This is my first attempt at writing actual political theory stuff, so bare with me. I hadn’t planned on this, but after having a very enlightening discussion with David Eden,
I figured I’d better write on this. I want to thank David immensely for all the information he has provided me through our emails. Thanks for all your help.

Specifically, what I want to look at is our modern capitalistic market. Now, before you go running away to another column, let me explain something. America is based on the idea of Free Market, and more generally, of Capitalism. At least, that’s how it’s supposed to be. But don’t you find it interesting that as soon as we implemented it (around the turn of the 19th century, with the Industrial Revolution), our Government had to start putting restrictions on it? The fact is, that as soon as free market started really getting big, the first problem to occur was the appearance of monopolies among corporations. This is what Marx attacked, and he called it the centralization of capital. Unfortunately, the way capitalism works, in my understanding, is that the wealthy get richer, and the worker gets ever more pushed down.

This is clear when we look at the early 20th century, and the industrialization going on.. Millionaires continued to exploit the working class for more and more capital (i.e. money) and what did the worker get? Up until massive protests and upheaval, nothing! In fact, working conditions continued to deteriorate until they were intolerable. Capitalism is a idea that functions on how greedy everybody is. When there can be only one winner, and to win you have to have the most money, dirty things happen, and things get messed up real fast. Welcome to America.

I guess our Government saw that natural, unbridled capitalism wouldn’t work, so they started putting restrictions on it in order to get rid of monopolies. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the only problem. Because capitalism tends to breed class distinction, another problem arises. As mentioned above, the worker, who gets pushed further and further down, must at some point rebel. There must be some sort of equal distribution of the profit made from the capital. In other words, it doesn’t work to have the worker produce goods simply for the profit of the company, which translates into profit for the owner. The worker must see results as well, and must benefit from his work!

During the 50’s and 60’s, after unionizing and massive protest, the worker was somewhat liberated, due to the economic abundance of the time. But the evolution that capitalism is clear when we see the progression from then until now—corporations get bigger and bigger, and push the small business lower and lower, until they can no longer compete in the market. This, dear reader, is the problem with capitalism today.

Capitalism works when competition works. If competition is not fair, or even possible, then Capitalism will grow more and more corrupt. This happened early this century, and is happening again. Two things are contributing to the problem today:

They work hand in hand. Because corporations get bigger and bigger, making the gap between the worker and the owner wider and wider, competition is eliminated. There simply is no competition between small private businesses and large corporations. This happens everywhere today: Barnes and Noble Bookstores are putting small private bookstores out of business left and right, as is Starbucks Coffee.

Why fighting, competition, and therefore cheating should become the way for a country to advance is beyond me. I haven’t a clue as to why greed became a method of betterment. But we must realize that is has—America is based on the dollar, nothing more. Whoever has the money has the power. This corrupt evolution has done little more than stifle advancement and create a competitive market in which there can only be one winner, and they will do whatever necessary to win. Our own Government has even adopted this principle to function itself. It’s who has the money, how far you’re willing to go outside the rules, and how far down you’re willing to push people. That is our Government, and that is America.

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