American Capitalism

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Although it holds true that the United States is a global power, the current economic system, capitalism, threatens the state's domestic and global stability; the concept of materialistic success creates inequalities between citizens, which, in turn, leads to deviance and rebellion, and the possibility of a fallen capitalistic society. If the United States were to struggle internally, one of two things would happen: all industrialized external forces would exploit on America's lack of equanimity, or said forces would contribute to an international depression as a result of a chain reaction set by the collapse of an important economic state.

The inequalities that lay between social classes are a product of capitalism, the idea of a privately owned capital used freely by the owners to profit from their enterprises (The Encyclopedia America). Because money is the core of their system, US citizens are self-interested actors. Power and wealth is circulated between an exclusive group which compromises of the top twenty percent of the US's population. Power, in this sense, is the ownership of a private corporation seeking to make profit. The disparity between classes in terms of wealth can best be demonstrated by providing the household distribution of net worth within the country. The top one percent alone holds almost 26% of America's wealth network; the frightening stat, however, is how little the bottom eighty percent own--less than 20% of the network. Combined, the top twenty percent of the population accounts for about 86% (L-Curve), and the inequality becomes apparent. Amidst the division in fortune, there is variance in wealth distribution by race. Recent surveys conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau shows a significant gap betw...

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Kaletsky, Anatole. "Capitalism 4.0." OECD Observer No. 279 (May 2010) : n. pag. Web. 24 July 2010.

lcurve.org. Ed. David Chandler. 1998. Web. 24 July 2010. .

McNally, David. "Turbulence in the World Economy." Monthly Review Volume 51, No. 2 (June 1999): n. pag. Web. 25 July 2010.

Mihm, Stephen. "Why Capitalism Fails." Boston Globe. 13 September 2009. Web. 25 July 2010.

Romano, Richard and Melvin Leiman. Views on Capitalism. Ed. Richard Romano and Melivin Leiman. California: Glencoe, 1970, Print. 23 July 2010.

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