Capitalism- For Better or for Worse?

I see my relatives everyday,

Working day in and day out,

All for that thing called money.

 

To the extent of health problems,

With some turning to smoking and drinking,

All to pay that mortgage.

 

And I think back to brotherhood,

Where blood is shed,

Comrade apparent,

Yet murder, with the blood,

Equally apparent.

 

Money is evil,

Or the lesser evil?

You decide.

 

 

This poem sorta sums out what I want to say.

 

Capitalism actually first started with the division between religion and state in Great Britain at that time. It was the beginning of the Protestants, and then also the start of capitalism.

 

When I was an undergraduate at my home university, I saw my sister working till the wee hours in the mornings. There were days when she would just come back for a shower and then go out again. And then buy branded goods. And I became wary, very wary about capitalism.

 

John Locke actually says that the invention of money speeded up the divide among classes. That is true.

 

But under capitalism, all men are equal. There is something by Marx about alienation, about the worker being alienated from his work in a factory and even from his environment. For a factory worker especially, that is very true.

 

Yet, if you were to be under feudalism, that would be even worse. In capitalism, the worker has the ability to save his money and then start up a business of his own. He could then become a boss and hire his own workers.

 

This accumulative quality of money is what John Locke pointed out to be the root to the disparity between classes. Yet, through the above paragraph, I have pointed out that this quality can work for you - or against you.

 

Actually, back home in Singapore, there are bosses who don't draw a salary and yet pay their workers. For example, the dancing school, "Jitterbugs" started off this way. If you really think bosses have it easier than workers, why don't you try starting up a business yourself? Or have you never heard of businesses folding up?

 

There is another thing. Ideology, brotherhood and strong beliefs - all these serve to be the recipe for murder, bloodshed, bombs. Think about it. Throughout history, it is the battle of ideology versus ideology when mass massacres occur. If one was to analyze history, one would see a significant reduction in mass murders since the separation of religion from the state.

 

The worst that can happen in capitalism is that people cheat you of your money or that there is office politics in order to get that next step up the career ladder. Yet, one wouldn't kill, as there is no incentive to do so.

 

Of course, in this sort of society, people are more distant and social gaps appear. One would also argue that people in this sort of setting are superficial. Yet, the brotherhood that so many in the world craves is the root of a bloody massacre.

 

Just compare yourself, across society, with capitalism and the helm and with those that are not.

 

Judge for yourself.