In the Industrial Revolution, men with ambition, initiative and often greed developed companies and built factories. They were an integral part in the creation of products that changed the world. They became extremely wealthy often times at the expense of workers who worked upwards of sixteen hours days under dangerous conditions for little pay. Innovation defined the societies of Europe and the United States, but so did class differences.
These class differences are still present today. In the United States, movements on the far right in the name of the Tea Party and on the far left in the name of Occupy Wall Street have emerged. While their methods are vastly different, their complaint is the same—They blame the elite (top 1%) of society for the problems in the United States today.
Which approach do you think is the best way to handle the growing tension between classes?
Are you a capitalist tried and true? Do you think that the economy thrives on competition? Do you subscribe to Adam Smith’s theory that an invisible hand guides a mutually beneficial exchange of goods in a free market? Do you believe that government regulation of the economy would severely damage it?
Or, are you in favor of trade unions? Do you believe that workers should be able to organize to express their grievances against their employer? Do you believe that workers should be able to strike for higher wages and improved working conditions?
On the other hand, are you a utopian socialist like Robert Owen? Do favor an economic system that favors cooperation over competition? Do favor a system where the government owns and controls parts of the economy and distributes the wealth equally among the people?
Are you a communist? Do you subscribe to the ideas of Karl Marx who says that society is “more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other: Bourgeoisie (middle class) and Proletariat (workers).” Do you believe that class differences will one day become so intense that the workers will violently overthrow the wealthy and form a classless society?
Or, are you a social democrat? Do you believe that Congress should pass bills providing services to protect workers?
Defend your ideas about how society should handle class conflict with evidence. Your response should be at least 400 words. This blog post is due Monday, October 10 @ midnight
FTHS World Humanities Blog 
I believe that no government has the correct way to go about humanity. It is a disappointment to not see that on the list of ideas we are offered, but as everyone should be able to see, not one single government has been successful in history.
My first example seems to be on the outside a very pure an simple for of government and that is Communism. Karl Marx thought that if there was a brief socialistic period, then things would even out and turn into communism, where government wasn’t even needed, that everybody would be equal and happy. Even though many governments still attempt this method today, we realize that those ideas are totally inaccurate. There will always be in society the lazy ones, the greedy ones, the sick ones, the mentally unstable ones who will try to mess with the communist system of everybody works the same to get the same. Of course, we have the government and their officials that become the real problem; they still want control and can’t handle the true Marxist idea of no government.
The next majorly flawed government that is often strived for would be A Democracy. In this unreachable democracy, everybody is entitled to their opinion, everybody gets to decide, and everybody gets what is best for them and their community. When it comes to a democracy, this means EVERYBODY. The millions of people in the United States could not be counted for, it is truly impossible. Even if it was the slightest bit possible, it would take many diligent people to process everybody’s ideas and thoughts and wants and needs. Neither the government nor the people want to take the effort to possibly do things right. A democracy will never be achieved.
The United States has the flawed democracy that even still do other countries look up to. So, yeah, we get to vote for the president and vote to pass laws, but we can’t fully trust this man, or this law to really take the initiative towards what really needs to be done. Here see New York, the starting point of the Occupy Wall Street. It’s obvious that something needs to be taken care of, but it has been almost a month and people are still protesting, and this movement is spreading and the mobs, now peaceful, are growing. Eventually, some people are going to get what the want and others will not.
There is No best way to go about the protesting and the lying cheating banks and millionaires, just like there is no right way of government. People didn’t understand this in the past, they definably don’t understand this now, and my bet is that they will not understand this in the future. Humans are absolutely imperfect and so are the things they do, say and create. There really is no true solution.
Your entry is very realistic and true. It is amazing!
I do see what you are saying here, but if we had no government, who would come up with laws for people and how would the people find out about these laws so they know what they can and cannot do?
if there is no government, then there are no laws to break
I am not saying here that there should be no government. I am just saying that no government will ever work out right for mankind.
I think that the best way to handle the growing tension between social/economic classes is for the government to set up a standard tax percentage for everybody. Also people who have millions on dollars, like sports players, should not complain about getting 50 mil a season, and ask for double or more. They should not complain like a bunch of babies without their binkies, because the average American makes about $50,233 of income annually.
I would not consider myself either a capitalist or a communist, but at some place in between. Both of them have good intents and ideas. But in my opinion, I think that communism is the best form of government in theory, but it would most likely not be that successful in real life. But a perfect capitalist society is not that likely to happen either, because it would not be easy for every citizen to agree and think alike in commerce.
I have to disagree with Megan on her thoughts that the ideas on communism “are totally inaccurate”. The ideals of communism are of pure equality. (What I am about to say is not what I actually think, but is just for the reason to further prove my argument / ideas.) And saying that they are not is just like saying that women do not have equal rights to men. Or to say that African Americans do not deserve to be treated the same as Caucasians. (Done.) But I do have to agree on the part that it is very unlikely to go and have the perfect theoretical system of communism. Socialism is probably the most unlikely form of society. In it the citizens share everything. That goes completely against humanity’s very nature.
With businesses going under left and right, you have to stop and think about in what ways can this get any worse. You always hear on the news on how people are getting foreclosed on or putting up morgages, and it does not seem like it could get any better. And that is completely right, unless the lazy ass citizens, and the bone-headed politicians work to get it back in line. Do not go on strike or anything like that, it will most likely hurt it even more. The rich sports players need to stop asking for more money, and try to help. And the politicians should get out from their plexiglass shields, and face the situation head on. They also need to stop worrying/protecting about themselves, and start helping the regular people. The citizens also need to stop being so frusterating, and blaming everything bad on the government, it is their faults too.
I think that all of these social parties have their pros and cons but if I were only to pick one I would pick capitalism. Capitalism gives everyone the freedom to decide what their income would be without the government interfering with how you would spend your money. Unfortunately the working class is envious towards the middle and higher class because they make more money and the working class doesn’t believe this is fair. This can result in protests and riots, for example the Occupy Wall Street protesters are protesting because they believe that the top 1% of the higher class should pay higher taxes. I agree with Andrew that the government should just utilize a standard tax percentage. According to the New York Times 2.6 million people slipped into poverty last year and if the government doesn’t start listening to the protesters then Karl Marx’s prediction of the working class overthrowing the wealthy middle class will become reality.
