Capitalism as a Whole
Written by Malcolm Mungo
When our country, America, claimed independence in 1776, as well as becoming a free country, we also became a capitalist country. Capitalism is the staple of our society, buying and selling goods and services - we couldn’t function without it.
Capitalism is a very complex and interesting way of organizing society, with massive multi-billion dollar corporations, down to small family businesses. But what good is all this information? Well, since we live in a capitalistic society, it would make sense to understand what it is and how it works.
Discrimination is also mingled in with capitalism. Often, women will experience inequality in the rate they are paid. Two people may do just the same job, and put in the same amount of work, while one gender is paid more or less because of no reason than other than discrimination. The Institute for Women's Policy Research says that, “in 2018, female full-time, year-round workers made only 82 cents for every dollar earned by men, a gender wage gap of 18 percent.” This shows another flaw in capitalism. Discrimination as a result of greed and prejudice. This is part of how institutional biases occur. Businesses may pay women less because of their bias, so they can spend less money while still getting the same amount of work out of their employees.
As shown here, you can easily tell how flawed capitalism is, but do other people think that as well? A survey has been sent out to all of the HPCMS student body, and here are some interesting results from the survey.
Starting off with the basics, a surprising amount of people do not know what capitalism is - around 25%.
The pie chart is shown below.
When our country, America, claimed independence in 1776, as well as becoming a free country, we also became a capitalist country. Capitalism is the staple of our society, buying and selling goods and services - we couldn’t function without it.
Capitalism is a very complex and interesting way of organizing society, with massive multi-billion dollar corporations, down to small family businesses. But what good is all this information? Well, since we live in a capitalistic society, it would make sense to understand what it is and how it works.
One of the basic principles of capitalism is supply and demand. How does this work? If a product is in need, in other words, lots of people would benefit from it, then a retailer can come in and start selling this product. The seller will sell lots of this product since lots of people want it, which is demand. But if lots of people buy this product, the seller needs to have lots of that product, so they use their profits to expand or make more of that product. This is supply. Now we have demand, the want for a product, and supply, the seller making that product available, but since that is just a basic principle, there is way more to get into.
Another massive principle of capitalism is currency, more specific, inflation. Inflation is the process in which a certain currency becomes less valuable, with a raised amount of currency in circulation. This happens when the price of raw material goes up, or if political changes happen. The biggest example of inflation, or hyperinflation, in this case, is in Zimbabwe, where at one point, a 100 trillion dollar note in Zimbabwe, only was worth about 40 US cents. But that is a very extreme example. Inflation usually happens at a smaller scale, in a shorter time. It’s sort of like how things were a lot cheaper in America about 50 years ago, but prices have risen since then.
Capitalism is a lot more than just numbers and economics, there is also a lot of ethics mixed in with capitalism. Since there are hundreds of thousands of businesses, there aren’t many markets that aren’t populated. And in the rare occasion that there isn’t a market completely populated, usually a big company will take over that market and push out all other businesses.
An article from Slate shows an example of this when Jeff Bezos (the CEO of Amazon) saw Diapers.com as a potential threat. Bezos warned this company and told them they should consider selling. Diapers.com did not in fact sell, so instead, Amazon opened up a branch called Amazon Mom, with prices far better than Diapers.com. They then saw what danger they were in, and surrendered themselves to Amazon. Even though Amazon lost around 100 million dollars from that ordeal, they still got what they wanted, which was Diapers.com. This is called predatory pricing.
As Amazon can commit such an unethical feat, without much consequence shows that capitalism does have some flaws. What Amazon did was basically forced manipulation, where Diapers.com had no choice in this matter, as they would either join Amazon or go bankrupt. Even though this example is prominent, this type of thing happens all the time on a smaller level. A big reason why a lot of small businesses are going out is that they aren’t getting enough customers since they have competition from other larger and sometimes predatory businesses.
So, how is capitalism prominent in your life? Obviously, when you buy things from a store, that is capitalism in practice, but it’s so much more than that, and capitalism is a way bigger part of your life than you realize. Everything from purchasing a book to investing in growing businesses’ stock is all part of capitalism. Heck, even setting up a lemonade stand is capitalism. Any kind of gain, exchange, or loss of money is all capitalism. It is interwoven into almost anything we do since it’s what holds this country together.
One other thing about capitalism that is pretty unethical is manufacturing/retail prices. The manufacturing price is how much it costs to make a product. Retail price is how much the company will sell that product for. This is how most businesses make money, but sometimes the difference between the two prices is ludicrous. An example of this is most ink cartridges. In a video from Austin McConnell, Austin explains that while working at a, *ahem*, certain company, he learned that the retail price for colored ink is around $59.95, while the manufacturing price is, get this, TWENTY THREE CENTS. Yep $00.23, while the retail price is more than 150 times that. That’s why printers are a scam and you should just get a printer that uses toner. They are a bit better, and cheaper to use.
Now, let’s get into the real juicy parts of ethics when it has to do with capitalism. The baseline motivation and fuel of capitalism, as well as the result of this type of society, is the want for money and power. It’s no surprise that humans are greedy, but capitalism feeds into this trait of ours, by dangling the hope of becoming rich, or growing a massive industry, along with loads of power and money. That would be an incentive, because with that much power, you could virtually do whatever you please.
Another massive principle of capitalism is currency, more specific, inflation. Inflation is the process in which a certain currency becomes less valuable, with a raised amount of currency in circulation. This happens when the price of raw material goes up, or if political changes happen. The biggest example of inflation, or hyperinflation, in this case, is in Zimbabwe, where at one point, a 100 trillion dollar note in Zimbabwe, only was worth about 40 US cents. But that is a very extreme example. Inflation usually happens at a smaller scale, in a shorter time. It’s sort of like how things were a lot cheaper in America about 50 years ago, but prices have risen since then.
