...Macroeconomics May 13, 2014 The Two Economic Systems Throughout history there have been two basic forms of social organization: collectivism and individualism. To briefly define each one is to say capitalism is an economic and political system in which all the means of production and distribution are privately owned and operated within a free market society. On the other hand Socialism is an economic and political system in which all the means of production and distribution are collectively owned and operated by all members of a society. In my opinion, both systems, in their purest form, have their pros and cons. Capitalism promotes a free market system whereby citizens are practically free to create almost any product or provide almost any service and ideally start their own business to make their own profits. One of the main selling points of capitalism is that it’s a system that primarily self-regulates. It’s meant to keep prices and the quality of products and services at least half way decent. Of course it doesn’t always work out that way, but that’s the general idea. Another wonderful thing about capitalism is that it aims to preserve economic freedom from excessive government control. However, there is always at least some government regulation involved, as there should be in my opinion. Though most hardcore capitalists believe in the French expression Laissez-Faire, which means “leave it alone.” They hold to the idea that if government would...
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...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 characters vary widely in many aspects, including: professions, social status, and economic status. The main character in the...
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...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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...------------------------------------------------- Economic problem From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia | This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2012) | The economic problem, sometimes called the basic, central or fundamental economic problem, is one of the fundamental economic theories in the operation of any economy. It asserts that there is scarcity, or that the finite resources available are insufficient to satisfy all human wants and needs. The problem then becomes how to determine what is to be produced and how thefactors of production (such as capital and labor) are to be allocated. Economics revolves around methods and possibilities of solving the economic problem. Economic problem arises mainly due to two reasons- (i) human wants are unlimited (ii) means to satisfy human wants are scarce. Contents [hide] * 1 Overview * 1.1 Opportunity cost and Production Possibility Frontier or Production Possibility Curve. * 1.2 Needs * 1.3 Wants * 1.4 Choice * 2 See also ------------------------------------------------- Overview[edit source | editbeta] The economic problem is most simply explained by the question "how do we satisfy unlimited wants with limited resources?" The premise of the economic problem model is that wants are constant and infinite due to constantly changing demands...
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...www. Wikipedia.org The economic problem, sometimes called the basic, central or fundamental economic problem, is one of the fundamental economic theories in the operation of any economy. It asserts that there is scarcity, or that the finite resources available are insufficient to satisfy all human wants and needs. The problem then becomes how to determine what is to be produced and how thefactors of production (such as capital and labor) are to be allocated. Economics revolves around methods and possibilities of solving the economic problem. In short, the economic problem is the choice one must make, arising out of limited means and unlimited wants. Contents [hide] * 1 Overview * 1.1 Opportunity cost and Production Possibility Frontier * 1.2 Needs * 1.3 Wants * 1.4 Choice * 2 See also | ------------------------------------------------- [edit]Overview The economic problem is most simply explained by the question "how do we satisfy unlimited wants with limited resources?" The premise of the economic problem model is that wants are constant and infinite due to constantly changing demands (often closely related to changing demographics of the population). However, resources in the world to satisfy human wants are always limited to the amount of natural or human resources available. The economic problem, and methods to curb it, revolve around the idea of choice in prioritizing which wants can be fulfilled.. and how do we know what to produce for the...
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...addition, the paper also explicitly explores two possible ways to solve the tragedy of the commons, the free market solution and the socialism solution, and applies these ways to a real case of Euro’s Tragedy. In the end, referring to Elinor Ostrom’s theory in 2009, the paper recommends the collective agreement from the moral perspective to be the possible ideal solution to the tragedy of the commons. | | Contents 1. Introduction 1 2. Formation 2 2.1 Theoretical explain of the formation 2 2.2 Hardin’s grazing model 4 3. Ethics Involved 5 3.1 Ethical Egoism Theory 5 3.2 Utilitarian Theory 5 3.3 Moral Foundation Theory, Virtue Theory and Confucius 6 3.4 Right Theory 6 4. Solutions to the Tragedy 7 4.1 Free market solution 7 4.2 Socialism solution 9 4.3 Comparison of the Two Solutions 10 4.3.1 Attitude towards self-interest 11 4.3.2 Attitude towards common resources 11 4.3.3 Government Function 11 4.3.4 Incentive structures 11 4.3.5 Outcomes 12 5. Case of Euro’s Tragedy 12 5.1 How Euro’s Tragedy Happened 13 5.2 How it related to Tragedy of the Commons 14 5.3 Free Market Capitalism Solution and the Tragedy of Euro 14 5.4 Socialism Solution and the Tragedy of Euro 15 6. A Third Solution 17 6.1 Ethical Obligation 17 6.2 Cultivating Ethics 17 6.3 Elinor Ostrom’s Theory 18 7. Conclusion 20 Bibliography 21 Tragedy of the commons is an economic issue as well as an ethical problem rising from daily life. This paper would provide a broad discussion...
