capatalism

Daniel Gould Period 4 8/2/11 Grade 10 =__**Capatalism**__=

1. Capitilism is a type of economic system which originated in europe in the 1700s during a period of enlightenment in which the population was beginning to see the value of the individual, Sticking with this ideal capitalism is a system in which private buissnesses and corporations are able to run themselves independently without the governments involvement, for example, say i had a food stor while in an capitalistic goverment, i can dictate all factors of my store from priceing of the food to how how its distributed to even its priceing, nd all the while the goverment cannot tell me that that does not follow thier set term of rules, basically i have complete freedom in the way i run my business. Think of it in the way of how sectionalism works, each state indpendtly governs itself, well think of it as each store independently runs itself, without the governments involvement. The term capatalist goverment was coined in the 19th century by the social theorist and economist "Karl marx" in which he described it as" a system in which a group of people who control large amounts of money, or capitol, make the most important economic decisions" as opposed to capatalism's counterpart socialism in which most economic power is put into the governments control. So If i had to break down cpatalism into a simple definiton you could wriye in a dictionary i would say, an economic system in which the economic power in an country is bestowed upon the individuals who control the business's and enterprises as oppossed to the government haveing b authority.

2. The united states of america does not practice a pure form of capitalism, instead america uses a mix of capitalis and socialism, in this system the goverment will requie its citizens to pay taxes to the government and the goverment can choose to send in a section of the goverment known as the " interntional revenue service" or the i.r.s as its more commonly reffered to,so when a company fails to follow a set of guidelines this organization will penalize them and is also respnsible for collecting a tax from the company in order to keep it form gaining too much independent wealth. This is similiar in a sense to sectionalism in which the companies control there internal affairs such as production, distribution and price, but if neccesary the goverment(irs) will intervene, simliar how to the federal goverment involves itself with the states issues but does not have a dictatorship control over the company. So say i am the head of microsoft, a huge software company, i have the freedom run my company in whichever way suites the supply and demand of the market i am in, athough say i break a law such as tax fraud or dont pay the tax, the goverment i allowed to deal out punishment for me not following the guidelines,, so i can run the company in a way that meets demand, but i also cant break government rules, restricting my overall power and control of the industry im in.

3. The reason why the united states of america practices its certain type of capitalism is because with the system set up like it can businneses and corporations can run themselves independently while still not having to much concentrated economical power due to the federal goverments control such as taxes and mandates, the reason the founding fathers set up this system is that they believed in a sense of independence that was a huge ideal in that period, and as i stated earlier about the comparisons to a sectionalistic goverment, the founding fathers probably didnt want a single company or business' to gain to much political power so they thought that a system in which they can keep the businesses and enterprises in check while still aloowing them to have that sesne of freedom, so really i think the reason capitalism is practiced the way it is in the united states because of our nations founding principle of indpendence while also keeping a sense of economical equality in the country. We have the freedom to run our businesses the way we choose too and for a majority of our time we dont have to awnser up to any higher power constantly watching us, as opposed to countries like russia which practice communism

4. While the mixed capatalistic system we have stablished in the united states is functional and serevs its purpose it is not withlut its faults, for one thing, due to the corporations freedom to set a price for their goods overpriceing of goods can go unregulated and simple neccesties such as food and water can be overpriced in the provate businesses, this can result in companies an buisnesses either not making a profit due to how steeply they charge for thier goods or it can result in the company gaining a gross sum of income due to high prices even when you factor in the monthly tax deductions fro the irs. Also the system in place here in america also is flawed due to the fact that it allows a monopoly to take hold of an industry such as Microsoft has on software or facebook has on social networking, this leads to smaller companies having a harder time gaining momentum and building up which in turns leads to a less diverse market..Although a diverse market could work both ways with this system we have in place because due the market we have we are allowed to open any type of business we want so long as it dosnt violate any laws, so this can lead to a more diverse market in some respects. The way the market allows anyone to open whichever business they open also creates an encourageing enviorment in which more people are motivated to open a buisness due to the more welcoming nature of the system, this also leads to more creative minds such as Mark Zuckerberg to tale chances on ip's such as facebook that ono other countris may not have gotten a chance in other countries. So with the way our mixed economy is set up we can welcome in creative minds and expression into our country which is not seen in many other countries, so in the land of the free, we can be free to make our ideas known and available to the public.

