Rusty Shackleford
5th October 2010, 19:12
The font is large because im going to be cutting it up and pasting it to a tri-fold piece of cardboard for a sociology project.
the topic is "social problems" and i decided to name 3 major social problems and tie them to capitalism, which is labeled as the root cause for many modern problems. also, the large font makes it easier to read.
it cant be too theory heavy, it has to be simple because its goign to be on display. i just wanted some input.
im planning on finding a modern example of the 3 problems.
for prejudice, im going to use the "Glass Ceiling" theory.
for war, im going to use Iraq of Afghanistan(has to be tied to imperialism, finance capitalism, and profit making)
and for Poverty, i want to find an american community that is indeed impoverished instead of using the cliche poor starving african child. im not being racist, but my justification is that it helps bring the topic home for anyone who reads it.
Thanks.
Also, the driving texts are written by Marx Engels and Lenin.
im planning on using
Wage Labor and Capital - Marx
Origin of the Family - Engels
Imperialism: the highest stage of Capitalism - Lenin.
im also planning on using the Crisis of capitalism(David Harvey, RSAnimated) video as a way to make the subject more relevant and modern because the texts are fucking ancient:lol:
Why is it that Capitalism is the root of many modern social problems?
To start off, Capitalism isnt some new and unique time in history where, for the first time, war, poverty, and prejudice, have existed. This is directed at Capitalism because it is the current stage of human socio-economic development. Old prejudices, reasons for war, and causes of poverty have been eliminated, but those symptoms have not been dealth with in the Capitalist era either.
Heres a quick overview of this discussion:
First, war still exists in all Capitalist societies, and there are economic reasons for them that are unique to Capitalism.
Secondly, poverty has hardly been eradicated with the development of Capitalism.
Finally, prejudice still exists in many nuanced, and not so nuanced ways.
Poverty
The standard of living has increased for billions, but still billions more are not recieving the supposed societal benefits of Capitalist development. This is not to say that there were not paupers in the era of Feudalism, but this is saying that poverty still exists now, and for different reasons.
In this day and age, profit is the driving motive for economic development. A simple explanation of what profit is is that it is the money made off of selling something.
A slightly less simple explanation is that a worker is paid a set wage and adds value to whatever they are working on, and the person who owns the machinery or the store gets to keep the surplus that was created by the worker.
In the West, workers are generally afforded better wages and benefits, but even in those societies, those very same wages are not liveable for a large portion of that society. The credit/financial crisis is just one exemplification of that.
Warfare
As mentioned before, war is not unique to Capitalism. But, the motives that exist nowadays are.
Profit is the driving force behind economic development and competition is the way to make more profit.
In this day and age, financial institutions have fused with industry to create what is called 'Finance Capital.' The banker is the one who makes investmens and is ultimately relying on industry to produce to provide the banker profit because they have a very real vested interest in industry to pay back loans and so on.
Finance Capitalism relys on investment and industrial development. But what happens when nothing is left to invest in? Capitalism is ultimately about profit and competition, correct? Well, when there is nothing left to invest in, these mega-institutions compete head on, always seeking to drive the other out of business or gobble them up like WaMu was by JP Morgan Chase in 2008.
So how does this lead to war, you ask? Well, in 1914, the world was pretty much wholly divided up between a hand full of imperialist powers which led to open conflict. WWI was a horrific war, remembered as 'The Great War' because of the massive loss of life. But for what did so many people die?
Control of colonies in Africa, and of the other imperialist nations. To gobble eachother up for their own benefit.
Prejudice
So why does prejudice exist, and in what forms in Capitalist society?
Anti LGBTQ bigotry
Racism
Sexism
Nationalism
Ageism
Classism
And i guess you could also say 'Fanboyism'
So how do all of these tie in to Capitalist society? What makes it different from anything else.
Well, to start, slavery was justified through racism which was one of the most profit producing institutions for the South. Slaves did not need to be paid a wage for their work, they had no rights to time off, and hardly cost anything to keep up. Sure it cost a lot of money to buy a slave, but the free labor that came with the life of a slave paid itself off pretty quickly for a slave owner.
How about sexism?
There is a theory called the "Class Ceiling" of wages and salary for woment in the modern workplace. Its common knowledge that women are not paid the same as men, even if they are more qualified or work harder than their male co-workers.
But what about all of the others?
Well, coming from a Marxist perspective, history is driven by a struggle between classes. In each stage of class society, the number of classes have dwindles, but the size of the classes grew. Today, wealth is concentrated into very few hands globally, but billions are imployed to work for them. Any way to divide the enormous working class serves to distract workers from injustices perpetrated by the Capitalist class.
