Capitalism and Competition: The Introduction

The Introduction:

Being in a country like France, I don’t know what’s more shocking, the great differences between the political and social structure of France and the United States, or the faces of French people when I tell them that our healthcare isn’t free, or that going to a University for under 1,000 $ a year is a fantasy. Simply, it comes down to this: France is socialist, and the United States is capitalist. France believes that people should be more equal, or at least have some programs provided through taxation. The United States believes that the ultimate freedom comes from choice, and there comes no better choice, than choosing what you consume, when you consume it, and how you consume. In turn, competition fueled by the choice of the consumer fuels the economy, and the static entity of government just stands and watches. Competition is the main, and arguably the most essential feature of capitalism. Nonetheless, the effects of capitalism spread to both negative and positive avenues. Karl Marx responded to the most ill effects of capitalism during the industrial revolution, and after some child labor laws, some union movements, and some anti-trust legislation, capitalism was on the right track again. It seemed that the government was only supposed to keep the ill- effects of capitalism from plaguing the nation in order to keep fair the competition that was to keep the economy alive. The invisible hand was venerated until it somehow went missing when the stock market crashed in 1929, and the government had to go find it during and after World War II. Then the financial crisis of 2008 came along and changed the way Americans saw economics. Some reacted by going against capitalism while others fought harder for it. In the end, both sides based their arguments on an assumption that capitalism still exists in America. However, it seems that competition in the United States seems to have suffered due to an unfair accumulation of capital, and thus the viability of companies to compete in markets. The lack of competition within markets would then seem to diminish the presence of capitalism in the United States. If capitalism seems to be fading, then when did it go away, and what are we now? In the following essay, I will invoke Karl Marx’s argument against capitalism to focus on its ill effects during the industrial revolution. Then, I will argue the importance of competition to the whole thought of capitalism. Finally, I will argue that the lack of competition for resources and the high barrier of entry into markets have ended capitalism in the United States. 

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