Capitalism
has always been the economic system of the United States. Capitalism is an
economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital
goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market. This has brought a lot of benefits but also costs to America. Many have benefited from this system. There are a lot of examples of “from rags to riches” under this capitalist system. It gives you the opportunity to get rich and get money quickly. Although capitalism may be thought to be the system of progress, it’s proving to have more costs than benefits.
One benefit that capitalism provides is the opportunity of innovation. Innovation is the creation of better or more effective products, processes, services, technologies, or ideas that are accepted by markets, governments, and society. Some of the many things that capitalism offers are private ownership of the means of production, and creation of goods or services for profit or income. As the history in the United States has shown, private ownership of the means of production has not always guaranteed society and the economy to progress. However, capitalism plays a major key role in innovation. “It must be acknowledged, on the other hand, that most of the material advances thus far achieved by the human race occurred under capitalism. Modern technological civilization is basically a product of private enterprise” (Terborgh 1950). Steven Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Mike Wolfe are some of the many famous innovators that have existed in world history. They are innovators who have revolutionized the world by their ideas, methods and inventions. All of these people live under a capitalistic society. Capitalism sparks innovation by having the private market compete with each other. For example, when a company needs a new product of some kind, as a result, it puts the private market to work and compete with each other to see who has the best product that the company needs. This sparks innovation and new products; this has been proven that it is a major benefit to the world. “Capitalism’s rationale to proponents and critics alike has long been recognized to be its dynamism. That is, its innovations and, more subtly, its innovations and more subtly, its selectiveness in the innovations it tries out” (Columbia University, 2012). This means that capitalism has provided us with new innovation, and provided us with products and technology that innovation has brought to the world due to the private ownership that is open to new ideas, new firms and new owners. Innovation is something that has benefitted us all by the result of capitalism.
One liability that capitalism brings is economic inequality. It increases the gap between the rich and the poor. There’s a big income gap between the rich and the poor in the United States as a result of American capitalism.
This diagram shows the huge income disparity in the United States. According to the U.S. Census Bureau there are approximately 311,591,917 people in the country. The diagram shown above depicts that the average income per family of 90% of Americans is $31,244. 280,432,725 people make up 90% of the population in the United States. The average income per family of 0.01% of Americans is $27,342,212. This means that 30,000 Americans earn that average yearly income. This shows the huge income gap between 90% of Americans and the other 10%. Capitalism is the cause for this; in dollar terms, the rich are still getting richer, and the poor are falling further behind them. There are hardly any middle class people anymore; you are either in the elite class or on the low-economic class. Not only does this affect people economically, but it has other side effects too. A consequence of economic inequality is psychological and social problems. “… the last half century’s upward economy was accompanied by downward social trends. In the third of a century after 1960, the divorce rate doubled. The teen suicide rate tripled. The recorded violent crime rate quadrupled. The prison population quintupled” (Myers, 2007).Economic inequality also impacts the psychological and social lives of people around the world. “Countries with large income inequality and much poverty, such as Brazil, India, and Portugal, have populations that report lower psychological quality of life than countries such as Norway, the Netherlands, and Belgium, where wealth is more equally distributed. People also die younger in regions with great income inequality. People in Britain and the United States have larger income disparities and lower life expectancies than people in Japan and Sweden” (Myers, 2007). This shows that inequality affects the United States and the rest of the world psychologically and socially. If a country has a large income inequality, then the people will have a lower psychological and social quality of life. This is important and a crucial piece of evidence because its shows that inequality doesn’t only affect people economically. It also affects their lifestyle and social life.
Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology, or social outlook that stresses "the moral worth of the individual". Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and so value independence and self-reliance while opposing most external interference upon one's own interests, whether by society, family or any other group or institution. Capitalism feeds individualism. American corporate capitalism both contributes and is contributed by American individualism. Capitalism in the United States makes people only care about themselves and sometimes care about their families too. John F. Kennedy once said:
“Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” This no longer applies to modern day capitalism. It feed individualism, therefore people live their lives without caring about the rest of the world and the next generation that will come ahead of them. “But individualism’s benefits come at the cost of more loneliness, more divorce, more homicide and more stress-related disease” (Myers 2007). This shows the social impacts of individualism and how it causes problems. Individualism often blinds you morally and ethically and money turns out to be more important than people. Capitalism contributes to individualism, which leads to many problems to people.
Capitalism has benefits, but facts point out that there are more costs than benefits. These things affect everyone, around the world. We get products from different countries in the world and many countries depend on our consuming. This issue matters because we can see the social and economic effects on the world, the country, the city of Chicago, and the community. Getting a job is not easy like before, there is more competition now between Americans and foreign countries. U.S. companies are moving to other countries to get more profit out of it. They don’t have to pay taxes on other countries, they pay a way lower wage to the workers. Sweatshops are also an example of capitalism. If a company wants to obtain more profit, sweatshops are the easy way to get profit because it is cheap labor; the workers almost get paid nothing. Big companies like Wal-Mart are spreading and taking away business from people around the world because of its cheap prices. This issue matters because not only are the people suffering from economic injustices, but also social injustices. Child labor and worker exploitation are examples of social injustices that is a result of United States capitalism.
