Critical Commentary
INTRODUCTION
It is my belief that the majority of people in my group (4) agreed with my opinion, and argued for capitalism, and rather than entirely agree with the statement “Capitalism benefits everybody” argued that capitalism benefits the majority.
ARGUMENTS FOR
Within the boundaries of ethical reasoning I put forward the following arguments that in its core principal, Capitalism is just, as it allows freedom of choice, creates opportunity and an equal playing field (in theory) for people to generate their own wealth. Second Capitalism allows people to be secure as they hold bargaining power through ownership of property and possessions. Further more from a Societal perspective Capitalism = Freedom of human choice, freedom is arguably one of the most important factors attributing to a person/communities quality of life.
Another argument I put forward for capitalism is that it aligns with human nature, that is that is humans wish to acquire, or in other words it is human to be ‘greedy’, for this I received rebuttal, a number of students argued that capitalism promotes dishonesty and ‘the sacrifice of many to benefit a few’, however I argued that I agree there is the element of human nature to act dishonestly and be ' greedy' however it is a decision between the lesser of two evils, at one end of the scale say; communism, there is no such drive to achieve which has a far greater negative impact on society as a whole.
ARGUMENTS AGAINST
However it is clear throughout the conversation many students including myself agreed that capitalism if allowed to run completely free with no restriction would not be so successful, we agreed that it would take a fine balance between capitalism and the use of government policy to create a successful economic system. I gave the example of, Australia, is a Mixed economy whereby there is free enterprise but the government attempts to control the negative effects of capitalism through social security. Pure Capitalism (which does not exist) would possibly fail to benefit the majority as in every society part of the community will not be able to be self sufficient enough to earn a wage to