Capitalism is an Oppressive Economic and Social System

875 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Stratification in capitalist societies

Imagine a society where a small minority of people have absolute control over masses. In such a society, mass media and institutions are the major means of spreading messages of false hope and promises. Through the mass propaganda machines of mass media and popular culture, a state of group think and conformity is established where a set of values is enforced so that a few may benefit immensely at the expense of many. One would think that such a tale is told only in dystopian fiction but the truth is that we live in such a society and the main cause of this oppression of the masses is our economic and social system, Capitalism.
Capitalism is an oppressive economical and social system. It serves as a tool used by the rich minority to oppress, divide and control our society, our relationships and our governments. These divisions created by the capitalistic economic and social system have been blamed for many of the disparities in our society by conflict theory philosophers such as Karl Marx. These philosophers state that since groups are in a power struggle, the needs of all will not be met and will result in the exploitation and oppression of disadvantaged individuals [1].
Capitalism is a system based on exploitation. It creates class divisions between the few that have capital and control the means of production and those that do not [2]. These divisions serve as a means of exploitation so that individuals without power and wealth are forced to run on a perpetual “hamster wheel” chasing the false dreams of opportunity while those that have wealth and control the means of production may keep becoming even wealthier. This system perpetrates the myth that through hard work one may achieve great wealth. Without much invest...

... middle of paper ...

...m meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.”[9].
Capitalism has proven itself to be a corrupt, unjust and exploitive system which favors the rich and powerful over others and creates social and economic divides. It erodes our basic democratic principles that many of the founders of our nations strived for. Through class divisions, capitalism keeps the poor and rich separate and ensures that the social mobility of hard working individuals is prevented. It causes rifts in relationships between men and women and through control of our mass media and institutions; it perpetrates false dreams in order to keep the masses oppressed. However, revolutionaries like the “Arab Spring” protestors, Che Guevara and Betty Friedan have worked to stop this oppression.

Show More
Related

  • A Comparison of Communism versus Capitalism

    700 Words  | 2 Pages

    A Comparison of Communism versus Capitalism Communism versus Capitalism is a debate that has raged on for over two centuries. Whether to allow everyone equal opportunities and to do with those opportunities as they please or to mandate class equality in order to keep peace has in itself been the cause of war. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels saw the working class of the world—the proletariat—being squashed by the greedy business owners—the bourgeoisie. In their view, the bourgeoisie owned too much and the proletariat had no chance to make their own fortunes. In Marx and Engels Communist Manifesto, they propose doing away with private property, nationality, and even countries in order to take power away from the bourgeoisie.

    Read More

  • Mead And Marx's View On Human Nature

    1311 Words  | 3 Pages

    Marx believes there is a true human nature, that of a free species being, but our social environment can alienate us from it. To describe this nature, he first describes the class conflict between the bourgeois and the proletariats. Coined by Marx, the bourgeois are “the exploiting and ruling class.”, and the proletariats are “the exploited and oppressed class” (Marx, 207). These two classes are separated because of the machine we call capitalism. Capitalism arises from private property, specialization of labor, wage labor, and inevitably causes competition.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Karl Marx's Writing Of The Communist Manifesto

    2472 Words  | 5 Pages

    Most importantly for those who Marx feels capitalism has an adverse effect on, the proletariat. Marx in The Communist Manifesto explains what capitalism is and what it is to be a capitalist: "To be a capitalist is to have not only a purely personal but a social status in production. Capital is a collective product, and only by the united action of many members, nay, in the last resort, only by the united action of all members of society, can it be set in motion." (Marx, K., Engels, F. and Berman, M. (2011)). Through such a definition of capitalism, he adamantly stresses that capitalist state is selfish, one that has been manufactured by the desire of individuals to have a greater material wealth than his societal

    Read More

  • Extreme Pacifism Essay

    1357 Words  | 3 Pages

    Karl Marx does not agree with capitalism and views it as a system that incapacitates workers and places them in a category that will almost never attain the wealth that their owners/employers have. Capitalism oppresses its citizens and makes them believe that a capitalist society is best. Society has been able to benefit greatly from capitalism but a major fault in capitalism is the dependency that exists between capitalism and us. The disproportion of wealth amongst the rich and poor in America creates and maintains a group of Americans that will either have too much money and another group that struggles to ascertain a piece of that wealth but will almost never reach the same level of wealth.