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...backgrounds had begun to arrive in the United States during the late 1890's from places such as Ireland, Poland, Italy, and Lithuania . These people were ill equipped to deal with the harsh realities of urban living in America at the time. In his book Sinclair shows how capitalism creates pressures that undermine the traditional family life, cultural ties, and moral values that these immigrants had brought with them. With "literally not a month's wages between them and starvation" workingmen are under pressure to abandon their families, woman must sometimes choose between starvation and prostitution. Children are forced to work rather then attend school, just to keep starvation away for one more day. The Socialist Party of America was founded in 1901, and for over a decade after that saw enormous growth, by 1912 they had over 1,200 elected public officials in the country, and during the election of that year had very good election results by their candidate Eugene Debs for President (Dickstein). The growth of the Socialist movement primarily took place in the vast heartland of the United States, as it was undergoing the strains of industrialization. The roots of this movement were based on reforms to the social and economic systems that were keeping the immigrants enslaved by the current systems that were in place. The 19th century saw rapid industrial expansion in America. Between 1800 and 1900 the per capita income rose from $200 to more then $1200 (numbersusa.com). However,...
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...Abstract In this essay I will discuss the role of scarcity in our economy and how it affects the market, also the economic and political systems created to solve the problem of scarcity. I will also discuss the role of scarcity on the choices made on an economy and how it affects the choice of the different types of economic systems. I will discuss the difference of capitalism and corporatism, the perfect competition against imperfect competition and how those economic systems are related to scarcity. I will also examine the role of scarcity on the rationing of products and food and how it influences people decisions on what they do with their money. To conclude I will examine the best solutions possible for the problem of scarcity and the mistakes made by governments when handling the problem of scarcity and their use of economic theories by know economics. Overall I am going to prove scarcity’s hole in every action we take related, or not, to economics. Scarcity is the fundamental economic problem of having seemingly unlimited human wants and needs in a world of limited resources. It states that society has insufficient productive resources to fulfill all human wants and needs. Alternatively, scarcity implies that not all of society's goals can be pursued at the same time; trade-offs are made of one good against others. It is a problem because the more one men wants the less the others can have because of the limited resources on the world. Scarcity...
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...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 and economic growth”(Duisenberg). However there are still some minor questions that we do not have the answers too but our financial system is directly linked to economic success in the country and the world. Regarding the unanswered questions, economists still have the presence of contradicting views exhibiting the underlying sequences in the operation that explain the positive relationship...
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...BMO5501 BUSINESS ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY Assignment 2 : Reflective Journal Page 1. Overview 2-3 2. Table of Contents a) Business Ethics 4-5 b) Sustainability 6-7 c) Capitalism 8 d) Corporate Social Responsibility 9-11 3. References 12 Overview The three main topics of the course, Ethics & Business Ethics, Sustainable Development and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) are very relevant in today’s business world. The phasing and sequencing of readings starting with Ethics, then to Sustainability and ending with CSR provides a good foundation to the business practices of CSR. Without the foundational understanding of Ethics normative theories and Sustainability phenomenon and issues, and the concepts of socialism, capitalism, corporate citizenship, the readings and eventual learning about the subject of CSR would be more superficial and spiritless. The 4 key normative ethical theories of Egoism, Utilitarianism, Kant’s, Rights have very different moral reasoning in judging what is right or wrong, good or bad. Egoism is very individualistic and consequentialist. Utilitarianism is also consequentialist but based upon the aggregated greatest number of well beings. The opposite of these two are non-consequentialist, one theory is based on the motives – Kant’s categorical imperative and second theory is based on Rights, human rights and natural rights. Each ethical theory has its valid...
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...government as well as economy is also based on trying to create equality. Communism can be related to Socialism which creates equality by essentially sharing all profits and land with the community. Unlike socialism however,Communism believes that there is no need for a profit to be given to the worker or for land to be owned by any workers because it creates inequality and this must be done to ensure social order. A Lot of the communist ideology is totally opposite and against capitalist views. There is no competition in communism and wages and salaries are equal across all carers and work. In Communist theory, government leaders should only be temporary and used only to gear the population towards true order and then step down and let the work cycle continued. Many of the communist ideology is predominantly theory and is highly criticized by many nations. In today's day and age many countries have decided to opt out of the communist social structure because it is unpractical and does not provide true equality as theorized. Communism was a fairly modern ideology founded only about 120 years ago but has lingered throughout history. The majour man honoured with the creation of communism is Karl Marx who lived between 1818-1883 and was born in Germany but then fled to the United Kingdom. Marx was a major activist during the time period he lived in witch was the boom of capitalism. Marx joined a communist political party and was a newspaper journalist. He also wrote many books on...
