| This question <41|37> overall <48|50> AML: <730|212>. graded A |
| Question 678: Answer the above Questions (a)-(h) for capitalist society. |
| [49] AML: Demand, not Profit. (a) According to Peaches [38], “In a great capitalistic land of opportunity, everyone has the option to improve their way of life using such resources as furthering education, and therefore no one is really required to labor for a certain time, or for a certain wage.” This is what producers tell us so we don't revolt. The longer we continue to believe this the longer producers will exploit us. Capitalism is about making your money work for you. I don't want to detract from those who have “pulled themselves up by their bootstraps.” However, I also do not want to deny the fact that our capitalist system is set up to prevent this from happening. The more people exercise their “...option to improve their way of life...” the less profit there is for the rest of us. |
| Also, those of us who have the privilege to choose our next outfit or meal have a lot more “...option[s] to improve [our] way of life...” We must remember this. |
| (e) To answer Hans' question [41], “According to Clay, the driving force is profit, and according to Peaches, it is demand. Interesting discrepancy. Who is right? How do you even decide such a question?” I believe that profit is the driving force. First, I agree with Clay's [37] answer. We work for money; we don't work because a product is demanded. Second, those who want profit create a demand. Producers plaster their products all over television, buses, websites, etc. to create this demand. Producers work very hard to create this demand. From focus groups to collecting information about other purchases we make, they begin to know all sorts of things about us, and create a demand in us by understanding our buying habits. This is why I believe profit, not demand is the driving force. |
| (f) I would also like to address Peaches' [38] comment about freeloaders. I agree with Hans [41], and Marxian theory that those who own the means of production are freeloaders as well. I would also like to point out that, according to a TIME article published in Nov. 1998 (http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/time/1998/11/02/corp.welfare.html), “The Federal Government alone shells out $125 billion a year in corporate welfare...” Earlier in the article, the author defined corporate welfare as, “any action by local, state or federal government that gives a corporation or an entire industry a benefit not offered to others. It can be an outright subsidy, a grant, real estate, a low-interest loan, or a government service. It can also be a tax break--a credit, exemption, deferral or deduction, or a tax rate lower than the one others pay.” According to that same article, the justification for this welfare is job creation. However, large grants are given to companies operating overseas, thus, not creating jobs. |
| Many of us who have the opportunity to become independently wealthy probably do so through those same corporations that are receiving corporate welfare. Thus, in our capitalist society, even corporations, and, most likely, independently wealth folk are freeloaders. |
| (f) I agree with both Hans [41] and Peaches [38] that gender discrimination is a social issue. However, I argue that those social issues have profound economic consequences. This includes the fact that children living in households headed by women are more likely to be impoverished because women, even in the same position men, make less money, and, therefore, struggle more to support their children. This makes this issue a HUGE matter of concern. |
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