged children. This generates inequality from the very beginning of life. Under the concept of concentration of power lies the market dynamic. Winners in economic...
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...Final Paper Wealth Inequality in U.S. and Economic Efficiency Over the last decade, income inequality has become one of the most important issues in the U.S. and a subject of a lot of debate. There is a prevalent idea in the society that the wealth inequality in United States is currently at the highest level in the history after steadily raising for a number of decades. The financial crisis is said to have contributed to this significant gap between the top 1% and everybody else. People view it as an inherently negative thing, and fight hard to promote the equality and income redistribution. This paper examines the causes of inequality; the relationship between wealth inequality and economic growth and the hypothesis on how policy measures can be designed to mitigage the income disparity both in U.S. and in the rest of the world. The researh is based on the theory that inequality is an essential aspect of an efficient free market economy that adversely affects economic growth when in excess. When it comes to global wealth inequality, people often tend to accuse capitalism. In fact, the real laissez-faire capitalism doesn't exist anywhere on our planet. According to its definition, laissez faire is "an economic system in which transactions between private parties are free from intrusive government restrictions, tariffs, and subsidies, with only enough regulations to protect property rights." It has been previously proven free markets lead to the most efficient use of economic...
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...Katiana Rachev Sociological Final Paper Capitalism is what our society is based upon and the effects of this not only cause inequalities but racism. Capitalism is a system that is established on trade in private parties, also known as businesses. It might not seem like this would be linked to inequalities of class and gender but the link is stronger than others. If you look at the wealth distribution in the United States, the difference between the upper class and middle to lower class is astonishing. The upper class receives, which is 10% of the population, more than 2/3rd of the wealth generated. This leaves less than a quarter to distribute between the middle to lower class (Johnson 43-44). The biggest inequality is with the money in America itself....
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...Capitalism is regarded as one of the most permissive forms of social setups that exist around the globe today. Capitalism is the economic system based on private or corporate ownership of, production and distribution of goods, according to the definition Google gives. Capitalism has existed to some extent in all civilizations, such as the Mayans or the Yucatan. The economic system that is argued to be better than capitalism is Socialism. Socialism first arose in the late eighteenth century in response to the Industrial Revolution, in regards to factory owners were becoming wealthy and the workers impoverished. In Canada, the Great Britain, and the United States of America are all countries whose economies are driven by the principles of Capitalism. However, in Cuba, North Korea, and China are not, they have a Communist system of government. There are many different ideas or systems of how an economy should be run, however the two most popular are capitalism and communism. Since 1848, the controversy of capitalism and socialism has been one of the most debated subjects around...
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...Thesis 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. Exposition 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, structure, varieties, and possibilities provide for a large field of study and writers from several different disciplines have provided their input to the debate. Most fundamental is the question of whether our capitalist system is a morally justifiable one. This question can’t be answered by reviewing the efficiency and productivity capitalism provides, but instead requires a thorough analysis of ethics. A capitalist society is characterized by the private ownership of property and a free market that grants citizens the right to use their resources for their own benefit. Private property is the ownership of productive resources like companies, stocks, and bonds and should not be confused with personal property. Personal property consists...
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...historian Howard Zinn. Zinn presents the disapproval of free market economies. This disapproval regards the distribution of wealth and the prominent rise of elitism within present day free market economies. Zinn believes that through current free markets, elitism and the ultra rich present severe harm to society. The invisible hand has favoured the one percentile, leaving the majority of society in economic unrest. Through the quote, the idea of balancing and equalizing is presented. Zinn boils down human necessities to: food, housing, medical care, education, entertainment, and vacations. Economic equalization is one key factor in socialism that Zinn entrenches his opinion in. Historical economists...
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...west is home to the ideologies of democracy, capitalism, and consumerism. The idea of democracy has been forced upon many nations in the world by the Western states. Democracy however has been shown to be a very easily manipulated system. Capitalism has shown the need for expansion and exploitation over Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The west has always been in contention with other nations, along with contending with each other. Competition between western nations has led to a technological race and an arms race, which is now more apparent than ever in the United States. With military might came the need to take over other nations and thus the ideas of imperialism, and nation aristocracy. Africa, Latin America, and Asia has suffered and continues to suffer a great deal because of the triumph of the west through exploitation, expansion, and wealth, all major goals of capitalism and imperialism. The West has retarded the development in all facets for many countries in Africa, Latin America, and Asia and thus led to the suffering of the world. One of the oldest ideologies from the west to the world is democracy. Democracy comes from the Greek words “demo” meaning people and “kratia” meaning rule, therefore rule of the people. Democracy is an egalitarian system of governance where all citizens together decide public policy, laws, the actions of the state, and public representatives. It makes sure that all citizens of a state have a say in the politics of a country. Although...
