Socialism More Beneficial than Social Darwinism

698 Words2 Pages

The ideas of Social Darwinism and Socialism were first theorized by those in the age of

industrialization, when the gap between the social classes was continuing to grow. Social

Darwinism is a philosophy that was taken off of the theory of Darwinism in two aspects

that were applied to society. One, survival of the fittest. Those who succeeded in life

were the ones who were “fit”, in addition, those who failed were left to be weeded out,

Secondly, the idea of natural selection as applied to society. Social Darwinism in our

capitalist society compares wealth with fitness, but historically, these unregulated

markets are not truly beneficial to both social classes, as there are always those who own

less wealth or are physically or mentally handicapped. The Darwinistic economic idea

was most ideal for those already possessing much wealth. Social Darwinism was also

most popular with the wealthy social class because it gave industrialists a way to justify

the huge gap between rich and poor. It was a fabrication to go along with the idea that

those who work the hardest in life succeed, while deceivingly the wealthy were able to

spend their time in leisure, forcing the poor to do their work for them.

Laissez-Faire, was the approach the industrialists wanted the government to

undergo. Going along with the idea that the government was not to interfere with the free

enterprise, capitalistic way of America, the government left the economy unregulated,

keeping a “ha...

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