    Read More

  • Capitalism: Where Do We Come From?

    564 Words  | 2 Pages

    To begin, capitalism is the economic ideology that everything is primarily focused towards making profit through the production and distribution of a product. In the article “Capitalism: Where Do We Come From?” By Robert Heilbroner and Lester Thurow, they provide insight on how capitalism has changed over the years and the impact it now has in today’s society. “There were no factors of production before capitalism. Of course, human labour, nature’s gift of land and natural resources, and the artifacts of society have always existed. But labour, land, and capital were not commodities for

    Read More

  • Capitalism Where Do We Come From Analysis

    636 Words  | 2 Pages

    To begin, capitalism is the economic ideology that everything is primarily focused towards making profit through the production and distribution of a product. In the article “Capitalism: Where Do We Come From?” By Robert Heilbroner and Lester Thurow, they provide insight on how capitalism has changed over the years and the impact it now has in today’s society. “There were no factors of production before capitalism. Of course, human labour, nature’s gift of land and natural resources, and the artifacts of society have always existed. But labour, land, and capital were not commodities for sale” (Para,17). Capitalism has an impact in my life because in the 21st century children are taught in school skills that will benefit businesses, so that they can continue to make a profit through the production and distribution

    Read More

  • Karl Marx's Kapital

    1075 Words  | 3 Pages

    When one gets down to the roots of capitalism you find that it is a form of government that allows the rich to get richer, the poor, poorer and the middle class to stay the same. Karl Marx wrote a book, Kapital about the what capitalism does to the people in a society, how it takes the humainty out of being and replaces it with x. Not only does it do that but it creates a chain of commodities, fetishisis, and alienation within a society.

    Read More

  • Economic Systems: Capitalism

    1104 Words  | 3 Pages

    Capitalism is an economic system where people and private businesses are able to control their own trade and means of production for profit. It emerged as technology, production and trade began to increase. During the industrial revolution, capitalism started to influence people more. Some characteristics of capitalism are capital accumulation, competitive markets and wage labor. The government isn’t supposed to interfere with trade. Individual markets raise or lower their prices due to competition and demand for goods. There has been a lot of debate over the usefulness of capitalism. Some believed capitalism had negative effects while others saw more benefits. Adam Smith and Andrew Carnegie pushed for a capitalistic society, but had different beliefs on how economic wealth should be distributed; Karl Marx advocated for a communistic society where wealth was evenly distributed.

    Read More

  • Marx 's Theory Of Class Conflict

    1079 Words  | 3 Pages

    The capitalist is motivated by being rewarded wealth. Capital can only multiply by giving itself in return of labor power. This exchange is based on specified percentages. For example, after a long 12 hours of weaving the worker is only compensated two shillings. They attain residual wealth by taking advantage of workers. These workers are being compensated less than the value of their work. The workers endure great deals of exploitation. Workers put their labor power into effect to acquire means of survival which makes existence possible. The amount of commodities is based on the cost of life and the workers’ work ethic. Marx foreseen that class conflict between the bourgeoisie and proletariat would result in the collapsing of capitalism. The motivations of the capitalist and the workers create conflict because the capitalist attempt to uphold capitalism by advocating their principles, beliefs, and fabricated perceptions that prevent proletariats from rebelling. Once the two classes conflict with one another the cla...

