Capitalism vs Communism

1228 Words3 Pages

“Necessity, who is the mother of invention” (Plato), but profit doesn’t hurt either! Until the First Industrial Revolution manual labor was the way of the world. The great societies of the world like the Greeks and the Romans built their empires with their hands. With the inventions during 1780-1850, machinery and innovation gave way to less manual labor. Marketing was born during this time because these new inventions needed to be sold to the public. Capitalism thrived with these inventions and mechanization was on the rise. The definition of capitalism is an economic theory focused on the free market. This meant no government intrusion or restrictions. It also meant businesses were free to operate as they saw fit. This type of capitalism was known as Lassiz-Faire which in the French language means “let do”. Businesses and business owners were free to operate under substandard conditions; this also doomed the laborer who would work under these substandard conditions. Usually children and unskilled persons worked for little wages in the factories. The children were used because of their small stature, to reach places the adult could not. With little wages the employees lived in substandard housing. Overcrowding and pollution became a problem. Sometimes 2 or more families lived in a single apartment. With no plumbing they dumped waste in the street. The poor living conditions and poor sanitation many diseases began to occur. The living conditions of the public, and the poor working conditions were seen by some as deplorable, something had to change. The mass immigration of people from farms and from foreign countries was known as urbanization. Consequences of urbanization were stated above. With new industry setting off, w...

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...rent ideas of economic systems. Just looking back at the inventions and social changes of the last twenty years of the world’s history, there is no doubt that more social changes, more new ideas, more new inventions and, who knows, maybe even a new economic system for the world is just around the corner.

References

http://voices.yahoo.com/creation-capitalism-communism-during-industrial-8879931.html

http://americanhistory.about.com/library/charts/blchartindrev.htm

http://inventors.about.com/od/indrevolution/

http://www.greaterthings.com/Books/Vision/Temporal/Ch-6_Past_2nd-Gath/Communism_birth.htm

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1285981/posts

Chapter II. Proletarians and Communists

http://marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch02.htm

Marx & Engels 1848, Chapter One. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Communist_Manifesto

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