You hear about how Latino immigrants are "taking our jobs" or how "homosexuals are destroying the institution of marriage," or how "unions are the reason why GM failed." These all divide people, plain and simple.
the topic is "social problems" and i decided to name 3 major social problems and tie them to capitalism, which is labeled as the root cause for many modern problems. also, the large font makes it easier to read.
it cant be too theory heavy, it has to be simple because its goign to be on display. i just wanted some input.
im planning on finding a modern example of the 3 problems.
for prejudice, im going to use the "Glass Ceiling" theory.
for war, im going to use Iraq of Afghanistan(has to be tied to imperialism, finance capitalism, and profit making)
and for Poverty, i want to find an american community that is indeed impoverished instead of using the cliche poor starving african child. im not being racist, but my justification is that it helps bring the topic home for anyone who reads it.
Thanks.
Also, the driving texts are written by Marx Engels and Lenin.
im planning on using
Wage Labor and Capital - Marx
Origin of the Family - Engels
Imperialism: the highest stage of Capitalism - Lenin.
im also planning on using the Crisis of capitalism(David Harvey, RSAnimated) video as a way to make the subject more relevant and modern because the texts are fucking ancient:lol:
Why is it that Capitalism is the root of many modern social problems?
To start off, Capitalism isnt some new and unique time in history where, for the first time, war, poverty, and prejudice, have existed. This is directed at Capitalism because it is the current stage of human socio-economic development. Old prejudices, reasons for war, and causes of poverty have been eliminated, but those symptoms have not been dealth with in the Capitalist era either.
Heres a quick overview of this discussion:
First, war still exists in all Capitalist societies, and there are economic reasons for them that are unique to Capitalism.
Secondly, poverty has hardly been eradicated with the development of Capitalism.
Finally, prejudice still exists in many nuanced, and not so nuanced ways.
Poverty
The standard of living has increased for billions, but still billions more are not recieving the supposed societal benefits of Capitalist development. This is not to say that there were not paupers in the era of Feudalism, but this is saying that poverty still exists now, and for different reasons.
In this day and age, profit is the driving motive for economic development. A simple explanation of what profit is is that it is the money made off of selling something.
A slightly less simple explanation is that a worker is paid a set wage and adds value to whatever they are working on, and the person who owns the machinery or the store gets to keep the surplus that was created by the worker.
In the West, workers are generally afforded better wages and benefits, but even in those societies, those very same wages are not liveable for a large portion of that society. The credit/financial crisis is just one exemplification of that.
Warfare
As mentioned before, war is not unique to Capitalism. But, the motives that exist nowadays are.
Profit is the driving force behind economic development and competition is the way to make more profit.
In this day and age, financial institutions have fused with industry to create what is called 'Finance Capital.' The banker is the one who makes investmens and is ultimately relying on industry to produce to provide the banker profit because they have a very real vested interest in industry to pay back loans and so on.
Finance Capitalism relys on investment and industrial development. But what happens when nothing is left to invest in? Capitalism is ultimately about profit and competition, correct? Well, when there is nothing left to invest in, these mega-institutions compete head on, always seeking to drive the other out of business or gobble them up like WaMu was by JP Morgan Chase in 2008.
So how does this lead to war, you ask? Well, in 1914, the world was pretty much wholly divided up between a hand full of imperialist powers which led to open conflict. WWI was a horrific war, remembered as 'The Great War' because of the massive loss of life. But for what did so many people die?
Control of colonies in Africa, and of the other imperialist nations. To gobble eachother up for their own benefit.
Prejudice
So why does prejudice exist, and in what forms in Capitalist society?
Anti LGBTQ bigotry
Racism
Sexism
Nationalism
Ageism
Classism
And i guess you could also say 'Fanboyism'
So how do all of these tie in to Capitalist society? What makes it different from anything else.
Well, to start, slavery was justified through racism which was one of the most profit producing institutions for the South. Slaves did not need to be paid a wage for their work, they had no rights to time off, and hardly cost anything to keep up. Sure it cost a lot of money to buy a slave, but the free labor that came with the life of a slave paid itself off pretty quickly for a slave owner.
How about sexism?
There is a theory called the "Class Ceiling" of wages and salary for woment in the modern workplace. Its common knowledge that women are not paid the same as men, even if they are more qualified or work harder than their male co-workers.
But what about all of the others?
Well, coming from a Marxist perspective, history is driven by a struggle between classes. In each stage of class society, the number of classes have dwindles, but the size of the classes grew. Today, wealth is concentrated into very few hands globally, but billions are imployed to work for them. Any way to divide the enormous working class serves to distract workers from injustices perpetrated by the Capitalist class.
You hear about how Latino immigrants are "taking our jobs" or how "homosexuals are destroying the institution of marriage," or how "unions are the reason why GM failed." These all divide people, plain and simple.