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...Introduction Economic system is defined as the basic arrangements made by societies to solve the economic problem. There are three economic systems that classification by degree of government control. The three economic systems are Command Economy System (Socialism). A system where the government, rather than the free market, determines what goods should be produced, how much should be produced and the price at which the goods will be offered for sale. The command economy is a key feature of any communist society. Example of country that under this economy system are North Korea, Cuba and Russia. Market Economy System (Capitalism) is an economic system in which economic decisions and the pricing of goods and services are guided solely by the aggregate interactions of a country's citizens and businesses and there is little government intervention or central planning. This is the opposite of a centrally planned economy, in which government decisions drive most aspects of a country's economic activity. Example of the country are Hong Kong and USA. Mixed Economy System is an economic system that features characteristics of both capitalism and socialism. A mixed economic system allows a level of private economic freedom in the use of capital, but also allows for governments to interfere in economic activities in order to achieve social aims. This type of economic system is less efficient than capitalism, but more efficient than socialism. Example of the country are Malaysia and Japan...
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...better managing and regulating capitalism – that is, striving for “good capitalism” – and those who hold anticapitalist positions. The author of this article argues that a Left that does not give up on the generation of alternatives to capitalism but at the same time is responsible for governing, should think about a “great transition” without losing sight of the horizon of a “great transformation”. This article analyzes the Yasuní-ITT Initiative and presents it as an example of how to merge concrete and innovative proposals (transition) and utopias which go beyond capitalist development (transformation). Key words: Left, Capitalism, Good Living/Sumak Kawsay, Yasuní-ITT The world does not need alternatives for development, but alternatives to development. The world does not need to “better” use capitalism, but to transform it. That is the great historical challenge that the Left should take on, both intellectually and politically. The concept of “development” has been recycled and reborn again and again for all its critics and detractors. However, in a strict sense it has never been questioned as a concept, nor how to best achieve it. Whereas “human” development, “sustainable” development, development “with a gender perspective”, etc. are important advances to create world that is more humane, environmentally friendly, and equitable, they do not seek to change what is at the root of the accumulation and (re)distribution models inherent to capitalism.2 Taking this into account...
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...Examples (Brazil, India, China -Russia) 6 Infant Industries 8 Operation of Capitalism 10 Conclusion 13 Recommendations 14 Bibliography 15 Summery The purpose of this report is to gain an understanding of different theories, ideas behind them and to show examples of how they are implemented. Report outlines the limitations to the idea that countries should be allowed to protect infant industries, like limiting it to a domestic market. Report also looks at Comparative Advantage theories explanation to countries varied fortunes, including the International trade theory and underlining the economic growth, because of the foreign trade. The last question that the report outlines is the economists believes on capitalism in regards to maximising welfare. As a result of the report it was decided to recommend the integration of producers of data categories into international chain. Comparative Advantage theory • How does the Comparative Advantage theory explain countries’ varying fortunes? Use examples to explain your answer. International trade theory International trade plays an increasingly important role in economic development. Throughout the post-war period be volumes of world trade rapidly increased, and their environments- Annual growth (1.5 times) faster than the global the first volume of production. As a result, on the one hand, foreign trade has become a powerful factor for economic growth and on the other hand, significantly increased dependence on international...
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...Journal of Business Ethics (2007) 74:303–314 DOI 10.1007/s10551-007-9517-y Ó Springer 2007 Stakeholder Capitalism R. Edward Freeman Kirsten Martin Bidhan Parmar ABSTRACT. In this article, we will outline the principles of stakeholder capitalism and describe how this view rejects problematic assumptions in the current narratives of capitalism. Traditional narratives of capitalism rely upon the assumptions of competition, limited resources, and a winner-take-all mentality as fundamental to business and economic activity. These approaches leave little room for ethical analysis, have a simplistic view of human beings, and focus on value-capture rather than valuecreation. We argue these assumptions about capitalism are inadequate and leave four problems in their wake. We wish to reframe the narrative of capitalism around the reinforcing concepts of stakeholders coupled with value creation and trade. If we think about how a society can sustain a system of voluntary value creation and trade, then capitalism can once more become a useful concept. KEY WORDS: capitalism, stakeholder, ethics, economics, free market Introduction1 We live in the age of markets. While markets have been around for thousands of years, we are just beginning to understand their power for organizing society and creating value. In the last 200 years markets have unleashed a tremendous amount of innovation and progress in the West. The industrial revolution, the rise of consumerism, and the dawn...
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