American Capitalism is not like the typical pure capitalist economy. It is actually a mixed economy. The economy is mixed with Socialism and Capitalism. The general meaning of Socialism is “a political and economic theory of social organization that advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole. ” Capitalism is “an economic and political system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.
An incentive is the hope of eward or the fear of punishment that encourages a person to behave in a certain way. American’s incentive to be a Capitalist Economy is money therefore the producers are inspired to produce. The United States most good and services are distributed through a market system which is the Free Market. Adam Smith is a Scottish social philosopher. He wrote the book “The Wealth of Nations”. This book is about how a nation’s living standards can be raised. He also talks about the Invisible Hand which is how the government is not there to price it is just there to protect.
American Capitalism does not support ordinary people because it creates a lack in opportunity to succeed, exploited laborers in workplace and provides a safety net that doesn’t incentivise people to work hard. In America’s Capitalism there is no opportunity for ordinary people to succeed. The book Freakonomics states that “They all want to succeed in an extremely competitive field in which if you reach the top, you are paid a fortune (to say nothing of the attendant glory and power)” (Levitt, Dubner 102). This particular scenario it is about crack drug dealing.
There is 5 different ositions in the crack dealing business which the money made is based on a hierarchy. During this scenario the people that are on the bottom are getting paid $3. 30 an hour so it is very hard to get to the top in a competitive field. The people on the top are making thousands of dollars and the people on the bottom are making barely anything. Therefore the people on the bottom have to no incentive to actually work hard to get to the top because they already know that they won’t make it to the top. When having a job that pays you minimum wage it is hard to survive.
Folks with minimum wages also stay at the bottom. There are millions of people that work in minimum paying jobs. In 2014 1. 3 million people were earned the minimum wage which at the time was $7. 25 an hour. In that same year 1. 7 million people were earning wages which were below federal minimum. The article “Living On Minimum Wage – Is It Possible? (Live the Wage Challenge)” by Amy Livingston talks about a challenge that rich people took by living like many ordinary people, just with minimum wage. Amy Livingston is a blogger who wanted to talk about this challenge and the outcome.
She expressed, “All those who took the challenge say they learned rom the experience. Mostly, they day, it helped them understand how difficult it is to get by on minimum wage. But also, they learned to distinguish between wants and needs – to recognize which of their expenses were truly necessary, and which were extras they could cut if they had to. Ultimately, they came away from the experience more grateful for the little luxuries they once took for granted. ” This challenge was in 2014 which again the minimum wage was $7. 25 per hour.
Now some people you who took this challenge are three Democratic politicians which are Tim Ryan, Jan Schakowsky, and Ted Strickland. It was suppose to be originally only for them three but other politicians and bloggers tagged along like Amy Livingston the blogger who wrote this article. They lived with only $77 dollars a week per each member of the household. This is a drastic amount of money change to what they are use to living with per week. This challenge showed that it is very hard to succeed with minimum wage. You are not able to buy the same things you are able to if you are wealthy.
This 1 week challenge made these wealthy politicians and bloggers understand the struggle of the ordinary people who only wins 7. 25 per hour. Ordinary people do not have the opportunity to succeed with minimum wage because they can barely survive. Ordinary people in our country get exploited at their jobs. United States has a population of 325,832,864. You need to take in consideration that not everyone works because some of our country’s population are kids, people with disabilities, people who are retired, etc. Some of our county’s population gets exploited at their jobs.
The article “Exploited Labor In The USA” is by Tom Ashbrook an award winning journalist who was brought to the public radio on following the attacks of September 11, 2001. Ashbrook is a newspaper editor, author, and was a foreign correspondent for 20 years. He stated voiced, “The story out of Breaux Bridge, Louisiana sounded Third World. Guest workers in a seafood processing plant allegedly forced to work 24-hour shifts. 80-hour weeks. Barricaded in so they couldn’t escape. Threatened with beatings to work faster. Bullied. Underpaid. Families threatened. Forced labor. “As you can see there are people who are being exploited at their jobs.
We are living in a country where it looks like we are protected, but that’s not the case. Reality is that ordinary people like in this case, the workers have to work a full day of 24 hours. The also get beat in order for them to work faster. We get about 1. 5 million foreign worker each year with working visas. I guess you can say that they are taking United States population’s job like some may argue but that’s not what matters. What matters is that ordinary people like the foreign workers get exploited. It doesn’t matter if they are citizens, illegals, or foreign workers they are categorized as ordinary people.
