There has been much discussion of the current economic system in the western world, capitalism. This is mainly because of the growing anti-capitalist movement. However, as the owners of the free media are the wealthy, the anti-capitalist side of the debate has not been fairly covered. This list is not to suggest a viable alternative, although there are many. It is merely to cover the disadvantages of the current system, which have often been ignored by the media and governments.
The common capitalist mantra that “anyone can be rich if they work hard enough” is a fallacy. There’s only so much room at the top. In order to make money, first you have to take it from someone else. This can be done through selling things, taxation or any other means. But this means that the rich cannot exist without the poor. Any way you look at it, there’s never going to be equality under capitalism.
In a society where resources are not evenly distributed, there is always going to be the wealthy who have an excess of resources. While occasionally these resources are given to the poor, often this excess is wasted. Millions of dollars worth of food is wasted by those who have more than they need, while there are many others who desperately need it.
Of course, if some have an excess of the resources in society, there are others who do not have enough. In Third World countries, many are starving because they cannot afford to feed themselves, while those in Western countries fatten themselves with an excess of food, and waste the rest of it. There is enough food in the world to feed the entire world population.
Under a capitalist system, the profit motive is far greater than altruism. If people are worried about what’s in their own pocket, they will avoid helping their fellow human beings because they’re concentrating on looking after themselves. People feel the need to put themselves first because they think no-one will be there to help them if they lose all their money.
Often companies will cut corners in health and safety restrictions, because it costs them less to pay off the families of those who die in industrial accidents. Often staff are not properly trained in certain areas, or provisions have not been put in place to protect them from certain risks. This has often resulted in injuries and sometimes death.
While every individual has a single vote in a democracy, in a capitalist system, they have very little say in the actions of government. Greater influences on government than ideology or public opinion are the wealthy. Governments will listen to big business and banks because they fund their election campaigns. They will listen to big newspaper barons because they know that they can influence public opinion.
It shouldn’t be hard to convince people not to kill themselves, however, this is what companies are doing as they refuse to put in environmental measures because it will reduce their profit margins. It doesn’t matter to them that, in the long term, we’ll all be dead, as long as in the short term they’ll have the most money.
Many of the wars fought in recent years have been over profit. In Iraq, the war was largely funded by oil barons, and it was private firms who handled most of the security after the initial invasion. In Libya, western forces intervened when the civil war caused oil supplies to be cut off. They only sided with the rebels because they thought they were the most likely to win. In Iran, military intervention is being threatened over the blocking of trading routes to transport oil.
We wouldn’t stand for dictatorship in our governments, so why do we stand for it in the workplace? CEOs get paid massive salaries, and award themselves huge bonuses on top of them, while they pay their workers minimum wage. The bosses don’t do the work, they don’t produce the goods we consume, and they merely own the means of production. As for those who do? The workers don’t have any say in how it is controlled.
You cannot escape capitalism, it’s everywhere. On every billboard, on every TV program, you have someone telling you to buy something. When this is done by governments in dictatorships we call it propaganda, when companies do it, it’s called advertising. They’re both forms of brainwashing.
Have you seen Zeitgeist? It’s a good film, it explains very well capitalism. I used to think like you and some way I agree with you, but looking at all of this disadvantages (which are all true, you cannot deny it!) and like you say socialism doesn’t work, capitalism doesn’t either at all! And if I have to be honest, if there was a place where money didn’t exist, I would gladly live there. Fed up with this *****, and let me clarify that I do have a well paid job and I can say I have done well in life, but trust me, money is not all in life and it shouldn’t be the reason why we live. We came here to experience life and learn, grow, develop and evolve but the more I look at it, we’re going backwards by the day. Just my thought.
Zeitgeist is a load of grabage. It jumps from unrelatated ideas to other unrelated ideas faster than glenn beck.
this is the biggest load of simplistic left-winged fluff I have ever read .. and that’s really saying something when it’s the internet!
