Capitalism (Reboot)

Capitalism is a superior economic system for the following reasons: Society I argue that capitalism is conducive to a healthy society, this is for two reasons: 1. There is a large incentive to work hard and be successful. 2. The difficult jobs are paid highly compared to low-skilled jobs, this provides an incentive for people to train for the jobs that are a large asset to society. In contrast, in a communist society there is no reason why someone should want to train to do a difficult job when they could get the same pay for doing an easier job. This leads to a shortage of people to do difficult jobs such as doctors or lawyers. Economics Capitalism is a remarkably self-regulating system. The balance of supply and demand is efficiently maintained in a capitalist system. Let us say that product X is suddenly in demand; suppliers will rush to produce X due to the potential profits. Similarly, if product Y is no longer in demand then suppliers will cease production of it under threat of potential losses. This also avoids wasted resources that could be lost to the over-production resulting from failing to respond to falling demand. Adapting to demand is much less efficient in a communist system as any potential profit to be made by meeting rising demand is dampened by state redistribution of wealth. And any losses that are suffered from failing to adapt to demand are softened by state economic support. Moreover, the quality and affordability of products is regulated by capitalism. If a business is selling poor quality products or is guilty of overpricing then consumers will simply go elsewhere. This means that only sellers of good products at affordable prices survive, which is beneficial to a quality economy as well as the quality of life of consumers. Finally, capitalism allows for significant economic growth. Retention of profits allows more money to be reinvested into the economy to generate more wealth. This can cause exponential growth. Human nature An economic system must be pragmatic in order to work, and a system can only be pragmatic if it is in accordance to human nature. Capitalism is arguably the most suitable economic system considering human nature, as we fundamentally seek to accumulate resources (we evolved from hunter-gatherers (1)). Man is not suited to having the fruits of his labours taken away by the state and given to those who have worked less hard. Capitalism is also a very free system of economics; anyone can achieve success simply by hard-work, perseverance and resourcefulness. There are no unassailable class barriers to achieving material wealth. Freedom is embraced, which is beneficial because people can develop best when left to grow laissez-faire and allowed to make their own mistakes. Evidence of the humanistic benefits of capitalism is that people in capitalist countries such as the USA are generally happier than those in socialist countries such as China (2). Prevention of tyranny First we must consider the actual role of government: 'The government runs the country. It has the responsibility for developing and implementing policy and for drafting laws. ' (3) Essentially, the government is a law-making institution and is separate to the corporate world. If the economy is completely under the thumb of the state then they have a monopoly of power. They can tax businesses heavily just because they can get away with it (due to state centralisation). In capitalist countries the government's power is limited by the free market. This can prevent corruption and damaging economic policies; companies can simply move to other countries. In this way, the government is prevented from abusing its power. Looking at other countries, socialist countries such as North Korea, the USSR and China all have/had very controlling governments, bordering on tyranny. As this is my opening statement, I will refrain from responding to Con's arguments until the next round. (1)http://www.journals.elsevier.com... (2) http://www.parliament.uk... (3) http://www.washingtonpost.com...