The article “Wanted: foreign workers – and the labor brokers accused of illegally rofiting from them” is By Megan Twohey, Mica Rosenberg and Ryan McNeill. This article claims that “Public attention has focused largely on U. S. employers that exploit foreign workers. But Reuters identified an insidious problem that precedes and can compound the abuses workers face when they arrive in America – and one that authorities say can be even more difficult to address. ” The foreign workers incentive is money, because they are trying to get away from the difficulty of survival in their country.
They come to be able to provide a little bit more for their family as what they would in their country. It is not okay for jobs to exploit their foreign workers by taking advantage of them. American Capitalism does not support ordinary people because they let people get exploited. America’s Safety Net doesn’t incentivise people to work hard for their needs. The Social Safety Net is basically government funded programs like Wic, Medicaid, Disability etc. They are here to help people in need for the amount of time that they need it. That’s not the case though, not everyone tries to get out of it, instead they want to stay in the system.
The article “Does the Social Safety Net Make Us Lazy? is by a Noah Smith, a Bloomberg View columnist. In other words he is newspaper or magazine journalist. He was an assistant professor of finance at Stony Brook University. He also blogs at http:// noahpinionblog. blogspot. com/ where he blogs about Economics, philosophy, and distraction from productive activity. He includes in his article something that Paul Ryan said which is, “We don’t want to turn the safety net into a hammock that lulls able-bodied people into lives of dependency and complacency, that drains them of their will and their incentive to make the most of their lives.
Paul Ryan is a Politician who is the current speaker of the United States House of Representatives. He is a educated man who knows about what the United States is going through. His claim is that the Safety Net is not for people to depend on. The point of it is to help you when you need it, but it’s not for people to use their whole life. The ordinary people that use it should pick themselves back up and strive to get out of the system, but they don’t have an incentive to do so because they are being maintained by the government. There is absolutely no motivation to pick themselves back up.
The article “It Pays to Work: Work Incentives and the Safety Net” by Isacc Shapiro, Robert Greenstein, Danilo Trisi, and Bryann DaSilva. Isacc Shapiro focuses on the research about primarily on the working poor, income distribution, and tax and budget issues. Robert Greenstein is an expert on the federal budget and domestic policy issues, including anti-poverty programs and many aspects of tax and health care policies. Danilo Trisi focuses on researching poverty, income trends, labor market analyses, income inequality, the TANF program, and the effects of the safety net.
Bryann DaSilva has a Master of Public Policy degree from Harvard University. This article argues that “Some critics of various low-income assistance programs argue that the safety net discourages work. In particular, they contend that people receiving assistance from these programs can receive more, or nearly as much, from not working – and receiving government aid – than from working. Or they argue that low-paid workers have little incentive to work more hours or seek higher wages because losses in government aid will cancel out the earnings gains. This is saying that the Social Safety Net discourages work.
The ordinary people who are in this system receive more or almost the same amount of money as if they were providing for themselves. If there is a person that doesn’t get paid well and doesn’t want to work more hours to provide more because they will lose government help. Therefore the ordinary people don’t have an incentive to better themselves because the government is providing for them. The Safety Net makes people makes people lazy because they have enough money to survive therefore they have no incentive to work had to provide for themselves.
American Capitalism doesn’t give ordinary people the pportunity to succeed, they take advantage of helpless workers, and provides a Social Safety Net which discourages people from working. The ones on the bottom in the crack dealing business will always be at the bottom because they will never be able to get to the top. Minimum wage can play a big role on succeeding. People with minimum wage have enough to survive because they are ordinary people. As we saw, it was difficult for the politicians and bloggers to live like a minimum wage person which shows the struggle of ordinary people who can be wealthy like them.
Workers in the seafood plant and the foreign workers get exploited by the companies by having a 24 hour shift, beatings, and just in general getting taken advantage of. The Social Safety Net is not for the ordinary people to depend on it is to help only when needed. The people getting this help take advantage of it and get lazy to get out of it because they receive more than what they would if they worked or almost the same. Afterall American Capitalism doesn’t benefit ordinary people because of the effects it has on us.
