Assignment 6 (Second Draft)

Capitalism is an economical system, where goods and services are traded. This particular system revolves around three main aspects: land, labor, and capitalism. In capitalism, the term "land" represents all the raw material required to make a product. The "labor" involved is all the work that is needed to make the actual product; this includes the physical production and the process of forming the idea. Finally, the "capital" would be everything that combines the two (land and labor) in order to make them a product in the free market. The reasoning for having capitalism is profit motive, which is the ability to obtain ownership of wealth without government interference. This is also known as the Invisible Hand.

As shown as the dominant view of Capitalism, Capitalism appears to be a positive system. While the Capitalism is employing many people around the world, Capitalism also aids society and the advancement of technology. The Invisible Hand, which is a result of capitalism, guides the people to create better products through their own self-interest of making money. Capitalism also causes the market to provide better products at a lower price. By the Invisible Hand creating competition, each individual company within one market attempts to make them the more favorable company. Therefore, they lower their prices or improve their products in order to separate themselves from the other companies. Another positive aspect of Capitalism is the opportunity to make money and rise to the top. Therefore people gain an incentive to work their hardest for the chance of increasing their social class. This also adds onto the advancement of society. Capitalism creates the illusion of having equal chances of obtaining wealth. Meanwhile, Capitalism uses that illusion and the self-interest of the people in order to create convenience and improvements within a society.

One of the many people who believe in this aspect of Capitalism is David Boaz from "Cato at Library." In his article, "Capitalism Saves" he gives a very positive tone about Capitalism and how Capitalism benefits everyone (or at least the people he mentions are those who benefits from Capitalism). Boaz also believes that, "Capitalism has made the West rich and thus healthier and longer-lived. It could do the same for Africa, Asia, and the Arab world." In his opinion, Capitalism does wonders for everyone. He believes that Capitalism helps people live a longer and better life. Capitalism can provide goods and services at a lower cost than if each individual were to create the product themselves. This point seems valid but only to a certain extent. Capitalism does use competition and the self-interest of people and as a result, there are benefits for the society. However, Boaz fails to notice or express the fact that the sole purpose of Capitalism is to help everyone. In reality, there is an unequal balance where some people receive more benefits from the market than others are. In addition, within Capitalism, there is a large majority of the people who works more and gets less out of it. In this system, not everyone can benefit enough from Capitalism to live a good life.

Similarly, Drew Bland believes that "Capitalism [is] good for everyone." In his article, he opposes a handful of reasons why Capitalism would be bad. Boaz states that Capitalism turns the greed and the profit motive of big corporations into "quality goods at the lowest price." He also says, “That may seem cold to people who can't see beyond their own plight, but thinking outside the box will show capitalism benefits the whole society." Boaz implies that Capitalism is completely good, but the people who are affected negatively by the big businesses are bad-mouthing Capitalism. Boaz is actually contradicting himself. Besides the fact that he is closed-minded to those who are closed-minded and cannot think "outside the box," he also opposes against his own point that Capitalism benefits everyone. If there are people who are obviously not making a living due to the competition produced by Capitalism then, Capitalism is not a completely positive thing. If Capitalism were to "benefit the whole society" then that would include the people who try to make a living through direct marketing as well.