Incorporation Of Competition In A Capitalist Society example essay topic

A characteristic of man that separates him from the majority of the animal world is his organization of social and economic systems. Man, however, retains traits of his evolutionary ancestors in the form of self-preservation and greediness. While many political, economic, and social systems attempt to eliminate this modern form of natural selection, capitalism and similar economic structures preserve social inequality in many forms. Historically, this preservation of financial inequality has achieved a higher standard of living generally than systems initially formed and employed to achieve just that.

There are specific economic factors of capitalism that enables it to make life more civilized and beneficial for its population. By definition, capitalism is an economic system controlled chiefly by individuals and private companies instead of by the government. Through this, it stresses private economic choices. People are free to decide how they will earn and spend their income. Companies may choose which goods and services to produce and how much to charge for them based on the wants, or demand of the people. This regulates the amount and kind of products produced to accommodate the population.

Because of this emphasis on economic individual freedom to become the wealthiest of ones nation, many inequalities form in the distribution of wealth. As many citizens are able to acquire their needs to survive and eventually purchase luxuries, some citizens are not able to support their own existence and eventually die of cold, starvation, or other such causes. Although this is viewed by many as inhumane, capitalist societies achieve a higher standard of living than other socialist and communist societies. This also provides incentive for th unemployed to find jobs, as they are not supported by others in a capitalist society. Historically, communist societies achieved less disproportionate financial inequality, but the standard of living was lower than that of capitalist societies. This is a major reason that capitalism is better.

Also, a free market in a capitalist society deals with the economic needs of the people better than socialist or communist government planners. The complexity of human behavior and the vastness of one society is too great for human planners to address. A typical example of this can be found in the former Soviet Union. The planners of this communist nation issued a plan that factories with the greatest production of cloth textiles in feet would receive monetary bonuses. In response, the factories narrowed the size of cloth, producing more feet of unusable textile. This irrational outcome would not have occurred in a capitalist government where the usefulness of the product would be a paramount consideration.

Rather than emphasizing job security of citizens, capitalism prefers harder and more efficient workers over less efficient workers. Although one may have had a job for sometime, he / she may still be replaced by a more efficient worker. This code of work ethics forms higher levels of competition, boosting work quality and production. Many privately owned companies exist in capitalist societies. The population is not vast enough to support all of these companies.

Therefore, the company producing the most desired product earns the most money while companies producing the least desired products eventually go out of business if they do not adapt to the market. This too inspires higher productivity through competition. Although forfeiting security, the incorporation of competition in a capitalist society makes better products for its citizens, increasing the standard of living. Furthermore, a capitalist society justifies differences of wages in different jobs. Services in a capitalist society work in a similar manner as products. If a service is particularly important to a society population, the person performing this service will earn more money.

Hence, the position itself will become more desirable to more people. This creates similar competition to that of production, including the same benefits to the society. People performing this desired service become more skilled at it to maintain their jobs and customers, servicing their customers in better ways. Those not as skilled at this profession will seek jobs they are more talented at, presenting additional services to the society. Taking all of these advantages into account, in becomes clear that a capitalist government is the most efficient organizer of business. The government sets up trading markets and allows access to natural resources, after which it allows private enterprises to trade and manufacture products as they please.

In reality, this produces the best standard of living, hence a capitalist government is the best organizer of business. In theory, communism presents the greatest argument of its superiority. In theory, it is the perfect utopia. However, viewing the historical standard of living of communist societies, capitalism is clearly a superior system. The great German philosopher Immanuel Kant once wrote that a theory that does not work well in reality is not a good theory. Theories must be based upon evidence already drawn from reality.

Realistically, a pure communist society is impossible to achieve. Before the government of a communist society withers away, it must trust little or one person (s) to control the government. Historically, this leader or group of leaders have seized sole power, forming a dictatorship instead of a communist society. The invisible hand and self-regulation of a capitalist society is both good in theory and in practice for its high standard of living. Democratic socialism is also an ideal compromise between capitalism and communism, abiding by the free market of capitalism while providing free healthcare and secured jobs for its citizens.

However, the cost to support this society is far too great. As a result, taxation increases to high amounts, and costs of products become unaffordable. Present democratic socialist nations, such as Germany and France, cannot maintain ideal trade amounts with other countries due to high costs in their own products. Therefore, capitalism is a superior economic system to both communism and democratic socialism. 31 b.