The Prophets of Profits...Pros and Cons of Capitalism...?

Capitalism shouldn't really be thought of as a political system because there are many different manifestations of political structures that exist in capitalist societies. One manifestation is called corporatism, another is fascism.

I'm not a Marxist so I don't view the world as a fight between classes over the exploitation of labor. Rather, I see capitalism as an ongoing process of maintaining capital by entities within the economy. Increase of monetary capital is a desired result by all those within the system . The ethical topics usually are centered around the humanitarian outcomes of shifting capital around and the fairness of those who participate.

Lost in the discussion of capitalisim is culture, which plays a HUGE part. I frequently spend time in Japan as part of my job- a county which is about as corporatist as one can imagine. (You'll notice the chop sticks in my hand in the icon). Corporations are integrated with government processes, many companies are quasi-governmental. Yet, the people do not act like the Randian/Objectivist wet dreams of uberasshole take-the-money-and-run personalities. Their society is very homogeneous and great effort is made on the part of many to secure social services and provide jobs. The CEO in a Tokyo corporation makes far less than that of an American counterpart and efforts are made by corporations to preserve employees during down turns in market cycles. In Tokyo you have to look for a long time to find a homeless person.

Culture in the United States is quite different, and the consequences of capitalism more apparent. Without a consensus on how to deal with haves and have-nots, the humanitarian results of poverty are far more evident. The USA is not alone in this respect, I think the country gets more criticism because of its wealth (rapidly depleting as it is). Some would argue that resource allocation and its by-products (pollution) are also an issue, but I’ve always thought this to be an ongoing problem with humanity in general. In naked capitalism, however, society doesn’t dictate the uses so controls in the form of government regulation are necessary to prevent erratic or harmful consequences to the populace.

Does democracy need capitalism or visa versa? Heck no. I could envision an anarchist democracy (composed of labor based consortiums) , a theocracy/plutocracy ( God says vote for me), a social democracy or even a Marxist/communist democracy. I would say that the United States is a weaker social democracy right now. I justify that by pointing out the many services provide by the government, which I consider obvious to the people that live there. Its "weak" because the scope of government services does not come close to other democratic socialist counties.

The ideals of capitalism implies the free flow of capital, where the people votes with their pocketbook, where people have the power to decide on the success of product and service offerings with their purchasing decisions. Capitalism depends on economic democracy, the right for people to make free decisions. Being more adaptive to changes in technology, capitalism prevailed over communism because people, over the long-term, are always right.

Capitalism depends on the flow of capital to continue, triggered by individual decisions. So what happens if the rich gets richer, and poor gets poorer? Capital will eventually stop flowing freely, because goods produced solely for the rich are biased, just as goods produced for the 'commoner' in communist ideology. Thus the need to regularly redistribute capital through taxation. America is notoriously bad at redistribuion of capital.

P.S. Capitalism doesn't depend on provate ownership. Publicly owned organizations can compete as well.

ok. capitalism is not a political system. Having said this, pure capitalism does not exist. Some people would like unregulated capitalism but that is just doomed to fail.

America has what is called market capitalism. It is beneath the foundations of Liberal Democracy [this has nothing to do with liberals or conservative] but rather with the belief that a sound political system has a state, which protects private property and allows the market to take its course.

Democracy and capitalism are not seperate or equal entities. Henceforth, it the profits of market capitalism can be best seen on the American ethos. It is an ethos that rewards hardwork with advancement. This is of course hypothetically. A great book which will explain all of this in detail is Max Weber's the protestant ethic.

"Capitalism is a social system based on the recognition of individual rights, including property rights, in which all property is privately owned.

"The recognition of individual rights entails the banishment of physical force from human relationships: basically, rights can be violated only by means of force. In a capitalist society, no man or group may initiate the use of physical force against others. The only function of the government, in such a society, is the task of protecting man's rights, i.e.., the task of protecting him from physical force; the government acts as the agent of man's right of self-defense, and may use force only in retaliation and only against those who initiate its use; thus the government is the means of placing the retaliatory use of force under objective control...

"The moral justification of capitalism does not lie in the altruist claim that it represents the best way to achieve "the common good." It is true that capitalism does—if that catch-phrase has any meaning—but this is merely a secondary consequence. The moral justification of capitalism lies in the fact that it is the only system consonant with man's rational nature, that it protects man's survival qua man, and that its ruling principle is: justice.

"Every social system is based, explicitly or implicitly, on some theory of ethics. The tribal notion of "the common good" has served as the moral justification of most social systems—and of all tyrannies—in history. The degree of a society's enslavement or freedom corresponded to the degree to which that tribal slogan was invoked or ignored. [What is Capitalism - Ayn Rand]

"Laissez-faire capitalism is the only social system based on the recognition of individual rights and, therefore, the only system that bans force from social relationships. By the nature of its basic principles and interests, it is the only system fundamentally opposed to war." [The Roots of War - Ayn Rand]

The only disadvantages of Capitalism are experienced by Socialists...