Here we are in 2005, over 15 years since the victory of capitalism over communism. Since I wasn’t born until the end of the Cold War, I feel like I missed something. The way I see it, we defeated an ideology that says all people should be looked upon as equals. Instead we have championed an economic ideology that creates a class system where the richest people control the main aspects of life. This has made the world entirely unequal. While I am not promoting communism, I am also not convinced that it is in the best interest of the world for us to continue using capitalism. I see capitalism making me want to compete with, and grow to hate, others. Capitalism would not exist without competition. In order to advance in this society, someone must be beaten out. Since our competitive economic system is an influential aspect of American culture, this competition leaks into other areas of people’s lives. This makes us work against each other far more than we work together and help each other.
The basic premise of capitalism is that people want a lot of material “stuff.” Not only that, but as a status symbol, everyone wants to have even more than the next person, so he or she will do all that it takes to make others fail. There is nothing wrong with a company lying to or deceiving the general public so that they will buy some unneeded crap – there’s always some new product that everyone must have.
It’s sad that I can’t go anywhere without being bombarded by corporate slogans and seductive advertisements forcing lies down my throat so that some rich person can get even richer. It’s impossible to watch a basketball game on TV, or programs on the History Channel, without a commercial break every five minutes so that someone can tell me why I should buy their product. I can’t even look in a magazine to read or educate myself without finding someone telling me about something that I must have, but don’t need. Half the items in my mailbox are advertisements trying to get me to buy something else. Truthfully, all of those products on the market are pretty much the same things. It doesn’t matter if it’s Pepsi or Coke, Sprint or AT&T, Nike or Reebok; someone is getting rich at the expense of others.
I’m glad that I live in a time where I can openly speak about my discontent towards this unethical economic system without being blacklisted or kicked out of the country. Still, the government views the mention of socialist ideas as negative. I hate living in a world that is so focused on making money that most people can’t even see the damage that is being done. How can we allow ourselves to get richer and richer while fellow human beings in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, not to mention the neglected peoples of our own country, are getting poorer and poorer? We need to stop being tricked into buying so much crap and start thinking about other people besides ourselves.
Perhaps the worst part is that we have exported this economic system to other parts of the world and have practically made it impossible to survive as a nation without capitalism. Part of the “great” victory over communism is the idea that capitalism is a much better system. Many people will not even look at the flaws that this system has.
The world will not be as good of a place until we are able to eliminate the huge and growing gap between the rich and poor people of the world, which capitalism has created. This system has also led to lots of wasted resources. The world will remain corrupt and immoral until we stop competing with other and stop being so greedy and materialistic. As the world is getting smaller, we need to work together and become more resourceful, as well as explore other options for economic stability.