Capitalism!

Unknown to most, Capitalism is actually pretty exciting! If not exciting it’s at least and interesting topic that more people should give a chance at understanding. In this assignment, I am going to express my views of capitalism through the pictures of me, my friends and experiences

 

Before taking this class, I thought I knew all I needed to on capitalism. Little did I realize I was only looking at one side of capitalism, and not the full picture. Because I am a business major, I just always stood for capitalism and it felt like the right thing to do.  The first time Dr. Cruz asked what we thought of capitalism, my mind just got stuck. I had no answers, no opinions, and no facts. All this time I thought I had my reasons, up until somebody actually asked me. However, once I realized how little I actually knew, I became eager to learn and can now tell you how I personally feel about capitalism with some form of confidence.

First off, I look at capitalism like a well-oiled machine. There are many different parts to a successful capitalistic economic system such as: governments, people, businesses, laws and organizations. The only way true capitalism can succeed is if all of these parts will fit and agree with each other.

            In theory, capitalism is truly a beautiful system that offers a reward system like no other. It is designed to give people willing to take the risk, an opportunity to achieve success. Success is can be measured almost any way you would like it, for example, if you want to make more money than your neighbor, then you have that opportunity; if you want to produce higher quality products than Wal-Mart does, you also have the opportunity to do that as well. The secret to capitalism and seizing that opportunity is simple, having the spirit of capitalism. Having the spirit is having the drive, dedication and will to do whatever is necessary to reach the next level.

            This is where capitalism gets a little confusing. If it is such a great system then why are so many people poor? Why is there high unemployment? The questions begin to arise and there is no clear answer. There is no clear answer since there is no historic example of a society or culture that adopted a pure form of capitalism. Using our country as my example, I believe our problems are not caused from capitalism at all. The system is not designed this way, but unfortunately, today our system is being taxed, regulated and abused by the government.

I believe that our government is the frontrunner of turning a once beautiful system, and giving it a rather ugly appearance. It is virtually impossible to start, invent, create, produce, sell and almost impossible to think without the government telling you how to do it and making you pay taxes for it. This makes it very easy to get stuck. What I mean by stuck is when people who have the spirit of capitalism go out and give there idea a shot in the real world, it is very easy for that person to get stuck in the government’s thorns which results in the spirit of capitalism turning to a hatred of capitalism. The way our system is set up currently, it makes it very hard for somebody to get a business idea up and going. This is one reason why most businesses fail the first time. Once the government assists in one’s failure, they then allow those who failed to live off resources taken from those who succeeded.

      

Once the spirit of capitalism has been crushed in a person, the hatred leads to anguish and pointing of fingers. Instead of accepting that capitalism is a risk and reward system, people expect free rides and to be taken care of. Then people like Karl Marx get those people fired up to believe it’s the systems fault instead of the malfunction working in the system. Once fired up, those who have failed or never even tried believe they are justified to unite and cause riots, revolutions, and destruction. A lot of the Occupy movements are good examples of this; they were basically disorganized riots with no leader and no clear cause. Most of these Occupy movements resulted in a bunch of angry people taking out their anguish on anybody wearing a suit.

I truly believe that if the government, and corporations that work with the government, would quit destroying aspects of capitalism, it would become much more of an effective system for this country. Instead of just letting the economy be, they must interfere to try to prove they know best for everybody. Once they make a mistake (which is quite often) they stay quiet and allow society to blame who they want. As society blames the private sector and capitalism, it opens up the government to swoop in with new regulations, and new ways for them and their partners to make money. I hate it to say it, but at this rate, Schumpeter is right. With the blame being pointed towards capitalism, socialism is soon to take over.

If people in our country could just sit down and take a minute to view how capitalism is supposed to work, it is possible the spirit can be restored. Also, if the government would just back off and give the private sector a chance at some good old fashioned Smith self-interest, I believe we would see a more prosperous economy today.