Capitalism is a system of the economy in which the entire trading and associated business activities of a particular country are majorly controlled by the private sector at the expense of the peoples’ time and labor that is of the essence towards industries. The system is different from other economic systems that recognize the efforts of ordinary people towards the economic input such as communism and socialism. Capitalism began a long way ago in colonial times where the poor people remained attached to the rich merchants that traded in exports. This involved the poor people doing farming activities for the rich in order to have a place to live and protection from the military during wars. Capitalism is usually marked by a free market characterized by limited intervention from the government and freedom of choice. It works in the sense that its implications are faced on the basis of whether you are a boss or a worker. The bosses are believed to be greedy in nature and not on the verge of sharing the wealth they possess. This directly implies that capitalism results to inequality in economic and social states of a country. Besides the above effect, exploitation of the working class that has led to the division of the society to benefit the wealthy class has been attributed to capitalism. A good example is the American economy where the effects of capitalism have been exhibited through a good number of the working class bracket not having anything saved to cater for their retirement periods.
Capitalism has evolved through time from the ancient feudal societies with class antagonism clearly being detected across generations. The capitalist class can be traced from voluntary wage labor to which it is assumed to be the most appropriate mode of distribution of labor that is in surplus. Since a capitalistic society is dominated by the capitalists, it can only be differentiated by the wage-labor relationship where the surplus labor is brought in to existence by a board of directors appointed by the owners without directly convincing them (Isbister, 313). Take the example of the laborers in factories of the wealthy class in capitalistic economies.
Laborers are manipulated to work like machines under the strict supervision and commands from a hierarchy of numerous officers that are perfectly organized to foresee the work progress. This makes the workers slaves of the wealthy class losing the individual character of the little freedoms that are supposed to be enjoyed as acknowledged by Marx who claims that “modern industry has converted the little workshop of patriarchal master into the great factory of industrial capitalist. “The workers are not only faced by the above problem, but also their input in production is dictated to remain within a certain scope in relation to the cost that is incurred on maintaining him and those of the general production” (Marx, 92). The wealthy class, in control of the capitalistic economy forgets that the prices of produced commodities by the laborers and the labor itself are directly proportional to the cost of production.
The wealthy classes use the laborers to accumulate capital to which they reinvest later for further production of additional resources. However, investment decisions are made privately in a bid to favor their interests to continue ruling the economy. Any other operation is then controlled by private and independent companies that operate in competition with each other. In the modern days, the working class has been noticed to have no property on their own names. The wealthy class, have got an upper hand advantage which they use to manipulate the working class in regard to their acquired wealthy status by subjecting the whole society at large to their conditions of the appropriation. They have employed all mechanisms to protect themselves against any advancement made by those who work for them in their companies so that they too also do not become masters of their own. It is even made by the fact that the working class cannot see any individual rising up to certain status or in the sense that any of them is causing some competition within the group. They usually tend to bring each other down so that they are just at the same level. Secondly, their bosses to some extent use them as weapons to fight against other bosses. The above shows that the working classes in general are a special product when it comes to the creation of revolution
Division of labor in the in capitalism was first witnessed in factories owned by capitalists with the principles being adopted from the lines of industrial capitalism. These were then incorporated in the western economies that used them on their colonies. The division of labor and specialization was the most appropriate tactic to maximize yields of profits to the owners of capital. “However, there remains a clear demarcation of the capitalist entrepreneurs and the wage earning workers” (Kelly, 2018). Capitalism has been perceived to be an approach that is distinct basing on its relationship with the laborers as it only aims at expansion of the owners’ capital at the expense of the workers conditions.
Capitalism has resulted in a variety crimes committed by individuals who end up in jails. As people indulge in activities that make them rich, others that are below them take it negatively and perceive it as a challenge due to the surrounding atmosphere. As a result, they are motivated to go beyond their means in order to begin making money just like the fellows above them. They do not recognize that the capitalists have an advantage over them. They have the capacity to get more in addition to what they have using force on the weaker people in a bid to satisfy their interests of dominating in the society. Since those that have the property also possess the sole powers to make the laws that favor and protect them.