Communism and Socialism sound great but in reality these two social parties wouldn’t last very long. Robert Owen is delusional because people in general would never cooperate with everything being the same, they would think this is unfair and they would protest. If we were communists we would probably think that government is trying to control everything we do and then there would be a revolution. Trade unions are a great idea if they don’t go too far because they are there to make sure that the workers are being treated fairly. Trade unions should have the right to voice their opinions but the employer should make the final decision. One of the only flaws I can think of right now of trade unions is that the workers may ask for too much of a raise or too many days off. For the most part trade unions are a good thing, what if you had to work in a factory for 16 hours a day with no breaks at all? What if you had to work in unsafe conditions? What if you were being paid very low for a time consuming job? Wouldn’t you want someone to stick up for you? My answer is yes, I would want someone to stick up for me and that is why trade unions are very important. I believe that if we were to stop, or at least minimize the tension between social classes then the government should make some changes or else the tension will keep on building until we will snap.
I see your point on sports players complaining, but they are simply using capitalism to there advantage.
I am Capitalist, but a Capitalist that only visits the dentist (Government) every six months when I absolutely have to. Capitalism is a beautiful form of government, but like all forms of government it has it’s kinks that need to be ironed out. It is great considering that you can have the decision to get up and work hard every day and that at some point you will be making the amount of money you want to make. But on the other side of things, greed, luck, and the mistreatment of human beings plays a huge role. Often times in the industrial revolution you will find workers in a factory, working upwards of 16 hours a day, in terrible conditions getting payed just enough to survive on the little scraps they could afford. Then you look to you’re left and see the owner of the factory slowly growing fatter and fatter off of the enormous profit they are making due to the low wages of the grueling workers. Personally I would never do that to anybody, and for the most part (In the United States) nobody does anymore. But back then if I was in the position of the workers, I would fight to my dyeing day to get the Government (Dentist) to take over and pay everybody equally. Then comes up another argument, the factory owners who rarely ever do anything get paid as much as the hard working factory workers? Doesn’t sound right to me. People should really be paid depending on how hard or how long they work, which is what is done now a days, and the people that get lucky and strike it rich need to stop rubbing it in are faces and donate some of it to a charity or something. I guess what I’m trying to say is that all forms of government in some way are “right” but some parts of every different from of government are wrong, and with out sane people to tell us that we are lost as a democratic Nation.
It’s easy to point the finger of blame at the people at the top, the CEOs and the politicians, and generally insult everyone like Mr. Green did, but let me for the moment talk about capitalism, and I’ll move on to other issues later, such as how to solve the ‘tension between classes,’ but for now I need to talk about things that have already been said.
While it is unfortunate that top executives make millions of dollars and control the vast majority of wealth in the united states, it is a necessary part of capitalism. Lets ignore the fact that people are only getting angry right now because of the recession (note that there is a difference between a recession and a fall), and look at the economic system of America in a hypothetical time of average wealth, everything is stable and the top 1% has a staggering majority of the nation’s money. Now you say the top needs to change, so that people everywhere will have a better life. How are you going to do it? The two clearest solutions are; give the excess wealth to others down the line, or hike up income tax rates exponentially on those people who make more money than the average person. If you do either, and the first would be very difficult to make legal, then the question arise to the Millionaires whose money you took away, why do I do what I do? If I perform better than the person over yonder, who is just digging a whole and picking his nose, and I’m making corporate decisions that runs major cogwheels in the world economy, what does he deserve, why is he entitled to anything near what I am? Most importantly, they would think, why am I doing this? If working hard benefits me no wealth, no meaningful greater position in society, why do I need to work, why do I need to make things better? And there is a good chance they would stop. So in conclusion, you can whine all you want about how the ‘corporate fat cats’ have too much wealth, and the little people don’t have any, but that is the driving force behind capitalism. Without that imbalance, capitalism ceases to function correctly. Taking away the incentive for people to produce good work would make a system where the government has no control over the economy stagnant. Bad idea. If you’re considering raging at me for this, then instead please poke holes in my argument, and remember that ‘some’ CEO’s are born into their positions, but the rest work into them, passing plenty who did not fit the cut on the wayside.
Now onto Democracy, Keldon in particular makes the mistake of putting undue connection between the government system of a country and its economic system. True, Democracy and Capitalism seem to go hand in hand, but are two entirely different entities. There are the errors that Megan W. dutifully points out in democracy, which I will not repeat, but in her discussion as to why America has a flawed democracy, she makes a mistake herself that she forgot to list. She waffled. Waffling, better known as pathetic indecision, is saturated into American democracy. There is so much controversy over so many topics that are all important, and the two camps, republican and democrat, fight for far too long before a decision is made, and even then it is likely a compromise. A short list of recent waffling in American democracy follows; the debt ceiling debate(s), how to reduce the national debt and most importantly recent budget plans that have been fought over tooth and nail with no real conclusion. People not forming opinions is one reason why democracy doesn’t work, and apparently Mr. Green has quite a belief that there are many lazy Americans out there, as I do, and I predict, and know, that several of them will soon post on this blog.
Now on to what I think!
Short answer, Merit Based Oligarchic Socialism. Let me break that down and explain myself. By Merit Based, I mean that currency is not used, people are fed equally, and given fair housing, no matter what position they hold, though partitions may exist, and doing well in a lower position gives you not more money, but advancement to a higher position where an ambitious person has more ability to make their mark in the world (always a wish of the ambitious), and a greater amount of a thing, for a lack of a better term, called ‘excess credits’. Excess credits would be used to pursue non-vital things, such as games, vacations, books, movies, sports, fashion (officially discouraged), POTB and etcetera. If you realized that this would destroy all commercial industry in the country, then you are correct, not to rule out that there would be several, competing, government run service agencies in each sector to foster competition. Oligarchic, because democracy waffles, a far better solution is a small body of people at various levels of power (ie, a couple different levels of decision making in government) who are placed in their positions solely based on ability shown during previous work in service agencies, or in the state run academies (schools). Ultimately, there would be a grand council, an (odd) number of the smartest, most politically capable persons in the country assembled to make new laws, decisions, and regulate the sub councils. Socialism because, despite my early defense of its top players, CAPITALISM SUCKS! Not to say that everyone getting an equal share is good, it’s just silly to believe that. Even in socialism with zero private industry, people need a reason to strive, and compete.
So there you have it. The reason I suggest an entirely new way of managing the country is that the current one is subject to a simple rule, we have the best of times, we have the worst of times, and the cycle restarts. It is inevitable that there will be a constant disparity between the classes in a capitalistic society, (and to a lesser extent, a democratic one). If you don’t like the way things are, come to my country, because for the US, it’s either complete upheaval, or the eternity of an immortal today.
If you want to talk to me more about this I would be more than happy to in place where word count is nonexistent and I don’t have to type.
I believe that no matter what the government does at least one class will not be happy with the outcome. Once we fix the tension then another issue will begin to uprise and all the classes will be unhappy all over again. Its like a never ending cycle. i disagree with andrew when he said that everyone should you have to pay the equal amount of taxes because everyone makes different amounts of income. If the amount of “equal amount of tax” was a very high price wouldnt the lower classes struggle to even pay their taxes?. Were already in a recession. This would just make matters worse. It would leave the richer classes happier but the lower classes unhappy. You see? no one is ever truly happy which in my opinion makes government have a hard time deciding what would be the most effective.
