In hopes of rebuilding America, the capitalists’ hunger for wealth only widened the gap between the rich and poor. During the 1800’s, business leaders who built their affluence by stealing and bribing public officials to propose laws in their favor were known as “robber barons”. J.P. Morgan, a banker, financed the restructuring of railroads, insurance companies, and banks. In addition, Andrew Carnegie, the steel king, disliked monopolistic trusts. Nonetheless, ruthlessly destroying the businesses and lives of many people merely for personal profit; Carnegie attained a level of dominance and wealth never before seen in American history, but was only able to obtain this through acts that were dishonest and oftentimes, illicit.
Predatory capitalism is a form of capitalism where the markets are freed from most regulations by the government, and in turn they offer more opportunities to the upper class, allowing them to become the “predators” of the lower classes in turn for profit. In many ways this contributes to a rigged economy. As Margaret Flower’s and Kevin Zeese’s article “America’s Biggest Crises” describes predatory capitalism, “It is predatory capitalism that drives the race to the bottom in worker rights and wages and that drives the dismantling of our public institutions and privatization of education, transportation, health care, the postal service, prisons and more” (Flowers and Zeese). Plainly from that definition predatory capitalism has a biased effect upon the economy. Predatory capitalism drives down worker wages and rights in return for money while also privatizing public institutions such as education and health care.
Capitalists aim to increase surplus, while decreasing wages to the laborers. The purpose of capitalism is to exchange goods and services for a profit. However, when the limited means do not meet the unlimited wants, companies create new ways to attract consumers. Marketers strategic objective are poverty-stricken people or a particular group of people that have limited resources but desire more. Expansion and revenue allow the large companies to overthrow the smaller companies and become global (Nowak & Laird, 2010).
(p. 95) This is an example of how free trade can be harmful to developing countries. When consumers lose jobs they can no long afford to pay for not just luxury items but basic living expenses that other industry are selling which sends a county into economic tailspin. I propose that rich nations should be more morally accountable for manufacturing companies they have around the world. Places like Wal-Mart and the gap here in the US should be paying workers fair wages, have decent working hours, no children worker under 16, and safe working conditions. U.S companies should follow the laws we have in our own country and abide by them in others.
With mechanization it was able to take over small businesses that were family owned and now they have competition with big corporations. You would think that people would see a big gain and the workers are compensated for their hard work, but that's not the case they are paid low wages and their job is not guaranteed. A sociologist named Karl Marx broke down the people into two categories the bourgeoisie, the owners of means of production, and the proletariat, those individuals who must sell their labor to the bourgeoisie. Marx believed that the pursuit of profit was behind the explosion of... ... middle of paper ... ...nly hope that the new technology works with man to complete the job, even so it's still cuts a lot of jobs. If a company wants to be nice to its employees and not lay them off, eventually they will be driven out of business or a more ruthless company will come and take them over.
We only think of where we can buy great products at low prices? Wal-Mart is always the answer, but if only we knew at what price of exploiting and alienating their employees, would we change out minds. Consumers never see the work that goes into making the product or how the labor has turned the worker into nothing but another commodity. All the consumer sees is the status or wealth depicted by the product. In all capitalism is what keeps our society in order.
Managers and owners of these competitive and self-motivated companies have consistently worked throughout this century to exploit the most controllable component of the production process: the worker. The worker has been forced by the influence of powerful and affluent business owners to work in conditions hazardous to their well being in addition to preposterously menial compensation. It was the masterful manipulation of society and legislation through strategic objectives that the low-wage workers were coerced into this position of destitute. The strategies of the affluent fragment of society were conceived for the selfish purpose of monetary gain. The campaigns to augment the business position within the capitalist economy were designed to weaken organized labor, reduce corporate costs, gain legislative control and reduce international competition at the expense of the working class.
Naomi Klein’s No Logo states that corporations have been championing globalization using the reasons that globalization allows U.S. consumers to benefit from cheaper products produced abroad, while developing nations benefit from the economic growth stimulated by foreign investments. The generally accepted belief is that governmental policies should be established in favor of the corporations to facilitate the trickling down of corporate profits to the end consumers and workers abroad. Klein, however, contends that globalization rarely benefit the workers in the developing countries. Corporations seek out countries with cheap labor forces to lower their production costs. Consequently, they will engage in practices, such as banning labor unions and selecting a passive labor force, which frequently consists of young women, to ensure their policies on low wages are met with little or no resistance.
Socialists view money and power as negative influences to a capitalistic government. Humans naturally throw the market off balance the and socialisms main aim is to combat this with government involvement. It constructs a more even playing field between businesses and workers. Government involvement makes sure workers are treated fairly and monopolies cannot rise for anyone individual large benefit. Socialisms goal is to redirect the mass amounts of money made from successful business back into the pockets of the workers rather than non working shareholders involved in the company.
“Economic globalization gives governments of developing nation’s access to foreign lending. These funds are used on infrastructure including roads, health car... ... middle of paper ... ... policies. People will continue to suffer in silence because of the world’s greed. So, while we enjoy our cheaply made goods and over consume the planet into demise, we never know of choose not to know the pain that went into the productions of those goods. Globalization may be championed as a gateway to financial growth for all nations, but only certain nations benefit from it.