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...between capitalisms and socialism is the extent that the government interferes with the financial countries growth of the society. Under capitalism, private citizens can own their own business with limited government interference. Under socialism, the government owns all businesses. Socialist believes that private citizens should share the wealth of the financial growth to equalize out the gap between the wealthy and the poor. Capitalist Society vs. Socialist Society Does one live in a country where they can have the opportunity to have personal wealth or live in a country where the government makes all the decisions? In Belgium, the socialist system believes that everyone should have equal equality; the government does not permit much freedom when it comes to the economy because it controls all forms of capital. Living in a capitalistic country everyone is concentrating on their own personal wealth and success, Socialism is concentrating on society as a whole. Concentrating on a society as a whole can impair society by putting hard working people in the same financial group as the non-hard working people. The same person working hard in the United States can secure success and wealth. In Belgium, that same person is not able to profit from his success or wealth because he has to give his earnings to the government. Julie, who lives in the United States, might try to persuade Jean-Paul that moving to the U.S. would be more beneficial to his overall wealth because...
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...Michael Hargrove Soc 4010/5010 Instructor Montez de Oca 10/19/12 Beyond Capitalism America Beyond Capitalism: Reclaiming Our Wealth, Our Liberty, and Our Democracy, by Gar Alperovitz claim’s that our political/economic system can no longer sustain equality liberty, and democracy to the American working class. Alperovitz argues that a radical change to our political-economic system is needed. He also believes that it is at the lower or grassroots level that this change has to take place, but that it is going to take some time and a lot of commitment on their part. An analysis of Alperovitz’s book America Beyond Capitalism provides a unique but radical perspective on overhauling our political/economical system. However, his perspective depends on the American working class people to create a new political/economic system in order to restore equality, liberty, and democracy. This idea is plausible, but reducing the federal government down to the city and state level is highly unlikely. Alperovitz claims that our political/economic system can no longer sustain our equality, liberty, and democracy for working class Americans. Alperovitz’s first argument is on equality. His concern is that globalization, changing technologies, and sectoral balances are creating a widening gap of inequality. The decline of labor unions has enabled the corporations to lead a number of campaigns that have challenged redistribution programs. Globalization has increased the influence of large...
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...produce? How much should we produce? And who is making those decisions. Capitalism is the economic system agreed upon in the United States of America. In the recent discussions of the efficacity of...
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...neutral policy which supposedly exists unquestionably and permanently. “Structure” is paired with the term “violence” referring our attention to thoughts of injustices and inequalities. In actuality, these customs do not exist neither naturally nor neutrally, but have been embedded in the political, economic, and social organization of societies over time. Structural violence is not limited to local histories or countries classified as third world, but also...
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...Pure capitalism is the best form of economic system because people are almost completely free to buy and produce what they need or want without any or very little government restrictions. Pure capitalism is also known as “Laissez-Faire” or hands free, it’s when the government has little or no control over the economy. The movie “Atlas Shrugged” takes place in 2016 where the economy is the complete opposite of capitalism, the government takes control over, almost everything and the whole economy crashes. Pure capitalism is best because there is no or very little control or limit on what people can produce. There’s five characters of a Capitalist economy. One characteristic is a Two-Class System, this means that society was historically characterized...
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...Name: Instructor: Course: Date: Capitalism and Socialism 1 Varieties of capitalism arise from a number of institutional characteristics that prevail in the developed economies of the globe. Such institutional characteristics include; education and vocational training, industrial relations, inter-firm relations, corporate governance and intra-firm coordination (Soskice & Hall 23). These characteristics differentiate two forms of capitalism, coordinated market economies- CME’s and liberal market economies- LME’s. Aside from differing in their institutional characteristics, these two forms of capitalism differ in certain macroeconomic aspects especially industrial specialization and comparative advantage. The table below pinpoints the differences between the forms of capitalism based on the institutional characteristics; Institutional characteristic | Liberalized markets (LME’S) | Coordinated markets (CME’s) | Education and training | Formal learning from high schools and colleges | Apprenticeship, bestowing industry specific skills | Inter-firm relations | Competitive | Coordinated/collaborative | Industrial regulations | Deregulated, anti-tax, tax breaks | Motivates information sharing and coordination among firms | Comparative advantage/specialization | High-tech and service | Manufacturing | Income distribution | Largely unequal | Generally evenly distributed | Mechanism | Competitive market arrangements | Non-market relations | An example of...
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