Silly author: “CEOs get paid massive salaries and award themselves huge bonuses on top of them, while they pay their workers minimum wage. The bosses don’t do the work, they don’t produce the goods we consume, and they merely own the means of production.”
The CEO of a corporation does not control their bonus. It is the Board of Directors that the CEO reports to. CEO’s are fired all the time because there are great expectations associated with the larger wage. According to Liberal rhetoric not everyone has an opportunity to be CEO. I disagree and understand that if I work hard I will be givan opportunities. It is the 99% that think they aren’t given opportunities, but if presented with one won’t recognize or won’t be up to the challenge anyway. You will NEVER find wealth equality anywhere so people need to stop dreaming!
ya
I support capitalism even though I know it’s garbage. However I rather support something that works than support something even worse like Fascism/Socialism/Totalitarianism/Tribalism etc…
No form of government will ever work for everyone.
Basic measures of a good government.
Homelessness:
US: 3,000,000
EU: 3,000,000
Both Sweden and Finland have laws that require housing for everyone but property owners can evict someone if they don’t pay including familys. About 1000 people are evicted every year and end up in poorly run shelters.
Real Unemployment – Percentage of working age adults not working or underworking
US 23%
EU 10%
No government in the world has 100% employment including CUBA
Healthcare:
Socialized medicine must establish guidelines that must portion care and clearly result in life and death situations.
Ironically in the US the best healthcare is provided to the poor through medicaid and the rich though good insurance. Everyone in the middle is screwed.
No matter what country you live in, life expectancy and medical care is highest for the wealthy and powerful.
Crime:
Every country in the world has crime and it will never change.
I’ve always found the Utopia of Star Trek interesting because almost everyone is in the military.
snoerto123 on December 24, 2008 i agree with muriness1…my mother has a 03Spectra..its very realiable…and the public is accepting Kia & Hyundai way faster then Toyota & Honda was a long time ago, giving time Kia’s reputation will be on par with Toyota’s, the Korean comp. resale value are now on par & better then some domestic companies
Okay, with all due respect, this is utter bollocks. You’re only pointing out the faults of some careless and sometimes selfish people that don’t represent the IDEOLOGY of Capitalism, but are just careless and sometimes selfish THEMSELVES. Also, your definition of inequality in the current system is mind-bogglingly misleading and your mentionning pollution and waste in the disavantages is cheap and part of the worthless environmental hysteria.
The advertisement is a tool of capitalism which purpose is to inform the population and not necessarily to manipulate it! It also generates competition between brands and companies! Capitalism doesn’t require advertisements to be manipulative, for ***** sakes!!
And what about comparing the rich 1% to dictators? That’s just irresponsible.
Oh, and do you still think that factory workers in China are disadvantaged by their new, I mean first, jobs, which they chose to occupy by themselves?
I love how the left claims it’s perfect when in fact, it’s also plagued with greedy people. You guys have scammers that invent a bunch of poorly explained and unrealistic crisises, mainly environmental, and pretend that we should give them money for fixing those problems when they know we have no reason to do so. You’re worse, you’re a wall to worldwide prosperity.
Taxation is a good place to begin. I pay 31% tax on $28/hr, while CEOs making millions pay virtually nothing in taxes. The 3 largest American corporations paid $0 in tax last year, leaving the common employee to pick up all the slack. It’s downright disgraceful, and will come to a head sooner then later. And as far as regulating the food goes, put limits on what people can buy. Nobody needs more then a weeks worth of food at one time. 60% of Americans are fat enough to begin with, try downsizing the plates at the restaurants and the meal sizes at fast food joints in order to spread out the availability more. We do have the options and ability to fix the problems, we just don’t seem to have the will.