In my case im in between a communist and a capitalist because the economy does tend to thrive on competition. For example, we all thrive to be the best at something whether it be sports, school etc. Adults are the exact same way. They compete with each other about having better jobs and bigger
money incomes. People work harder so that they can be at the top. i do agree about Adam Smiths theory because it guides the free market because by exhchanching goods each participant is better off because it increases their wealth than when they are just producing for themselves. I agree with capitalism because we do have social classes. People like to think that there are no social classes but in harsh reality there is. People are too afraid about what social class they would be placed in because they dont want to be in the “lower class”. I dont think we should face each other because that would only cause more tension in between classes. I dont think that the lower classes would try to overthrow the wealthy class because even though it has been done before. What difference would it make now? were in the 21st century. thing are way more different then they were before.Most likely it would return to the way it was before. It would also most likely be very un-orgazined and they would breakout in a mob and use more violent approaches to try and get what they want. Which in my opinion never works. In the end i think the government is trying but not necessarily trying their hardest to have equality which is what everyone wants.
I too find myself in between being a capitalist or being a communist, i personally belive that communism, true communism, is the best but because of human nature this would be almost impossible. And i agree with Andrew in how he says that it wouldnt be very lickely for a capitalist government because i would be extremely hard to get everyone to agree and think in the same way.
Now to clarify Lidia, i think what andrew meant (and excuse me if im wrong) but when andrew said “equal amount of tax” he may have meant a percentage, that is what i think would be more efficiant depending on the income you have you may be taxed with a slightly different percentage therefor not makeing the ritch ritcher or the poor poorer but allowing the government to create revenue in a fair way.
So lets face it our economy sucks and protesting wont exactly help. Now i can understand if this was back in the industrial revolution where people are woking 16hours a day and being payed close to nothing in horrible dangerous situations. But in this day and age there is almost always a fair pay and we need to accept that protesting is not always the answer. Now to the politicians themselfs, they need to take a look around, things are not going to get better unless the work together. If two cars speed at eachother going head on they are going to crash and be stuck at a standstill, unless one pushes their gas a little harder and is able to bounce the other back a few feet but guess what? Regaurdless, both of your cars are going to be totaled, but maybe if you both agree to move in a certain direction you can drive side by side and actually reach your destination. And not only will that benifit you but it will benifit the people who you are supposed to be representing, Now you may be thinking well what if we dont want to go to the same place, find somewhere in between where you can both be closer rather then farther away from your destinations and actually be able to acomplish something.
I agree completely with Megan. There is no way to stop the tension between social classes. People will never be happy with only one solution.
Capitalism is an unfair way to go about things. Many people are seldom trustworthy. They can be greedy and insolent. With power thrust in one’s hands, people are easily overwhelmed and corrupted. We cannot rely on ourselves and others to make the right decisions. Some people will profit, while others will not. The reality of capitalism is not fair and there will still be tension between the luckier and less fortunate. This does nothing to help our issue.
People participating in Occupy Wall Street are protesting against social inequality and corporate greed. In his article International Protest Movement Spawns ‘Occupy Ventura’ Zeke Barlow states, “But exactly what the group wants remains undetermined.” In other words, the group is protesting, but they haven’t even come up with a solution to the problem. These people complain against social inequality but if they were up there with the rich, they’d be perfectly happy. I think they all just want the best for themselves. They don’t really care about one another, only their own well-being. This shows us how greedy and corrupt humans can be.
As for socialism, it wouldn’t work either. Again, people become greedy and want more than they have which leads to stealing and other such crimes. With wealth spread equally among the people, there is no motivation to strive for a better life or occupation. There is no motivation to be an individual and use your brilliant ideas to make your life successful. There is no need for education if everyone gets paid equally anyway. This will lead to the loss of doctors, authors, engineers, architects, and many more. Ultimately, the loss of doctors will lead to death.
I am in favor of trade unions because they help protect worker’s rights. I think it is important for workers to be treated fairly. I do think socialist democracies are important to help the rights of workers, but I don’t believe everyone should get the same amount of pay for their job. Some work harder than others and they deserve the better pay.
Addressing Tyler B.’s perfect Merit Based Oligarchy, I have to say I disagree. If no currency is used in a community and everyone, “no matter what position they hold” (even the unemployed or homeless) get equal housing and food, then why would anyone want to work? Also, if people work well at a low job and get to move up to higher jobs, then wouldn’t the higher jobs all be taken and no one would work the lower jobs? Also, wouldn’t people need higher and/or special types of education to move to higher jobs? No one wants an inexperienced nurse or architect. If people had excess credits, or greater amounts of things for being ambitious, wouldn’t that system not even be called Socialism?
Communism would also fail to survive in a large community. A small community may be able to gain it successfully, but in a large community, people would ruin it. People need some form of government to monitor them. In a large community, if a crime is committed, the government needs to be there to bring about justice. The government needs to protect others and ensure stability. If there was no government, things would be chaotic. Even if people had previously accepted socialistic ideas, which is highly unlikely, the action of the government leaving would allow people to do whatever they want. They would eventually break rules and no one could stop them. It would not be a very safe community to be in and there would still be tensions and also fear among people.
In conclusion, there is no ideal solution that will effectively dissolve the tensions between classes. People would need to be understanding and empathetic with each other for everyone to get along peacefully. Like Keldon said, the rich would do good to give to charities. People are greedy with power and others thirst for power. That’s just the way the world is. Tensions will never break between classes.
Being one of the millions of people that have grown up in the U.S., I am somewhat in favor of Capitalism because that’s mainly what I’ve been exposed to. Capitalism and the free market have motivated many an entrepreneur to pursue their dream to start a business. Capitalism with a hint of trade union and social democracy, this is basically what the United States is. I believe that the U.S. is only part trade union because if it wasn’t limited, workers would be acting like some of the actors and professional sports players who are already rich and have more than enough money, yet they keep asking for more. Except for a few millionaires, it would constantly be the other 99% of the population asking for more money. It seems to be another bad part of the human nature, we’re almost never satisfied with what we already have, and we always want more. On the other hand, it is also a good part of human nature as it keeps us striving to improve our lives. Though trade union and social democracy aren’t necessarily the best approach, some measure is still necessary. If trade unions and social democracy didn’t exist, employers would probably still treat their workers with bad working conditions and long hours and not care at all to change anything.
