Campus Socialism Vs Capitalism
Campus Socialism Vs Capitalism
person 1 post: (allysa)
This week’s posts have been really interesting to understand two basic elements in ethical discussions. With different examples provided in the videos, it was easier to understand what each meant. As far as capitalism goes, it is based on survival of the fittest. What this means is that it believes that equality is not something that is taken into consideration and that it does not favor the poor. Capitalism is a system driven by greed. Basically, it rewards those who succeed and in turn builds competition in the society. Professor, Mr. Hamme, also mentioned that capitalism in itself is not ethical or unethical, you must import ethics into the system of capitalism which made sense when backing the arguments with provided examples.
Whereas socialism, on the other hand, is a system based on the belief that people are basically good. It is a system in favor of taking care of the poor and belief in equality. Changing the economic system would make it to where everyone is equal then there would be no pressure on proving yourselves and making sure that people act better is what the socialism favors.
By learning and researching more on both of these terms, I believe and agree with the professor that capitalism is the best one to make life better for everyone. One who works hard definitely needs to be rewarded which makes the purpose for the life more clear and with healthy competition, supporting ethics, capitalism is much better than socialism.
Person 2 post: (ashmita)
I thoroughly enjoyed this week’s lecture on Socialism Vs Capitalism. Both socialism and capitalism I agree are two basic school of thoughts. One of the major point that captivated me during the lecture was the fact that capitalism is neither ethical nor non ethical and it’s simply a system. Ethics should be imported in the capitalist view other wise it becomes unethical. Capitalism believes in quality and setting equal standard for everyone regardless of gender, class, economic back ground. They seem to believe in survival of the fittest, favoring privileges’ and walking over the path to accomplish what they really want whereas Socialist on the other hand seem to believe in providing equal opportunities for everyone and taking care of the poor to uplift their economic standards. The lecture also presented several examples on how people are born in different environment and no one starts at the same level. People have different scenarios where people are blessed by nature with good physics, born in a wealthy household, luck, talents hence it is easier for some people to become successful in life compared to other so equality means different thing different people depending on the situation. One thing that each individual can add to their lives is moral virtue despite of the system. People work for incentive hence they are contributing good to the society although their intention is good for themselves only like the example presented in the lecture where people spend hours in labs to come up with vaccine to cure a disease not to serve humanity but to be listed on Times magazine, make million of dollars or win Nobel peace prize. Regardless of their motive they are still contributing back to society and humanity. Although, our society is heavy on capitalism, it should not necessarily be a problem as each individual can add moral ethics in the system. Human nature is fundamental hence should not be changed despite of inequality and power.
Personally, I think I fall more towards the realist view, I also believe that the real evil lies in human nature and there is no system that can change that. Personality varies from people to people so being kind and eliminating unethical values and activities can do even in capitalist society like ours.
