Thursday, September 18, 2008
Capitilism
In class on Tuesday, September 16, we talked about capitalism. The views of Marx were mentioned. Marx believes that capitalism preys on the society and people as a whole to flourish. In addition, Marx expresses that capitalism is out of control of humans even though they created it. Although correct in some sense, I believe this is a complete over exaggeration. Capitalism works in our country. Our economy has flourished like no other economy in the past two hundred years. Communist societies, while good in theory, are based on the assumption that humans are underlying good. This is not the case. A young child never has to be taught to do something wrong or say no. Doing wrong is human nature. Thus, basing a society off the concept that people are fundamentally good and are going to share is starting on a worthless notion. People want to succeed. Competition is imbedded in each person, some in varying degrees. Competition produces progress, and progress is what America has thrived on. Any other type of society would not have yielded the exponential results obtained by the United States. America is a mixed market, with capitalism while government regulation still exists, which allows a good bit of competition without the fear of monopoly. However, Marx and other critics of capitalism state that it is endless and infinite. This is true. Capitalism works in such a way that there is never a break in the cycle. There is no going back without major economic consequences after a capitalistic society begins.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I overall would have to agree with DM's claims about capitalism, and in particular I would like to comment on her notion of "competition" in the capitalistic market. She states that "competition produces progress," and I would take that statement one step further and say that capitalism breeds competition. The idea that anyone in America (providing they have the resources, which is discussed more in Schweickart's reading) can compete in the free market is very appealing to Americans as well as the rest of the world's patrons. The basis of this notion, however, is the instinct that people must compete and strive to be better; humans must continue to "grow" in the way that Boisvert and Dewey described the notion of growth. Communism, as DM states, is also based off of a human instinct, less reliable than the thirst for competition: that is the instinct to "do good." I agree with DM when she states that "doing wrong is human nature," and the notion to be good is a learned one. So, as I believe DM implied, the notion to compete is more harnessable than the notion to help, which is why capitalism is generally more successful than communism.
It was said that communism works on the assumption that people are inherently good and that capitalism works on the assumption that people are greedy. It was also suggested that these assumptions are the determinants of both the success of capitalism and the failure of communism. I agree with this; in order for a policy to work it must fit the culture of those acting within it. The evidence shows that capitalism works because the drive for profit is real and in societies where individuality is valued competition thrives. What if capitalism was imposed on a society where competition is foreign? If a society at core is communal, then there would not be true competition and capitalism would not work in the way we know it. It would be interesting to see where communism succeeded the most and compare it to the level of community orientation which is culturally natural to that society.
(Response to Blog: 156 words)
Post a Comment