Capitalism is a lot more than just numbers and economics, there is also a lot of ethics mixed in with capitalism. Since there are hundreds of thousands of businesses, there aren’t many markets that aren’t populated. And in the rare occasion that there isn’t a market completely populated, usually a big company will take over that market and push out all other businesses.
An article from Slate shows an example of this when Jeff Bezos (the CEO of Amazon) saw Diapers.com as a potential threat. Bezos warned this company and told them they should consider selling. Diapers.com did not in fact sell, so instead, Amazon opened up a branch called Amazon Mom, with prices far better than Diapers.com. They then saw what danger they were in, and surrendered themselves to Amazon. Even though Amazon lost around 100 million dollars from that ordeal, they still got what they wanted, which was Diapers.com. This is called predatory pricing.
As Amazon can commit such an unethical feat, without much consequence shows that capitalism does have some flaws. What Amazon did was basically forced manipulation, where Diapers.com had no choice in this matter, as they would either join Amazon or go bankrupt. Even though this example is prominent, this type of thing happens all the time on a smaller level. A big reason why a lot of small businesses are going out is that they aren’t getting enough customers since they have competition from other larger and sometimes predatory businesses.
So, how is capitalism prominent in your life? Obviously, when you buy things from a store, that is capitalism in practice, but it’s so much more than that, and capitalism is a way bigger part of your life than you realize. Everything from purchasing a book to investing in growing businesses’ stock is all part of capitalism. Heck, even setting up a lemonade stand is capitalism. Any kind of gain, exchange, or loss of money is all capitalism. It is interwoven into almost anything we do since it’s what holds this country together.
One other thing about capitalism that is pretty unethical is manufacturing/retail prices. The manufacturing price is how much it costs to make a product. Retail price is how much the company will sell that product for. This is how most businesses make money, but sometimes the difference between the two prices is ludicrous. An example of this is most ink cartridges. In a video from Austin McConnell, Austin explains that while working at a, *ahem*, certain company, he learned that the retail price for colored ink is around $59.95, while the manufacturing price is, get this, TWENTY THREE CENTS. Yep $00.23, while the retail price is more than 150 times that. That’s why printers are a scam and you should just get a printer that uses toner. They are a bit better, and cheaper to use.
Now, let’s get into the real juicy parts of ethics when it has to do with capitalism. The baseline motivation and fuel of capitalism, as well as the result of this type of society, is the want for money and power. It’s no surprise that humans are greedy, but capitalism feeds into this trait of ours, by dangling the hope of becoming rich, or growing a massive industry, along with loads of power and money. That would be an incentive, because with that much power, you could virtually do whatever you please.
Discrimination is also mingled in with capitalism. Often, women will experience inequality in the rate they are paid. Two people may do just the same job, and put in the same amount of work, while one gender is paid more or less because of no reason than other than discrimination. The Institute for Women's Policy Research says that, “in 2018, female full-time, year-round workers made only 82 cents for every dollar earned by men, a gender wage gap of 18 percent.” This shows another flaw in capitalism. Discrimination as a result of greed and prejudice. This is part of how institutional biases occur. Businesses may pay women less because of their bias, so they can spend less money while still getting the same amount of work out of their employees.
As shown here, you can easily tell how flawed capitalism is, but do other people think that as well? A survey has been sent out to all of the HPCMS student body, and here are some interesting results from the survey.
Starting off with the basics, a surprising amount of people do not know what capitalism is - around 25%.
The pie chart is shown below.
Going into ethics, I also asked if students thought capitalism was flawed. Most people weren’t sure as well. But still more people thought it was okay rather than flawed.
I asked if people thought capitalism was the best fit for our country, which displayed similar results. There was a perfect split between yes and no, which makes sense because sometimes people’s views can be different based on past experiences.
Finally, I asked students to write out their full opinion on capitalism. Here are some fascinating quotes from the HPCMS student body.
“The best type of government is a mix of capitalism and socialism. Citizens deserve to have the freedom to fully control the power of their business until it harms the American people.” - Megan McMahon 804
“Capitalism seems like a great solution for people who want to be heard. However, leaving these really important decisions to people doesn't seem like the best idea. Maybe we should think of other ways for people to be heard.” - Cora Ellison 701
"I think it is something that is often exploited by bigger companies, especially with products that are necessities. It also is indirectly discriminatory against specific ethnic groups of people as some don't have the same access to wealth as others, this is a very complex issue that I think we need to get to the bottom of." - Stanley Dabrezil 704
“It’s amazing!” - Max Been 801
Quotes aside, I hope that this article has helped to inform all you readers out there. I’m hoping to educate others more about the society we live in.
I asked if people thought capitalism was the best fit for our country, which displayed similar results. There was a perfect split between yes and no, which makes sense because sometimes people’s views can be different based on past experiences.
Finally, I asked students to write out their full opinion on capitalism. Here are some fascinating quotes from the HPCMS student body.
“The best type of government is a mix of capitalism and socialism. Citizens deserve to have the freedom to fully control the power of their business until it harms the American people.” - Megan McMahon 804
“Capitalism seems like a great solution for people who want to be heard. However, leaving these really important decisions to people doesn't seem like the best idea. Maybe we should think of other ways for people to be heard.” - Cora Ellison 701
"I think it is something that is often exploited by bigger companies, especially with products that are necessities. It also is indirectly discriminatory against specific ethnic groups of people as some don't have the same access to wealth as others, this is a very complex issue that I think we need to get to the bottom of." - Stanley Dabrezil 704
“It’s amazing!” - Max Been 801
Quotes aside, I hope that this article has helped to inform all you readers out there. I’m hoping to educate others more about the society we live in.
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