Article 3: The Paradox of Capitalism
What are items that we incorporate into our daily routine?
Phones, Starbucks, game consoles, makeup, apparel, headphones, and so on.
Now imagine a life without your phone. How would your daily routine change? Specifically, how would your mornings change? Now imagine a life without your brand-name clothing. You may wear brands like Nike, American Eagle, Zara, or H&M. How about without makeup? What about a life without a gaming console like an Xbox or a PlayStation. How often do we habitually use these items over and over again without genuinely understanding their grip on us as a society?
We may not realize it, but these seemingly valueless items give us something as simple as our daily amusement. However, we fail to recognize that they are also products that stem from capitalism and franchises. In simple terms, a capitalist country means citizens -not governments- privately own and run companies (Boettke). Most of society critiques capitalism for its exploitation, cashing in on low-income people, and environmentally harmful side effects.
Although this is true, the majority of the people shaming capitalism are the Gen-Z population on social media who only view the real world through Tik Tok via their iPhones. Which -ironically- are both capitalist companies. During the Coronavirus pandemic, many people found their liking in politics and became political extremists. Now I'm DEFINITELY not an extremist. But I want us all to understand why and how specific systems work before we ramble on about how they're wrong.
"#capitalismsucks" and "#destroycapitalism" are real hashtags that combined exceeded 150 million views on Tik Tok (Tik Tok). But do these users truly understand how capitalism plays a vital role in their life?
You may say, "Well, in America, we don't have a choice!". However, we choose to continue to line the pockets of billionaires. It's safe to say that we have all bought a meal from Mcdonalds, Frappuccinos and refreshers from Starbucks, or maybe even sandwiches from Subway. I'm sure we have all seen commercialized sports, such as The World Cup and The Super Bowl, in the previous months. And I'm sure plenty of us have seen a movie at AMC or purchased a streaming application, like Hulu and Netflix, to binge the shows we love. It's no surprise that these are all privately owned companies. Everyone takes satisfaction in capitalism's innovations to improve our amusement and quality of life.
You may ask, "well what would stand in place of capitalism?". The primary opponent of capitalism is socialism-an economic theory of social organization that advocates for production to be owned by the community, preventing private ownership of a business. A system that essentially believes that the government is able to make better decisions for the people than they can for themselves.
Everyone dreams of a lavish future, becoming a millionaire. Well, in a society without capitalism, this would be unheard of. In a society without capitalism, we would have no individualism, little to no control of our wealth distribution, no control over our economy, and equal wealth. In a society without capitalism, there is no idea of "success" because everything is allocated. This may seem unrealistic, but the truth is this HAS happened in societies like Communist China 1949-as we heard in global-, The Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, India, and every nation that has ever attempted socialism. 100 Percent of nations trying to implement socialism have consistently rejected it and had to resort to free-market -or capitalist- systems (Lee).
A primary result of capitalism is the creation of social classes. Capitalism is looked down on because of the wealth gap between these classes. A lot of people on social media claim that capitalism makes the poor poorer and the rich richer. Although this point is valid, capitalism has improved many societies and actually does benefit the lower classes. Nineteenth-century modern capitalism had over 90% of people living under the poverty line. Flash forward to our twenty-first-century postmodern capitalism containing less than 10% according to the US census (Lee).
Everyone takes satisfaction in following trends and buying the latest Jordan's, makeup, bathing suits, and clothes. Certainly, we remember the slime outbreak in 2015, where young kids made and sold slime. Well, one of those kids happened to be me. Now I surely am not Jeff Bezos, nor am I Warren Buffet, but I've had an entrepreneurial drive since I was 8 years old. I have been on the producer side of the scenario. Little did I know that later on, I would create more businesses and websites to sell and profit from other products. Of course, they were comfort goods, but nonetheless, capitalism allows me to sell a product to make a profit.
Capitalism encourages innovation and creativity, whether that would be the invention of the Post-It in 1977 (Sandomir) or 8-year-old me making and selling slime. Capitalism encourages entrepreneurship and motivation to work and gain prosperity. If we were to eliminate this free enterprise system, consider all the innovations and creativity we would miss out on. Life is all about competition. I mean, life is a daily competition. That's practically the basis of life. Everyone in this room competed with millions of other NYC students to be in the position we are in right now. Realistically, nothing can be as fair as we desire. All of us are bestowed with different circumstances in life. Not everything can be viewed through rose-colored glasses.
Our society encourages democracy and with reduced government authority, right? Then why do some of us desire a society with more significant government restrictions?
Entirely banishing capitalism from our lives means stopping using soap, making your own clothes, stop going to the gym, stop using banks, stop using social media, going to the library instead of your phone, tablet, or laptop to research, stop driving or using cars, and shop less from franchises and more from local businesses (Harris).
Although these are adequate and trivial methods to resist capitalism, not all are attainable to the average person. Some people cannot afford to do certain things, don't have the time, don't know how, or don't have the resources. Sustainable brands are companies that use ethical practices in manufacturing their products. Certain sustainable brands have a high price tag to stay profitable. However, this turns buyers away to the more affordable products.
A prime example of this is the fast fashion industry. I would say that most clothes we wear are around an affordable price. Many of the clothes we wear are made in big factories where- unfortunately- exploitation occurs, resulting in a lower price tag. As much as we would love to prevent low wages, stop exploitation, and preserve our planet, truthfully, it might not be in our budget.
Realistically, few of us can afford a $70 top because that specific brand uses fewer emission fuels than Forever 21 and Shein. When shopping, we are conditioned to lower prices to get more for less.
All economic systems involve advantages and disadvantages. Socialism can negatively impact us at the same magnitude as capitalism. However, certain aspects can outweigh each other.
In an ideal economic society, there's a balanced unification of socialism and capitalism.
As humans, we should not have to pay for specific institutions, such as healthcare, child care, proper education, college, and parents should have accessible parental leave. However, as humans, we know that we have to fight for what we need. We must understand that we cannot "solve" an economic system, nor can we entirely alter an already established economic system in America. But we can attempt to regulate it.
All political and economic systems concentrate on one thing. Control. Control of the people, control of the money, and control of our beliefs.
Therefore, it is our job as consumers to educate ourselves on the companies we endorse and invest our money in. It is our job as consumers to stop the judgment of others for their spending choices since we all have been victims of capitalism. It is our job as consumers to adopt frugal habits. It is our job as citizens to educate ourselves on the economic systems that exist and understand their positive impacts on us as well as their negative impacts.
Every ideology has its flaws, but capitalism is one worth defending.