One benefit that capitalism provides is the opportunity of innovation. Innovation is the creation of better or more effective products, processes, services, technologies, or ideas that are accepted by markets, governments, and society. Some of the many things that capitalism offers are private ownership of the means of production, and creation of goods or services for profit or income. As the history in the United States has shown, private ownership of the means of production has not always guaranteed society and the economy to progress. However, capitalism plays a major key role in innovation. “It must be acknowledged, on the other hand, that most of the material advances thus far achieved by the human race occurred under capitalism. Modern technological civilization is basically a product of private enterprise” (Terborgh 1950). Steven Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Mike Wolfe are some of the many famous innovators that have existed in world history. They are innovators who have revolutionized the world by their ideas, methods and inventions. All of these people live under a capitalistic society. Capitalism sparks innovation by having the private market compete with each other. For example, when a company needs a new product of some kind, as a result, it puts the private market to work and compete with each other to see who has the best product that the company needs. This sparks innovation and new products; this has been proven that it is a major benefit to the world. “Capitalism’s rationale to proponents and critics alike has long been recognized to be its dynamism. That is, its innovations and, more subtly, its innovations and more subtly, its selectiveness in the innovations it tries out” (Columbia University, 2012). This means that capitalism has provided us with new innovation, and provided us with products and technology that innovation has brought to the world due to the private ownership that is open to new ideas, new firms and new owners. Innovation is something that has benefitted us all by the result of capitalism.
One liability that capitalism brings is economic inequality. It increases the gap between the rich and the poor. There’s a big income gap between the rich and the poor in the United States as a result of American capitalism.
This diagram shows the huge income disparity in the United States. According to the U.S. Census Bureau there are approximately 311,591,917 people in the country. The diagram shown above depicts that the average income per family of 90% of Americans is $31,244. 280,432,725 people make up 90% of the population in the United States. The average income per family of 0.01% of Americans is $27,342,212. This means that 30,000 Americans earn that average yearly income. This shows the huge income gap between 90% of Americans and the other 10%. Capitalism is the cause for this; in dollar terms, the rich are still getting richer, and the poor are falling further behind them. There are hardly any middle class people anymore; you are either in the elite class or on the low-economic class. Not only does this affect people economically, but it has other side effects too. A consequence of economic inequality is psychological and social problems. “… the last half century’s upward economy was accompanied by downward social trends. In the third of a century after 1960, the divorce rate doubled. The teen suicide rate tripled. The recorded violent crime rate quadrupled. The prison population quintupled” (Myers, 2007).Economic inequality also impacts the psychological and social lives of people around the world. “Countries with large income inequality and much poverty, such as Brazil, India, and Portugal, have populations that report lower psychological quality of life than countries such as Norway, the Netherlands, and Belgium, where wealth is more equally distributed. People also die younger in regions with great income inequality. People in Britain and the United States have larger income disparities and lower life expectancies than people in Japan and Sweden” (Myers, 2007). This shows that inequality affects the United States and the rest of the world psychologically and socially. If a country has a large income inequality, then the people will have a lower psychological and social quality of life. This is important and a crucial piece of evidence because its shows that inequality doesn’t only affect people economically. It also affects their lifestyle and social life.
Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology, or social outlook that stresses "the moral worth of the individual". Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and so value independence and self-reliance while opposing most external interference upon one's own interests, whether by society, family or any other group or institution. Capitalism feeds individualism. American corporate capitalism both contributes and is contributed by American individualism. Capitalism in the United States makes people only care about themselves and sometimes care about their families too. John F. Kennedy once said:
“Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” This no longer applies to modern day capitalism. It feed individualism, therefore people live their lives without caring about the rest of the world and the next generation that will come ahead of them. “But individualism’s benefits come at the cost of more loneliness, more divorce, more homicide and more stress-related disease” (Myers 2007). This shows the social impacts of individualism and how it causes problems. Individualism often blinds you morally and ethically and money turns out to be more important than people. Capitalism contributes to individualism, which leads to many problems to people.
Capitalism has benefits, but facts point out that there are more costs than benefits. These things affect everyone, around the world. We get products from different countries in the world and many countries depend on our consuming. This issue matters because we can see the social and economic effects on the world, the country, the city of Chicago, and the community. Getting a job is not easy like before, there is more competition now between Americans and foreign countries. U.S. companies are moving to other countries to get more profit out of it. They don’t have to pay taxes on other countries, they pay a way lower wage to the workers. Sweatshops are also an example of capitalism. If a company wants to obtain more profit, sweatshops are the easy way to get profit because it is cheap labor; the workers almost get paid nothing. Big companies like Wal-Mart are spreading and taking away business from people around the world because of its cheap prices. This issue matters because not only are the people suffering from economic injustices, but also social injustices. Child labor and worker exploitation are examples of social injustices that is a result of United States capitalism.