Class conflict is currently an issue of corporate greed and millions of individuals who have lost their jobs and their old life due to cutbacks. While there will always be some level of class conflict, at this time it could probably be eased if more jobs were available. Individuals who have lost everything may be able to get their lives back on track. Many are against the government creating jobs and say the private sector should do it. So why aren’t they? Many corporations have had record profits and have the cash. However, instead of taking action and helping with job creation, they are sitting back and waiting, waiting for corporate taxes to be lowered, waiting for the economy to improve, or waiting for a different president.
These other approaches to the problem between the classes won’t exactly work. A utopian society is no doubt a good idea but almost nearly impossible. Mankind is very competitive, making this idea only a good dream, a good dream that won’t come true for a very long time. And communism, well it’s like a utopian society as it sounds good in theory, but when you try to put it into reality it just doesn’t work out.
I don’t believe any of these approaches in their purest form will work. Adjustments or even a merging of approaches are necessary to make the system work for the particular country. Although, looking back at most of history nothing seems to last or work forever.
To be honest, I think there is no government that could ever be able to stop the tension between classes nor prevent a recession. It is humanly and economically impossible if you consider our world today. There will always be tension because of one simple thing or two once I think about it: Greed and Envy. As I read through everyone’s entries I noticed nobody mention the jealousy and want between classes. People of a poorer status in society will always want the moneys, possesions and power of the wealthier and stronger in society. Of course this could be a good thing as well. It is one of the things that fuels capitalism and all it’s aspects. When it comes to competition people work the hardest just so they can have the glory and honor of simple being on top. Of getting to say, “Hey! I’m better than you and there is nothing you can do about it! And sadly, Once the poor woman/man becomes rich she/he becomes the very thing she/he resented. A greedy person who thinks themself a god above all others. But I am getting off topic. Let us return to the actual question.
I honestly believe there is no government that could ever stop the tension between the classes or not go into a recession. Every government has it’s kinks and problems that can never be solved. And our government is no exception. With capitalism, they give to much power and room to use that power to the rich and not enough to the average or poorer classes. And to be honest, I agree (on some grounds) with the “Occupy Wall Street” protestors. They need to start taxing the rich and stop giving them less money. No stop giving them OUR money. The government I know is in a recession but that is no excuse to not tax them. These politicians and CEO’s throw a tantrum for more money and they give it to them. Money that could be used to help people that are on the verge of losing their home or even on the verge of death simply because they don’t have the money. But this is an unreachable goal. The greedy will always stay greedy and (as was stated by I believe Megan) even if we were to get the greedy people’s money there would be no way of distributing the money equally. I believe the entire protest is actually fueled by resentment for the higher class actually. The envy of the rich. This goes for every other government as well. Well maybe except communisn. The theoretical communism in and of itself a wonderful and dreamlike idea. But sadly that is it. It is simply a dream and can never come true. People will always be greedy and prideful and selfish.
Before someone can change the class system to make equality a large factor in society, they must first change several thousands of years of human history. For as long as the human race has endured, greed, power, and immediate happiness have overruled. No matter how good a person is naturally, and how good of morals and values they have been brought up by, they are still human which means that they can make mistakes. One of the most common “mistakes” is pushing aside all logic and morals as soon as one experiences a taste for wealth or power. This blog asks us to choose whether we are Capitalist, Communist, Socialist, Utopian Socialist, etc. The point that I am trying to make is that these are all theories to lead the human race to a higher understanding and to bring justice and equality. But that is just it, they are theories. In no way have any of these types of government been declared “the absolute method of choice for a successful nation.” All of these governments have been installed in history at one time or another. Communism in Russia, which turned to totalitarianism. Utopian Socialism, which crumbled because of the fact that humans have difficulty sharing. Capitalism, which has led to extreme poverty and unemployment while others thrive unjustly. Socialism, which eventually led to Communism, therefore leading to dictatorship. All of these choices in government are simply put “setting up society for failure.” My argument is that in order to change society and the class system, you must first change the human species. Unless all people in a nation are willing to agree on equality, then there is no equality. There will always be someone wanting more and this causes things such as the top 1%, or even the extreme dictatorship or totalitarianism. As humans we must accept the faults in everyone, evaluate these faults, and then transform them so that we may all become equal. I do believe that at birth all people deserve the same rights. Natural rights are guaranteed to all people and no one; even the government should be able to take that away. In a sense, I can see why the creators of these governments believed so highly that their idea for society was the best. They all have pros and cons. For the sake of the assignment, as to not seem as though I am completely disregarding the topic, I will choose one. I suppose in my eyes the best choice is Utopian Socialist, but even then, knowing humans and what they are capable of, there are several flaws in this system. So I end this piece in saying that first the human race as a species must evolve together, in order to find balance and happiness in society. Only a unanimous consensus of citizens can fully work in the installation of any government.
I believe there is no way to get rid of the tension between social classes. Like Andrew said, we could set an equal tax rate for all classes, but then the lower classes would think it was unfair that they were paying as much as that 1 percent. All types of governments have there pros and cons, but not one has it all. Utopian Societies have the “perfect society” factor, but humans do not like to share, and always have this competition between each other. Capitalists have the competition, but not equal taxes. The list of these pros and cons goes on and on. One major thing that causes this lack of a perfect society is the human mind. We always have the need to do better then our peers. We will always be envious of others and we can never get passed that. If humans could just drop being envious of others we may find that perfect fit for the Utopian Society, but of course we cannot just make the human mind stop that.
What I am trying to say is that there is no perfect government. People with always want what others have. Like the poorer classes today, they want what the rich have, but the rich are to greedy to share with them. All forms have there problems that can never be fixed. Take our government for example; everyone thinks that a democracy is “that ideal form of government” but it clearly is not. The Wall Street Protests are a clear example of how. The lower 99 percent is protesting against taxes. They are wanting equal taxes among all citizens. The rich have less taxes than the poor, and the rich couldn’t care less. But if the taxes were set equal, the rich might argue that they worked harder to deserve it, which is a huge arguable topic.
I guess our society will have to tough out all of our problems until that one perfect society is created.
i used a clip of yours in mine haha.
I personally think that both Capitalism and Social Democracy will handle the tension between the two classes. From what I’ve experienced, Capitalism is a part of Democracy. Capitalism increases competition in the job market and will result in a better future. It motivates people to get what they want by competition. Capitalism, like most governments can be corrupt, but it is a way to get people motivated and to do their work correctly. It will make the economy thrive for even more competition on life. But in Democracy, the government hears what the people need to say. I feel like if our society (the United States) has Capitalism within Democracy because in Capitalism people get put the class that they have earned. Unlike the olden times where only specific classes could vote, now everyone has the right to vote regardless the class that they are in.
Socialism will not work. In this type of government we wouldn’t have the intentions of succeeding through life because we will all be treated the same and we will all get paid the same regardless the labor that we put in our jobs. The good thing about this type of government is that we will all be equal, equal meaning without the capacity of competing one another. If we didn’t have the means of competing, then what good will life be.
