Justice, Capitalism & Libertarian Socialism Justice is one of the most essential virtues to modern society. It is through justice that our rights are protected and wrongdoers are punished. We also find that most modern societies are based on capitalist economies. Capitalism is a political economic system in which individuals or business corporations own and control much or most of the country’s capital. While these two are both features in today’s society, capitalism and justice are incompatible with each other.
Capitalism affects everyone in a different way; it affects the quality of life one can have. Capitalism is morally deficient economic system in today’s society because it creates an unequal opportunity for citizens, causes a gap in the economic classes, has reversed the consumer- retailer relationship from a ‘push’ to a ‘pull’, leads to unfair free trading with other countries, and loses jobs for the hard working United States citizens. Capitalism creates an unequal opportunity for citizens to obtain an equal education, equal housing, and equal jobs opportunities in society. A symbolic analyst according to Robert B. Reich, in “Why the Rich Are Getting Richer and the Poor, Poorer” is in support of higher education. People with a higher education are not only able to help save their country, but they are able to help save the world.
Capitalism vs. Communism People may flourish or dwindle in a certain environment. I believe people perform differently in a capitalist economy than in a communist economy. Capitalism, an economy run by the people gives authority and responsibility, while communism, an economy run by the government, takes away civil rights and lacks effectivity and productivity. Capitalism Capitalism is an economic and political system where economy production is controlled by private owners and consumers instead of the government.
Some examples of such would be, illegally lobbying or bribing government leaders to gain passage of certain laws, or tax codes. Another form of class conflict may include, a lock out aimed at destroying a labor union, and this is called “open conflict”, or “hidden conflict”, which could be a slowdown in production protesting the wages being paid. According to Karl Marx however, class conflict and struggle are inevitable dissentions that occur because of the economic organization of most societies (Johnson, 2000). Marx also believed that class is defined by the ownership of property and such ownership vests a person with the power to exclude others from the property and to use it for personal purposes. In relation to property, there are three classes of society, they include, the bourgeoisie or the people who own the means of production such as factory and machinery buildings, and whose income is profit, landowners whose income is rent, and the proletariat who own their labor and sell it for a wage.
It is a power struggle which is most often won by wealthy elite and lost by the common person of common means. Power is the ability to get what one wants even in the presence of opposition. Authority is the institutionalized legitimate power. By far the Bourgeoisie, or wealthy elite (royalty, political, and corporate leaders), have the most power. Bourgeoisie are the "Goliaths" in society who often bully their wishes into outcomes.
The taxpayers are not happy with the public services from the government and seek help with out having to pay taxes. It is feared that this act will make it hard for the government to finance the public goods necessary for the economy and society. The underground economy should neither be identified with illegality. Some activities are perfectly legal but are not subject to taxes, and therefore escape measurement in official statistics. Other activities are legal as such, but taxes are evaded.
Since the low class poor people are not usually educated, they often easily “pushed” into the crimes by the high class people. Usually the upper class people are invisible and at the end the poor is the ones who get blamed. Certainly the rich benefit more than the poor. That has always and will always be the case in every society the world has known. Very often the rich push the poor by removing workers rights, by limiting corporate liability, by instigating war.
Neoliberalism refers to the concept of restricting government involvement in stimulation of the economy, allowing the ‘invisible hand of the market’ to dominate, believing this will lead to greater economic prosperity and growth. The model stresses the efficiency of private enterprise, liberal trade and free markets and therefore looks to maximise the role of the private sector in leading the economy, rather than the public sector. Of course there is an element of overarching government regulatory control in place however the model is very much capitalism driven. One of the most prominent factors of neoliberalism is the rule of the market. As mentioned previously, Adam Smith, a highly regarded economist, demanded that in order for economic success, the”invisible hand of the market” must be in control, rather than the government.
Capitalism mostly has a "free market" economy, which means people buy and sell things by their own judgment. Opposingly, socialism is an economic system characterised by a kind of society where people work together to get a fair standard of living (TheFreeDictionary, 2013). Socialists believe capitalism is bad for society and the government is responsible for reducing it via programs that benefit the poor such as free public education, free or subsidized healthcare, higher taxes on the rich. In contrast, capitalists believe that government does not use economic resources as efficiently as private enterprise and therefore society is better off with the free market determining economic winners and losers (Diffen, 2013). In capitalism, the market determines price, including the price of labour.
To analyze the similarities and differences of Socialism and Anarchism, we will look at four different aspects of these ideologies – their economic systems, type of government, approach to personal property and understanding of freedom and religion. Socialism took shape as a political belief in the early nineteenth century, as it developed as a reaction against the emergence of industrial capitalism. Socialism in its early forms tended to have fundamentalist, utopian and revolutionary character. Their goals was to abolish a capitalist economy based on market exchange, and replace it with a qualitatively different socialist society, usually to be constructed on the principle of common ownership. Anarchism on the other hand was powerful in countries like Spain, France, Russia, and Mexico in the early twentieth century.