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This was an essay I wrote in my economics class a few months ago. The assignment was to write an
essay on the morality of a pure free market economy. Unfortunately I do not have the original copy
with comments and score, but I remember I got an “A” and that there wasn’t much in the way of
comments. While it is not one of my longer essays, I liked the topic and feel it is a good example of my
writing style and ability to express my analysis of a question/topic.
Nick Lorig-Roach
SEA-DISC Econ
Capitalism: “A massive, Darwinian waste of human potential for the sake of ephemeral profits”
Capitalism functions on human greed. Greed is a quality that would be condemned in any code
of ethics, yet is promoted by capitalist ideals. Free market greed causes exploitation of workers,
corruption in all levels of society, and a general disregard for people and the environment.
In an ideal capitalist society there is no government involvement in the economy; no
regulations, no trade barriers. It is like an ecosystem, where supply communicates flawlessly with
demand. There are always the right products, in the right numbers, at the right prices. In this perfect
free market economy, wages are always fair because clearly if the producers want to sell to consumers
they need to be paid enough to buy. However this kind of economy cannot exist in the real world.
No country has ever adopted a completely laissez-faire economy. To do so would mean the
government no longer collects money, thus rendering the government powerless. No self interested
government would dissolve itself into anarchy for the sake of free market ideals. Every government that
has tried to shift toward laissez faire has had innumerable problems. It is nearly impossible to get the
majority of a population to agree to have its social protections taken away. This would mean no
minimum wage, no price controls on basic necessities, no worker protections, no public health care,
privatization of sources of national income, and the decomposition of the infrastructure in general. No
citizen in their right mind would allow this to happen.
Capitalism does create competition and often innovation when coupled with government
regulations. Workers are more likely to work to the best of their ability in a capitalist society where they
believe they can better their situation by out-competing other people. But again this competition is
fueled by greed and self interest rather than the betterment of society as a whole. Capitalism also
allows the freedom to pursue any career and to run an independent business. These strong points are
not unique to the idealistic laissez-faire capitalism and are still applicable in mixed economies.
One major flaw in capitalist society is the lack of community. Everyone lives for their own self
interest and is ignorant of problems that could be solved and resources that could be saved if the
community worked together. And businesses act more in the interest of profits rather than the
interests of society. Car companies are aware that their products cause pollution and would be largely
unnecessary if a better public transportation infrastructure were in place, yet they continue to sell their
cars because that is what is making them money now. Products are made that are designed to fail or
become obsolete, wasting precious resources, so that consumers will have to buy them again.
Immediate self-interest and profit outweighs long term resource shortages, inefficiency, and
environmental degradation.
The misappropriation of wealth in capitalist systems is enormous. There are a small number of
people who are far wealthier than the majority of the population. An uneven distribution of wealth is
key to competition but what happens too often is the rich are rich to the point of gluttony and the poor
struggle to meet their basic needs of food and shelter. Moves toward the free market—deregulation,
cuts to social spending and privatization-- only benefit producers, the rich. They are able to make bigger
profits, while the poor have to work even harder to survive.
Some might argue that the capitalist system is like natural selection; the skilled and smart
succeed and have the material wealth while those who are not live in poverty. That to live in a
developed, comfortable society you need to have people on the bottom rung to run the services we are
used to. Unfortunately that is just a splinter of social Darwinism, as your place on the socioeconomic
ladder has a lot more to do with luck than natural born skill. Those who are born into a wealthy family
can afford to go to prestigious schools and consequently get a higher paying job. People born into a poor
family may have to work just to support the family that raised them and forgo getting an education.
Capitalism does not allow everyone to succeed.
Like any ideal, laissez faire capitalism is, in theory, a perfect system were it possible to
implement. The reality is that capitalism stokes the ember of human greed into a fire that consumes
equality, community, and compassion that is natural to the human spirit and leaves in its ashes
exploited poor, tremendous waste, and a bleak future.