Socialism leads into Communism. This theory could work but if we think about it, it will dissolve the government which will corrupt society even more because we wouldn’t have a government. If we had no government, society would just be another French Revolution because we wouldn’t have anybody to control us.
Well technically no government will work because nobody will be happy with the outcome. The reality is that we have to have some sort of government to control our society. I personally believe that Direct Democracy has Capitalism in it, that’s why I’m stuck between both of them.
Having a socialist government would be very boring, because there would be no way to raise your wage, your life would be exactly the same and your pay would be exactly the same. I think that the socialist idea is supposed to be a government that has all the citizens not fighting for money, but sharing with others. It is a nice thought, but there would be no motivation for doing your job.
A communist government wouldn’t last very long, not because of the fact that it has faults, but because having no government is impossible. Eventually, the citizens would realize that they would have to start making laws as the land changes, and how the people change. A communism is a lot like anarchy, it doesn’t last long at all. It is human nature to team up with other humans, and that is why we have advanced in technology, culture, and intelligence.
I think that the ideal form of government is a democracy. The only problem with a democracy is that eventually the population grows to a massive amount, making it unmanageable. I have thought about this problem, trying to find a way around it as I was reading other blogs, and I have thought of a possible plan to fix this. The democracy would start out in a small village, and as it grows, the democracy would split the townspeople into two sections in the village (they are still able to go to the other side for whatever reasons). For example, if the topic was if they should either farm more or hunt more, the two sections would vote separately, and each section would have their own “vote collectors”, or something like that. If section one voted for farming and section two voted for hunting, then section one would farm more, but section two would hunt more. If I wanted to compare this idea to the United States, the “sections” would be states, and they would all have their own state laws. This way, the population isn’t a problem because everyone that is voting is in that area, so it is easy.
Overall, even though I chose Democracy as my most favored government system, the general idea is still flawed as you can tell by the changes I would have made to make the ideal government. Personally, I think that the changes I made would have worked out, but human nature is that we are always negative, so in the end, there is no such thing as a true “ideal” government.
I believe we need some form of government whether its dictatorship or democracy. I believe this because human being need some control. If we didn’t have any government everyone would probably going crazy, the serial killers would be running around, not everyone would have an education, we would be in a complete anarchy. If we take a look at Somalia and the pirates. They have completely no government and look where that has gotten them. The pirates have basically taken over their country. I know that yes, not in all places have pirates but they do have other criminal like figures. Take Osama Bin Laden for example for America, people like him would go around the planet killing off our population. And if we didn’t have education we wouldn’t know right from wrong. I think the best way to is the way of trade unions.
Trade Unions allow you to protest or strike against your work or different organizations. They allow you to express your grievances to your employers. Even trade unions are a great way to express your feelings without getting to over stressed. If trade unions didn’t get offered people will get bottled up inside and then one day just explode in revolution against their government. Take any revolution, they didn’t have trade unions, and people got all bottled up. Eventually all the bottling up get to you, you can only bottle yourself up so high. Trade Unions limit your stress level because te government stress is basically off your chest. That way you only have school, work and family mainly on your chest. If we couldn’t reach trade unions then utopian socialist is the next best thing.
Even though it is not realistic, it is truly a wonderful way of having the community function. If everyone ideally could get along, many of the problems that exist today wouldn’t be occurring. We would all be able to almost agree on government and how things are done in a city or small town. If everyone in a small town got along with on another would mean that everyone knows everyone. If everyone knew everyone we would all most likely agree on a lot of things because we be able to hear everyone’s options on politics, government etc. If this was how everything worked country’s could probably get along about their policies better than they do now.
The best solution in ones option would be to have government no matter what kind of government it is. So I am not really anyone form of government or theory, the only realistic solution is to have government whether its dictatorship or democracy.
i like how you didnt choose one form but you stated that any of them would be good. Great job! 🙂
I honestly believe that capitalism is probably the most realistic thing in this society we live in. This “economy” does thrive on competition but the invisible hand thing is bull. Everyone that has the money to compete with the market of luxurious things, will do so. As long as they are financially able there is no doubt in my mind that their own wealth has corrupted them, to the point of which they will try to compete with the industry their idiotic, stupid, corrupt mind actually thinks that they can beat the people that puts out the price. When they start going bankrupt for all the stupid unnecessary things they bought is what makes capitalism unbelievable. There is no way this lifestyle evens out “competition” in the world. A utopian society would be, just stupid in my opinion. Who in their right mind would ever do that, even if it was the best place in the world, who would want to leave their normal lives where everything has change and everything is different, not the same routine everyday. Like Andrew G. said that “I think that communism is the best form of government in theory, but it would most likely not be that successful in real life.” I entirely agree with his statement. All people have different opinions and views on how life should be. Nobody can have everyone share the same view without having someone rebel. Its impossible to even consider this, and this is what makes the utopian society so unrealistic. I personally do not know what would make this world “perfect” if i could even use such an unrealistic word. This society will never reach a point of financial, and personal happiness. This world cannot thrive without struggle, because of all the different views people have, and them doing things viewing themselves as “rebellious” or “revolutionary”. So honestly i don’t know what would make this world run, i think the natural ability of having people spend money, is what makes the world go round. whether people want a certain way to live, i say go right ahead but only include the people that truly want that lifestyle. Don’t force people to live in a way that makes them uncomfortable or makes them want to rebel and corrupt your little “paradise”. But unfortunately our nature is selfish and we want everything to be our way. And we want everyone to be just like how we want it. Our nature is a horrible thing. So honestly i don’t have any opinion, live life as you want it.
Well, I’ve read most of the blogs and what I’m getting at is that there’s no way to satisfy each class with a type of government but there’s only so much governments we can choose from that we haven’t even been tried. My theory is that the world is scared of change and what not.
I believe Megan W. and Taylor Barnes were saying that a communist society will never work because there’s will always be lazy, greedy, selfish, mentally unstable people who will go against being a communist, they are right but I have to disagree with this because most people are looking at this in a negative way, what about the people who are strong, willing, caring, hopeful and intelligent that will help the world into a better being. There are people out there like that, and I think the protesters in “Occupy Ventura” would be a great example for those people. I read the comments for the article “International protest movement spawns ‘Occupy Ventura” I found it disturbing and a lot of people disagree with the protesters which is alright but to mock them, call them whiners and tell them they have no sense of truth. This has gotten way too far, according to the bill of rights the first amendment, people have the right to say what they feel and if the OWS choose to go global then you can really tell they are serious about this. What people don’t realize is that there are two sides of this (republicans and democrats) both have two opposite ideas on how the government should work. I believe they should comprise to met halfway and not end up re-living the French Revolution.