According to Clarence, many people find themselves in connection with property related crimes that link to the respectable classes. He suggests that the reason as to why these people commit crimes is because they are bound by them (Darrow, 53). However, this should not be the case because as a matter of fact, properties remain the most essential things in possession of human beings. People know that it is bad to commit such crimes, but because they have no choice they end up doing so. Its only after they are caught up by the laws that the wealthy classes have set that they come to understand what drove them to do commit such crimes.
On the other hand, many people who have committed property crimes have found to be in the main reason being that they cannot afford themselves good lawyers. This is attributed to the fact that the middle and law class do not have finances that are enough to finance good lawyers hence granting the rich man less danger of serving a sentence in jail. This can be coupled by them appealing to higher courts of justice just in case things get much tougher for them and the same can be solved within a short time as compared to a poor man that does not have enough cash to facilitate the whole process of justice.
Capitalism has been regarded as explicitly unjust. Liodakis (2607) says, “In order for justice to prevail in the society it is required that the wealth owned by the view individuals in the society who seem to control the economy be distributed to other individuals.” Since this cannot happen, it continues to prevail even in the modern societies. In the courts, criminal codes are mostly focused on the properties. This is because the owners, who are capitalists, set the same to protect them against the ordinary poor people. Statistics show that majority of the criminals found in jails have committed crimes related to property.
It happens that the laws are set to provide immunity to the rich. According to Liodakis “The wealthy class will acquire some property and in turn go ahead to raise the prices of the remaining stock in the market to the extent that the poor cannot be able to afford it at the stated cost” (Liodakis, 2609). As such, they are compelled to steal in a bid to satisfy their wants ending up in courts of facing the law that was created by the wealthy. In general terms, people are sent to prison because they are poor. Poverty comes in at hard times that are caused by the activities of the capitalists such as increasing the cost of living through cutting back of salaries to their employees or minimizing the employment chances. As attributed by Buckle, a philosopher and historian “the number of people arrested is directly proportional to the increase in prices of foodstuffs.” People cannot end up to steal or kill other people in search of wealth if they had as plenty as that of the wealthy class in the society.
There are also the cases of income inequality that are traced from the political class of individuals who control the countries. Good examples are the Egyptian Pharaohs who oversaw the building of the pyramids at the expense of the welfare of the slaves and the dictators of the proletariat in the Soviet Union. The Pharaohs lived a fancy life as millions of their people died of hunger as they sold grain to other nations and stocked the cash as their own wealth. Under the political class, tyranny should not be confused with capitalism as the former involves the use of force and looting while the former uses thinking in production line. “Capitalists earn through voluntary trade with those that are to benefit from the purchase of their commodities” (Carlos, 27).
Some countries like America exhibit capitalism that is of different nature as compared to other nations in the sense that, their capitalists earn a fortune by venturing into real business not by using political powers. Such people include Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates among others that invested in thinking in the production line of heir commodities which in turn, benefit the users too indicating the presence of mutually beneficial exchanges between the two parties. Capitalism is more disadvantageous as compared to its benefits. It hampers democracy in the society as the power is in the hands of the few in relation to the kind of wealth that they possess. At the workplaces, employees do not command any opinion as they are limited to the amount of capital that is held by the bosses. The more capital the bosses have the more power they have. Therefore, the perpetuation of capitalism in the modern society poses a threat to the development of the middle and lower class individuals who want to advance in life as it is an exploitative system, undemocratic, inhuman and as such it should be do away with.
Works Cited
Carlos, Luiz. Five Models of Capitalism. Revista De Economia Política, 2018, pp. 21-33.
Darrow, Clarence. Addrress to Prisoners. English Reader, 1903, pp. 47-54.
Isbister, John. "Capitalism and justice." Envisioning social and economic fairness. Bloomfield: Kumarian, 2001, pp.306-336.
Kelly, Kim. "Everything You Need To Know About Capitalism". Teen Vogue, 2018, https://www.teenvogue.com/story/what-capitalism-is. Accessed 19 May 2018.
Liodakis, George. Political Economy, Capitalism and Sustainable Development. Department Of Sciences, Technical University of Crete, 2010, pp. 2602-2614.
Marx, Karl. The Communist Manifesto. W.W. Norton " Co., 2013, pp. 91-101.