5. Democracy is a form of goverment in which important issues are decided by haveing the peaple or reporesenatives of a state or reigion on which option they feel is a better choice, this form of government was first developed in ancient Rome, its origins can be traced back to the city of Athens where the system helped drive independent thoughts of science, literature and art, but this form did not survive long past the city itself and was not brought back up until the 15th century where in italy an increase in individual economic freedom caused a resurgance of the idea of democracy, this lead many cities to believe in personal enterprises,social aspirations and "humanistic ideas", then the idea spread to England which after the roman empire fell and several attacks brought on by the barbarians began the period of time known as "the middle ages" the idea of parliament was a fundamental begining of democracy, once settelers arrived to america one of the decideing factors was for religious freedom and economic independence, through trial and error, such as a sectionalistic scheme, the united states fund a system of goverment which worked, democracy, how it works is that say im in a classroom, and the teacher wants to appoint a student "leader", instead of just appointing him/her randomly the teacher decides to hold a democratic vote, so each kid in the class writes down on a piece of paper who they think will be the best choice for the job, and whoever receives the most votes wins the position, no matter who it is, so what democracy is in a simple definition it is a type of govermental system in which power is given to the individual to decide what is the overall best option.

6 In the united states we practice a form of demorcracy known as a "Represenative Democracy" in our goverment, In this form of goverment although peaple have the ability to vote on issues, we as individuals cannot all voice opinions on goverment issues, instead to streamline the process we elect represenatives for each of our 0 states to represent the people of said state in congress, were all of the representatives known as senators debate goverment issues and how the should be best handled. So i live in the state of massachusets, our represenatives are "Scott Brown" and "John Kerry" every citizen of Massachusetts over the age of eighteen voted them into the position because the felt these two were the best two men for the job, they represent our state and the best interest's of the state and its people,this is why we use two representatives the larger the states the more represenatives that said state has. This streamlined approach makes it easier for the states to agree on an issue while still bringing the most prominent concerns of the states into consideration while deciding, this system helps make sure that the most important issues are brought up, because these are the issues we as citizens want to be brought up. This way we the people of america as well as our ideas are represented and brought up.

7. In the U.S we have a saying "one nation under god, indivisible with liberty nd justice for all" now when it says justice for all, it mens that every person is entitled to justice nd independence. One of the main founding philosophy's of this country was that all men shall stand equal. Americas first step toward democracy was in the revolutionary war, which was fought on the basis of america wishing to declare their independence from great britian, this principal of indpendence was brought over to the signing of the declaration of independence in 1776, in this document Thomas Jefferson borrowed mny ideas from Greek philosphers such as Jean jaques and John locke, these ideas included the right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" the right to "life, liberty nd property" and ost importntly the right to "take up arms against the government if it did not respect these rights" What democrcy means is the roght to openly sprak your mind to goverment and say how it coulld better itself without fear of persecution in america one of the founding philosophy's is freedom nd in our constutuion we have the right to free speech even aginst the goverment, useing democrcy we are allowing every person to freely speak there mind and not feel like they have no say in what the government they live under does and how it operates.

8. While Democracy is in itself a fundementally positive system of governing a nation it like most thongs is not without it's fault's. For example, due to the fact that democracy is mainly driven by people voting it also inevitably rely on peaples enthusiasm in the events thier voting on, so say you have a whole population of a town or even state who doesn't care who you elcting for mayor, govener etc. You may never know if who or what was elected truly was the best option because the simple amount of people who voted, because voting is not required on most issues and is instead treated much more like a privledge, which brings me to my next flaw with democracy, or at least the way we pracxtice it here in america, in aerica the voting age is eighteen and up, which means that the coiuntry is alienating a large population of citizens who cannot voice their opinions in a anner a leginimate as opposed to the older population, while some defend that the younger population has little knowledge of politics, but i disagree with that, in fact in the u.s the youth vote of 2008 was shown to be exponential and helped boost president Obama's standings, that can be viewed as the power us young voters have, which brings me to the positives of democracy, first off it gives anyone who is legally a citizen the right to help shape the country, which ius a great idea, because who better to decide our countries fate than those who live in it? Also democracy can actually boost public enthusiasm about politics and decision making because they realize this is something that they can be an active oart in, which gives them a sense of importance, harking back ancient Greek ideas of the humans efforts to gain confidence in thier endevearors. Dmeocracy helps america because it gives nus citiczens a way to feel empowered about how our government is run, so long as we take notice and realize how important it is to excersize our right to vote.