I would really enjoy a Utopian society, if I was ever a President, Governor ect.. I would create a community where everybody gets equal amount of money but I would only allow utopians who believe to change and try a new type of government. Just because everybody gets the same amount of money doesn’t mean you can’t be rewarded in something else. For example, a person was working five times harder than all the other workers than I would certainly reward the worker with (clothes, home décor, tools ect..) In order to be a socialist you have to maintain this association and agree with Robert Owen, his prediction never sought to be successful because no human being has proceeded to go on with this type of society. Evil has corrupted civilization and that’s why being a utopian socialist is impossible.
I would have to agree with Lidia, I feel as though the government is sitting back watching this catastrophe and will only get up if the fire reaches the white house.
I believe that a utopian socialist is the best choice that will decrease tension between classes. I agree with Andrew that a standard tax percentage for everyone will be a good idea. Cooperation is a much more sophisticated way to solve things than competition. I have to write an essay for my english class with the question, “Do you think violence implements democracy?” This question can relate to the topic of what I am writing because I dont think that violence implements democracy, and competition can lead to violence. The Wall Street Protest occuring right now, is happening because the lower class people think that the higher class should be taxed more. I believe that everyone should be taxed equally., In the Declaration of Independence, it states “All men are created equal.” Well If some people are taxed higher then others, I dont think it follows that statement. It is like punishing the rich for being rich. They havent done anything bad. They just work hard at something and earn a good living. Maybe some of the lower class people are jealous, so they want them to be taxed higher. That is my opinion on the conflict. It is easier for people to just cooperate instead of causing hatred towards some people. If the classes were all equal, then no one would be upset we would all just be the same. There is no point in protesting out in the streets because alot of times the police shut the protests down and make people stop because it is disrupting people. There is so much competition out int he world today like wars. I dont get why people cant just get along and talk things out instead of having to put violence into everything. It leaves thousands of people sad because they lost their loved ones, and it destroys our world. People just need to talk things out and agree on something. Everyone is equal, so why do we keep treating people as if they werent just like us? “Treat somebody the way you would like to be treated.” I think equality is a big part of our world today, but some people forget that we are truley all equal, and they do horrible things. All the social classes should be equal, All payments towards employees should be equal, everyone should equally spread kindness towards people. Its time that people realize this.
I guess in some ways that sound good but you have to realize that if the government controlled everything you’d have to turn in all your money and then they would distribute it to everyone fairly and that is totally lame. My mom has a co worker at her job that does absolutely nothing and his paycheck is on the lighter side because of this and don’t get me wrong he’s a good guy but would it really be fair that my hard working mom get’s paid the same amount of money as a guy who sits on his butt with his feet on the desktop all day and tries to balance a pencil above his lip? Not sounding to fair anymore is it?
I’m all for capitalism. I think the more the government get’s into the economy get’s worst. When the government is so involved, businesses are afraid to do anything because they are scared that the government will say no you can’t do this and they’ll loose half of their business. Then they’re like, well if we can’t do this, we’ll make no money and then they loose all of their business.
I really like the two cow philosophy of a government. It says: Socialism: You have two cows. You keep one and give one to your neighbor. Communism: You have two cows. The government takes them both and provides you with milk. And lastly the one I’m for: Capitalism: You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull. This shows that you have the opportunity to upgrade when other people can’t or don’t have to. In socialism, everything has to be fair and i know as a teenager and i’m sure anyone can relate, we’re always saying, “THAT IS NOT FAIR!!!” well in this instance you don’t want it to be fair. In communism it’s kinda stupid. You work hard for those cows and then the government takes them and gives you the milk. It’s like going to the grocery store and giving them all your money and then they tell you what you can get and how much of it you’re allowed to have. And this one is my favorite because it’s just funny, It says: Corporate: You have two cows. You sell one, force the other to produce the milk of four cows and then act surprised when it drops dead. Haha 🙂
This is proving to be a difficult response to write because, as many have already stated, there seems to be no good government plan. No matter what option I choose and no matter what facts I present to back it up with there will people who I can’t please and these unhappy people will ultimately lead to protests, strikes, and rebellions.
I’d like to say that a Trade Union is a good way to go. Let the oppressed people protest and fight for adequate working conditions and fair wages. That all sounds fine and dandy but the government shouldn’t have to be so awful that it pushes people into a rebellion. As we’ve learned throughout history, when there’s a rebellion someone always takes it too far. We don’t need another Robespierre incident, do we? So already that idea is dead to me.
My runner up choice was the Utopian System. The word “utopia” means a perfect society, right? Perfection sure sounds wonderful, everyone has the same amount of money, the rich and poor become one, and tension is nonexistent. While it would be good to eliminate class systems and let everyone have the same pay I can’t help but realize the flaws in this. There are people out there who will clearly take advantage of this system and do the absolute minimum work. If people aren’t even trying to work for their money we’d live in a society full of low quality products and hoodlums running around with money they clearly don’t deserve. This system is getting a big fat X crossed through it in my mind now.
My next choice would be Communism. Yeah, that’s my third choice, what about it? Just let the people duke it out until we have some sort of society with no classes and equality. That sounds pretty swell to me… almost like a utopia… then I realize that there is a fine line between a governless utopia and anarchy. It will just take one social outburst to tip the scale and this whole thing will plunge into a mess of looters and crime. I am now going to scribble over this idea with an expo marker.
Now I move on to government choice number four, Social Democracy. We vote, we have a say in how the government is run, and best of all we have freedom! Bringing this system into the way we work sounds great. Voting on how the people are treated in the work force sounds fantastic! The fact that I put this below communism sounds pretty pathetic right now, doesn’t it. But let us not forget that the people can’t always be expected to make the right decisions. And we’ve hit another dead-end system consisting of false promises and power to the people.
And now we’re scraping the bottom of the barrel with Capitalism. This is what America’s already got and according to the 99%. When you let huge companies fight for the best business you know the workers are just going to get caught in the middle. We have enough lay offs, pay docks, and homeless people as it it. This government is a tragedy in the making.
So in conclusion, I know that the governments people have tried clearly won’t work out but I’m sure any government system I could come up with would be flawed as well…
After reviewing each of the options offered and what I think would be the best approach to solve the inequality between classes it became very apparent that each of these options have faults and theoretically could work. But realistically none of them will have a large enough effect to change what is happening. Agreeing with what Sean Hernandez and Saad Fakhouri wrote in their blogs about how at this moment Capitalism is what will work best. Competition will always be in a society, it is how individuals thrive to do better. After all are we not the country founded upon the belief that anyone can be something or reach their fullest potential. I certainly believe that not as many people would try to reach that potential if everyone was equal. Ideally we would live in a society where everyone was happy with sharing and cooperating with one another, corporations wouldn’t be self interested and every citizen would be taxed the right amount based on what they earn. But we don’t live in this ideal utopia as Robert Owen believed.