    Read More

  • Karl Marx Father Of Capitalism

    1172 Words  | 3 Pages

    Marx is able to demonstrate the consequences that result from transforming values into productions suited for profit, as he writes, “This boundless greed after riches, this passionate chase after exchange-value is common to the capitalist and the miser; but while the miser is merely a capitalist gone mad, the capitalist is a rational miser” (Marx 63). There is no sense of abhorrence for a particular individual in Marx’s interpretation of capitalism and instead focuses on the capitalistic economic structure. However, it is through this quote that a sense of inequality starts to emerge. As a result, a hierarchy is produced, creating an enduring structure of capitalism, where those who control the circulation of money are granted unlimited power. This has become evident in recent years, as in 2008, a social power analysis by Dr. John S. Atlee and Tom Atlee was published. In “Democracy: A Social Power Analysis” Altlee describes the power of money and status as he states, “People with lots of money, muscle, status, intelligence, etc., can usually successfully influence other people. In most (but, significantly, not all) circumstances, they have more social power” (Atlee). Economic power is proven to be pivotal in attaining another individual’s attention and status of capability. Thus, the capitalist is free to develop their own sense of

    Read More

  • Karl Marx and a Capitalist Society

    754 Words  | 2 Pages

    Through out history money, wealth and capital have dictated a way of life to the masses. Wealth dictated the lives that the rich lived and the lives of the poor that worked for and surrounded them. In some cultures your class could never be escaped in life, you had to wait for your next incarnation, while in other cultures the idea of wealth transcended a life and allowed for growth from one class to another. This is the reality of a capitalist society that was first discussed by Karl Marx in the 19th century.

    Read More

  • Sociology: Privilege

    1154 Words  | 3 Pages

    2. (a) Capitalism is defined as an economic system based on ownership of resources by individuals or companies and not by the state. Capitalism as it relates to sociology has to do with the fact that it not only produces enormous amounts of wealth, but that it creates extreme levels of inequality among social classes and societies. Capitalism also has made the rich richer and the poor poorer and has opened the gap in the U.S. class system. The matrix of domination says that each particular form of privilege, whether based on race, gender, sexual orientation, class, religion, or ethnicity, exists only as a much larger system of privilege. It works by simplifying and clarifying the gray areas that we encounter in privilege. It allows us to see that each form of privilege exists only in relation to all the rest and keeps us from trying to figure out which is the worst or most oppressive.

    Read More

  • Capitalism vs Communism

    661 Words  | 2 Pages

    Contrary to widely held beliefs, capitalism is not a system which exploits a large portion of society for the sake of a small minority. Capitalism is an economic system characterized by the freedom of the market with increasing concentration of the private and corporate ownership of production and distribution means. It has an stable economic system in that it is consistent with human behavior. People understand that there is no such this as free lunch. You have to work to survive and only those who do will prosper within the system and make it to the top. People are motivated to work as hard as they possibly can because they know that the harder they work the more benefits they will be ale to reap. As written in On Liberty “These are not questions of liberty….but they are questions of development” (Mill)

    Read More

  • Capitalism: Good or Evil?

    1868 Words  | 4 Pages

    Capitalism is currently one of the two major economic systems that are being operated among the world. For my interpretation, its basics are privatization and individualism. That is, capitals are privately owned, profit of production is also privatized, and the society exists more on the basis of individuals than of groups. From an economic aspect, we undoubtedly acknowledge that capitalism is making great progress and wealth. As an example, the most powerful country in our time, the United States is a typical capitalist country. Yet, we also cannot deny that this system is causing problems and they are gradually getting widely concerned. Therefore, this controversial issue is often brought into public focus. The question is, is capitalism actually good to keep or it is evil to be replaced?

    Read More

  • Karl Marx and Capitalism

    893 Words  | 2 Pages

    Capitalism dominates the world today. Known as a system to create wealth, capitalism’s main purpose is to increase profits through land, labor and free market. It is a replacement of feudalism and slavery. It promises to provide equality and increases living standards through equal exchanges, technological innovations and mass productions. However, taking a look at the global economy today, one can clearly see the disparity between developed and developing countries, and the persistence of poverty throughout the world despite the existence of abundant wealth. This modern issue was predicted and explained a hundred and fifty years ago in Karl Marx’s Capital.

    Read More

More about Capitalism is an Oppressive Economic and Social System

Open Document