By: Rowen Lee
Capitalism, it affects many people in a good and bad way. It has been the USA’s economic systems for years and years and some people think it should be time for it to change
What Capitalism does is that it effects industries run by private owners keeping their money that they make rather than it being kept by the state. Why the US uses this system is for the free market, and it is what mainly makes it free. It affects how you make money as a whole, and where you stand on the profit line. the people that are effected are those mostly far on ethier the poor or rich with their money they can invest therefore creating even more money. While those who are poor being stuck on the low side of wealth usally living on the streets struggling to find food for them selfs or even a family.
Is capitalism the most effective way of our economic system should run as. Are there any more equal systems that give far play for all citizens without it being broken?
In Texas, a median sized house costs around 190,00 dollars. With NeighborhoodScout showing data that says 70.2 percent of Texas’ housing is over $247,000. Although the average income for Texas citizens is $56,565. Ken Benson. A retired finance expert says “Look at athletes you got a basketball player and there making 20 million dollars to play a game, that's capitalism, why is it that they can make that kinda money? It's because of the damned.”
On the other hand, wealthier people can use systems out there(like investing and shares) that make them even more money which gives them a high rank on wealth. The stock market is a great example on how much capitalism has a big effect. Having a lot of wealth can give you opportunity to buy stocks and in the mindset of some they consider buying stocks the equivalent of gambling. According to history.com, in the time of october 24, 1929 employment was at an all time low and the stock market seemed the only viable way of profit. Due to low wages and bank loans the stock market could not keep up with the demand. With all this pressure it soon enough collabed. With all the money that was borrowed from the bank lost in the stock market the banks lost all their money too. And all that money the people had put into the bank lost everyone lost their currency. Leading everyone into a depression. Over 16 million shares were traded by wealthy people and with this crash it led everything down. Prices rose and housing and personal belongings were sold food prices raised it made it almost impossible to eat anywhere.
This crash was caused partly by capitalism with the rich gambling too much and it affecting everyone. As the poorer people could see this happened due to their status they had no control over the situation. Due to its unfairness and love for the market the little involvement of the government leads it all up to the rich community to decide, It creates inequality for the poor. This can be fixed by government intervention, Ken says “its a system that needs regulation in my opinion, it needs to be controlled to some extent. You don't want to control it too much, if you over control it you’ll kill it. But if you don't control any of it you're gonna end up 99 percent being poor and 1 percent being rich, which leads to a revolution.”
It is quite hard to get a job for poor citizens or x-cons texas is a very expensive state and to get any stable job that can give a living wage requires states that lots of citizens don't have.
Capitalism is a system that suggests if you are economically successful, if you have a lot of “money, you deserve it because you have earned it and you are therefore worth more. The flip side of that is if you are not wealthy, if you are working hard but making minimum wage, you are worth less--as a person and as a participant in a capitalist system.
The opposite of this idea is that we, as humans, are worthy just by being alive. We are born worthy. This is reflected in our Bill of Rights which says all people are created equal and that we all deserve basic human rights. What about economic rights? In an interview with The Nation senator Bernie Sanders explained that Democratic Socialism is an alternative to capitalism because it is the belief that we are deserving of economic rights as well as political rights as Americans. Socialism believes that the community should distribute production. Ken Benson says “We have to talk about democratic socialism as an alternative to unfettered capitalism, where the rich get richer and almost everybody else is getting poorer.” Sanders defines economic rights as “right to a decent job, a job that pays you at least a living wage”. He goes on to add the right to housing, healthcare, and education. He goes so far as to say we already have a form of socialism at work in American--for the rich. The tax breaks and subsidies amount to “corporate welfare” according to Sanders. Also important to talk about how money affects a person’s ability to participate in the political process. If you have a lot of money you can donate it to politicians and take the time to vote. Voting and participating in the political process is much more difficult if you are working a minimum wage job 50 hours a week to raise your family.
If you think of all the USA’s wealth in a box if inequality started in the first year the top 10% of the US citizens that are rich own about a third of the USA's wealth. But in year ten if there was no economic growth, the inequality would spread even more until the top 10 owns a half of the USA's wealth leaving the other half to the rest of the 90% of american citizens. While this on paper seems ok only a half of the income earned in Austin is shared among 90% of america. In an interview with Ken Benson, a retired he says that “That's why we have laws and government, to protect the smaller people that dont have power or money.” ...“Capitalism needs regulation”
With all of this trouble that happens with the USA’s economic system it isn’t even in the top 10 freest market. A study shows that 51 percent of young adults view socialism over capitalism, While the other 49 percent view capitalism positively.
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