But something that I think we can all agree on regardless if you’re an extremist, idealist, or realist is that the top 1% of our country certainly should not have all the control and tax breaks. It is clear why so many Americans are angry, jobs are being outsourced, the middle class is heavily burdened by taxes, we are in the worst recession that our generation has lived to experience, and all of these problems are not happening to the minority or half the country it is happening to 99%. As we continually learn about history the lessons from the French Revolution and Industrial Age it makes me almost stop and wonder if we are learning about our present instead of our past. I would not entirely claim myself to be a capitalist or socialits or communists. Each one has concepts that are generally good in theory but when practiced they turn out to be a mess.
At this point I wouldn’t be surprised if many Americans agreed with Karl Marx and wanted a classless society, because his belief has already been proven to be true. When there a huge distinction between classes as we have right now, 1% vs. 99% we can see that these protests have been long anticipated. At this moment the idea sounds excellent but I’m a much more firm believer that competition will go farther than cooperation. Of course though the huge argument against that and what is actually going on right now is that people are generally self interested which led to corrupt corporations. But the argument can go both ways because I don’t see it realistic in the slightest that every citizen in this country is going to be cooperative and not self interested. So the predicament that’s stands from a more cynical aspect is that everyone is greedy and there is no hope.
But I do think that the best way to alleviate the class tension is for everyone to be taxed based on income. The margins of what income should fall under what bracket should also be fairly considered. I don’t think that this will be the end though for the protests in occupy Wall Street, Americans had been holding on entirely too long and this revolt has been arising for a while. All that we can hope for is that the ages of nobility are long behind us and that Congress will realize that we need to progress not regress into our old ways.
I strongly agree with Meagan W. no government can ever satisfy the needs of everyone. I believe this because many will want something different and there will always be people who are corrupted. No matter what government you have there will always be someone in charge that will be corrupted with power. The personality of humanity could never agree to a government because some may be competitive which then capitalism may suit them. In contrast, the many people who strive for equality would love communism, but to put it simply there are individuals out there who believe they are better than others. It’s not a nice thing to believe in, but there are people out there who believe they have more rights than others and that is human nature. Therefore, there will always be conflict between classes and wishing that it could ever cease to happen is only a thing for fairy tales.
In my opinion capitalism does not work as a government. Though is it Americas type of government it is also very corrupted. Like the saying goes its a “dog eat dog world.” to become rich and have a good life you must kick out others in the street. A company could buy off another company and thus then many people could be fired and then those who are fired are put out onto the street looking for another job. Of which we know nowadays in our society is a hard thing to do with our recession. Thus there is no equality in classes.
Furthermore, communism has great ideals of equality. However, as I said before it will never be achieved, there will be the power hungry corporations, the lazy unwilling members of society that will never agree or care about equality. They are the corrupted people who only live for themselves. As we seen in the past, communism ends with tyranny like in Russia, China , Cuba and North Korea. The ruler of North Korea has gone completely crazy. He has isolated his country from the rest of the world and has turned the society into a 1984 like status. Meaning everyone is monitored and if you say anything against the leader you will get arrested or killed. I see no equality in that society.
Even if there will never be equality in society there is no harm in fighting for it. I believe in trade unions. If you can’t change society you can at least change unfair workplaces. To create a trade union I believe is only a fair right. We have our rights to tell our employers that we want higher wages and to strike if our needs are not met. Unions work for the working class and sooner or later we are going to join the work force. I know that when I go into the work force I would love a union to help fight for me so I would not be alone. That is one way to have a handle between classes in a small way.
I believe it’s impossible for there to be no tension between people in general. It’s in human nature for us to fight to the top. If we were to not have that “survival for the fittest” instinct maybe we could get somewhere. There’s no way to actually stop this tension between the classes. I totally agree with Taylor Barnes when she said “There will always be tension because of one simple thing or two once I think about it: Greed and Envy”. I’m honestly at war with myself trying to choose between Trade Unions and Social Democrat, because I believe people should have a say in what’s going on around them and be able to do something about it if they aren’t heard. I also believe that someone should be taking care of the workers to make everything equal and make sure that they aren’t harmed in any way shape or form.
If you think about it there’s not a big difference between a trade union and a social democrat. A trades union is workers fighting for their rights and social democrats are people who pass law to protect the workers. Either way the workers are going to be protected. That’s what we need because it’s the workers who end up with less money. If the workers are getting treated better then they will get paid better and if their paid better then there won’t be as much tension between the two as long as everyone is content with what they are getting.
I’ve seen a trade union in action by boycotting in front of the store when I was younger. Workers at Vons wanted higher wages and better work benefits, so they boycotted. Other places like Albertsons and Ralphs also boycotted for the same reason. Social democrats pass bills to help the workers. I’m sure they somehow work together maybe trade unions start petitions and send them to the social democrats to look over and make a compromise.
The only real way to get rid of class tension is if everyone owns the same amount of money and receives the same amount of money. This way it is completely equal between each other money wise. Yet there will still be a tension because people will feel cheated out of money because their job is harder that the others are like a field worker getting the same amount as a CEO of a company. ARG This problem will never disapear.
I would like to believe that a utopian socialist society would decrease tension by making everyone equal In terms of wealth and have evryone cooperate rather than compete but that is simply not realistic and will probably never happen. However, I’m not sure how I would feel about the government having full power over all the wealth as they would be in complete control and we would not know for sure where all of the money is really going. Personally, I agree witht the way of a social democrat saying that bills should be passed to provide services to protect workers because everyone deserves to be protected and work in safe conditions no matter what. Everyone deserves the right to feel safe in their workplace. I agree with trade unions as well, and think that workers should be able to strike if they are truely being treated poorly in their working conditions and how much they are being payed. As for the communist point of view, I do think there is tension between middle/lower class and the rich due to suspisions that the rich are being taxed less than everybody else. I don’t know whether this is true or not but if it is then I completely understand the tension and believe that the less wealthy might try to act out in order to be taxed fairly. I agree with Andrew and Talia that everyone should be taxed equally. Honestly, I don’t know what the best way to handle the growing tensions between social classes is besides simply taxing people equally as well as everything else being equal and not making ayone feel like the minority.