9.After viewing Micheal Moores documentary " Capatalism a love story" i can honesltly say i've seen a unique perspective on the matter of capatalism. One of Moores points is how the way america used to run itself when he was a kid. He notes how back then his family could get a car every 3 years and that his father had a safe employment and a secured future as a retired worker. Another point that Moore brings up in the film is how the banks shifted their view of the american citiczen they started viewing more as ways to make themselves rich, a type of switch as of how the setup was, middle class Americans could always work to become rich, in this sense he said most people viewed capatalism as a flawless system. This leads him to begin saying how the banks became more involved in political issues and many people while layoffs were occuring profits were riseing in the companies, but worker salaries were stagnent.Moore then begins to rip apart wall street, which encourages the middle class workers to invest in wall street, his describes this idea as a "casino mentality" which turns out to be a risky business. He also brings up the very strong point of that many companies(he uses wallmart as an example) file death benefits for workers who they are optimistically hoping to pass within the time they have filed on, so basically they wish to have their employes die so they can reep the benefits, it is said that a young female worker is very valuable if she dies because woman live longer lives than men typically. One thing i noticed in the film is that Moore seems to go off on a rant about the state of the banks in relationship to the middle class and the government, this is by no means a bad thing, it just seems to ditract from his topic, how cpatalism has evolved, he mentions how when bush enacted it it all went south but after that i seemed to be lost in the shuffle, i was hoping to see him go into more of how capatalism works today, in the mixed economy that i described in my response to question two,also i was getting the sense that around the end of the film he felt more like he was uncovering conspiracy instead of analyizeing how capatalism has evolved, interestingly enough he dosnt compare capatalism to any form of government besides socialism and even then its extremely brief, he also dosnt go into depth on the origins of capitalism, he assumes we know it, but i wouldve liked to see it anyway, espicially going into its European origins and he never even mentions Karl Marx, who was responsible for coining the term. He seems to take a very blue collar as well as catholic view n the matter, which is fine again, but to get a reak understanding f how it works i would have appreachiated the multiple points of view. At the end of the film he say"what we need is democracy" i feel that that statement is wron, we have democracy, we just need to excersize it, at the end of the movie we see a family retake thier home, and then we see obama elceted to presidency, these are examples of democracy existing in america, just not in a strong sense yet, now maybe thats what hemeant, but the way he said it made me think he belives this country has no democracy, what democracy is is to use ones right to stand up for yourself, we have the banks doing that, we have to begin though to have democracy on the end of the middleman. Finally he says capitalism is evil, i say its not, i say its flawed, we have a mixed economy, which despite most of its flaws is a fundamentally a just system, capitalism can work, but only if its best qualities are used to crate a bette rverall idea, the fact that peaple work to make the best of thier own lives is not a bad thing, he even says that in the beginning of the film. This film may not have been what i was expecting or wanted, i still found it a useful tool in my research and i will definitively rewatch it to further eamine his ideas and see how the stand u after further inspection.

10. With two of the largest govermental and economical systems in play in america being capatalism an democracy, the two's relationship is that capatalism is a factor in how we run our buissnesses and democracy is how we keep that system in place through the right to vote and the right to be treated as equals. In many ways though democracy and capitalism have opposing factors, in democracy every person has the right to be heard as an equal and can freely share their thoughts and ideas to figure out who or what is the best choice, while capitalism also freely exspress thier wants to make a better economic lifestyle for yourself, but capitalism can favor the bigger corporations much more often than. Also in a capitalistic goverment represenative democracy is not needed because it nterferes with market focus, also the basis of capitalism makes democracy pointless, because it encourages you to do what you want and not have to choose between options, democracy allows you to work with your government, while capatalism allows you to run yourself idependently from the goverment,in a sytle similiar to how sectionalism worked, with the comnpanies replacing the indpendent states in this scenario, although both democracy and capatalism give the average blue collar citiczen control over how they are run by thier government they both help keep the balance of power btween citizcens and the federal government. So in conclusion while the principal's of democracy and capatalism are similar the way they operate and thier basic guidelines differ and make them almost compeletly incompatoble without soe kind of work on both sides and the ability to change the systems to better help the middle man.