Scumbag Capitalism!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The author of this list is not describing Capitalism, but in fact Corporatism. Many people mix them up. Honestly, a truly free-market, capitalist society has not existed yet. What we have now is Corporatism which is the result of government getting in bed with business, resulting in all of the following on the list. This Forbes article discusses this difference: http://www.forbes.com/sites/richardsalsman/2011/12/07/capitalism-is-decidedly-not-corporatism-or-cronyism/
Agree. Capitalism works, but with disadvantages if not work properly.
Put it simply this way:
Some people own more lands than necessary. They resell or high price, or waste it.
Some hardworking people are starving, because they can’t even own a land to farm.
This list is mostly bull*****
10.Inequality
Inequality exists because some humans are always going to be smarter, harder working than other humans. Any system that claims to eliminate that is spewing bull*****.
Also, you don’t need to take money from others to make money for yourself. Go make something better than the iPod for the same price, and everyone will switch to you. You make money, then don’t lose any money (they buy at the same price), and you both benefit.
9.Waste
People always waste stuff. This is fundamental to human nature. Why is it part of Capitalism?
8.Starvation
People starved before the world had Capitalism. To expect a total change in economics a few hundred years later is pretty radical. Capitalism almost eliminated starvation is Europe and the USA. Eventually, as the standard of living grows in Africa, Asia, and South America, they will end starvation too.
In the places that don’t have Capitalism, starvation is the worst. In the North Korean famines of 1995 and 1997, people dug up human graves to eat, because they didn’t have enough food. South Korea, a very Capitalistic country, has plenty (almost the US standard of living).
7.Anti-Social
The only way you can make money in Capitalism is by producing something someone wants. Then only way someone will agree to a transaction is if they benefit. In Capitalism, both parties benefit in every transaction. In Alternative systems based on force, harm exists, and is coerced on people.
6.Danger
Fair point, corporations often act evil. But that’s not because of the system, Communist governments had horrible working conditions. People often act evil, and blaming the system is not valid.
5.Democratic
Democracy is not what our founding fathers believed in. They believed in freedom, and thought that could best be achieved through democracy. In pure democracy, your life, liberty, ideas, values, are put up to the masses, and voted on. The ancient Greeks executed Socrates because they didn’t like what he was saying. Freedom is the true principle.
4.Pollution
Based on most measures, the USSR had higher levels of pollution than the USA during the cold war. Pollution is not about the economic system, it happens because we have the technology to pollute, and humans can be stupid. Also, most forms of pollution are technically inconsistent with a strict property rights system. In property rights, you shouldn’t be able to harm your neighbor’s property, by pumping chemicals into his air.
3.War
It’s true that large corporations do harmful things (that sometimes involve war). But is that because of the system? The USSR invaded countries based on national resources like oil, timber, et cetera. Desire for material things is a human universal. It will find it’s way into almost every economic system, be it Capitalistic or not Capitalistic.
2.Dictatorship
See above about democracy, the principle is freedom, not democracy. Do you really want your life determined by a democracy? Do you want your values, ideas, thoughts determined by the democratic process, or do you want freedom? So if people set up a large corporation, and only hire workers by consent, why should you prohibit what is an exercise of freedom by all those parties? If you don’t like their values, don’t follow them, but don’t prohibit me from following them.
1.Propaganda
This is true, but most people consider advertising to be harmless; they just ignore it. If you think it’s a serious problem, by all means, don’t participate in anything organized by advertising. But don’t tell me I shouldn’t listen to advertising, because I’m fine with it.
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Actually. The Marxist theories were never put to the test. Karl Marx died before he could actually put them to action. Pure Communism doesn’t work because humans are greedy, so what did Russia do? They made an adaption to it. Socialism is a trunk of the tree, and communism is just a branch of it. There’s Utopian Socialism, Socio-Fascism, and many more. Plato and Socrates were both Utopian Socialists.
This article is a joke. Leftist propaganda. We need wealthy people. All you have to do is get off your lazy government-supported ass, get a job, work hard, and better YOURSELF!!