After reviewing the options, I feel that a social democracy would be the way to go, as well as favoring trade unions. I feel that congress should be passing laws to protect the rights of workers, but they should not be solely relied on to do so. The trade unions should be striking and negotiating with their employers if they need to, but also there should be a government side to the regulation as well. We all know there are those who simply will not do anything they don’t want to do if not kept on a short chain by a powerful authoritative figure. And lots of them at that. But that’s not to say totalitarianism is the way to go, it’s not at all. There are just some corporations and businesses that need to be regulated. And you can’t simply have the government doing everything to keep the corporations in check; if you haven’t noticed already: congress is choc full of corporate lobbyists and the like. So you can’t depend on simply one source to keep corruption at a minimum. “What about the people? You sure can depend on them to keep things in check, and they’re only one source.” Well, not if they’re uneducated and oblivious to the greed and corruption and just how “effed-up” the system really is. Which is obviously the case, or else we wouldn’t even need to be having this discussion. This total regulatory capture works on a multitude of levels to keep all the money, greed, corruption, and power coming straight to the top one percent. None of this is saying that competition and business and innovation is bad, just do it in a way that doesn’t cripple everything that isn’t that one percent at the very top that gets every last drop of money that’s legally (and illegally) possible. I know this sounds grim and like there’s no possible way out, but there is. There has to be. Be it the prediction of Karl Marx, or the people’s education of these wrongdoings, or some extremely successful political movement, or some sort of miracle where people move beyond greed everything rights itself, or perhaps total economic collapse that destroys all of civilization and society and forces us to live in a post apocalyptic wasteland and then start all of society and most of scientific discoveries anew. Or a zombie apocalypse in which the previous option happens. Whatever the end solution is, all I know is that I can’t predict what may happen.
I would most agree with a Utopian Socialist society because i think it would decrease all the tension and make or try to make everyone equal and have people cooperate rather than constantley compete. Sadly this is highly unlikely to keep up and it is quite unrealistic in terms of everyone being “equal”. Also, i don’t completly agree with the government having absolute power over all the wealth in the society, is the gov. really trustworthy ? No. Personally, I agree that of the ways a social democrat says about bills and how they should be passed to provide services to “guard/protect” workers because everyone deserves an egual right amount of protection in working conditions. Who doesn’t deserve the right to feel safe in their workplace? I agree with trade unions also, mainly because if your losing your benefits and getting lower pay why should you have to work for that company. You shouldn’t. Striking is a good way to show them who’s BOSS. As for the communist point of view, I think the tension between middle/lower class and the higher class( the rich) is brought forth because the rich deserve to be taxed more and not less. I don’t think everyone should be taxed equally though. If you are rich then what do you have to lose. You should be taxed more than the poor. Losing money is much harder for them than for you.
DONEZZZOOOO 🙂
I don’t know if this is a type of government, but the best way to regulate tension between classes is to create a way of taxation where the amount of money you make indicates how much taxes you have to pay. That way, everyone will make the exact same amount of money and so the prices of everything would be in proportion to what the amount was that everyone made. If this way of governing income were to be implemented, then there would be no need to go on strike or protest against unfair wages, because everyone would be bringing in the same amount of income and there would be no need to make a certain amount since the prices of everything would have to allow anyone to get anything.
As for the type of government that I think would neutralize the tension between modern day classes, either utopian socialism or communism would be the best solution. They both have to do with everyone being equal, and so therefore it would be most favorable in our society. Modern day protesters are angry because they believe that it is unfair that the top one percent make so much money and yet they have to pay so little taxes. If we all lived in a communist society where everything is shared and where everyone has the same amount, or if we were in a utopian socialist society where cooperation was the highest priority and the government actually met peoples demands, then we would function better as a whole than what we are now, different classes.
In theory, communism would work better because people think that if everyone had the same amount of everything, then there would be no more need to steal, or kill, or horde. But as past attempts have proven, this is wrong because it is human nature to want to have everything that could possibly be theirs. So the best government would ultimately be utopian socialism, since peoples demands would be met, without everyone having the same material wealth, but still retaining equal wealth none the less.
As for myself, I think that I am a capitalist. I believe that we need competition to function as a society. If there isn’t any goal to work towards, to strive to reach, then what is the point of doing anything. If you were just given everything that you would ever need in life, then there is ultimately no point to living (no negativity intended) if you can’t prove that you deserve to have a good life. My blog supports the opinions of the majority, this is just the way that I view things personally. It would be better to live in a utopian socialist society over all.
Every person has their own specific rights when it comes to their jobs and their government. Not only when it comes to the conditions of their work, but also when it comes to their wages and their taxation. I definitly go along with the usage of trade unions. If people have poor working conditions and are either abused, etc. they have the right to protest for their well-being. I would definetly be considered as a utopian and a capitalist and in my opinion, I think it would be considered fair if payment to people in work and taxes were all presented equally by the government. Although, we, as humans, are naturally prone to competition and we thrive on it. If you have more money, or more anything really, you are considerably more wealthy and will be corrupted by it in the futrue. This is one major issue in society, because we thrive on competition between others, for people with more money, the idea of being “equal” with common people is almost a radical view of thinking, and besides, there will always be more tension between people and that will never change. Also, it would be incredibly hard for the government to satisfy every need of every person. Right now in this society, capitalism is the one thing that drives our competitive nature when it comes to government and economy. In American society, I definitly agree with Merai about how communism will never work. Our society is already corrupt as it is and many people will try to defy a communist way of life. The main reason we as people thrive on competition in economy and government is our lust for more, and how we need to have more or we will never be happy. Our minds are only thinking, “We may have everything, but that is not good enough. We must have more.” I can probably also be a social democrat because people working have the rights to be protected and congress need to get the idea that people in work, no matter what they do for a living, can always be exposed to injury out on the field. All in all, I wish that we could have a society where everyone is considered equal to eachother, but for the government, it is completely impossible for it to stop the tensions between people. We are almost like animals who have to compete with eachother for food, except, we are corrupted people, who thrive on wealth and always wanting more than others.
The way our country is being governed is neither right or wrong. We do have our freedoms to almost anything, but in that sense we are not all equal citizens. I would have to say that I would be part of the social democrat party, because in communism and in capitalism it is not fair for either class. In communism, yes everyone has to be equal. But say if you work as a doctor and you earn good amount of income, then a store clerk would be earning the same amount. That would not be fair would it? If you spent years and years of getting a bachelors degree in becoming a doctor, do you think its fair to earn the same wage as a store clerk who has not worked twice as hard to get where you are today? I don’t think so. Being a communist is some what corrupt. It only helps out one or possibly two of the social classes, not all three. But better question do we still have a middle class? The middle class is slowly disappearing from the loss in the economic system. From being an average American citizen to now not having a somewhat good house or good income to pay what you use to have. In capitalism everyone in big industries is in a competition to beat each other. But this is never a good way to structure anything around, because there will always be someone who is unhappy about loosing. As Mr. Saad Fakhouri says, “ This economy does thrive on competition,” and I completely agree with this statement. Everyone does try to out beat someone in the race to become wealthier, or am I wrong? Big industries or companies make their brands or products look amazingly well so more consumers, consume these products. That is why we have these trade unions that protect our workers. Some workers don’t get paid well enough for their work and have crummy working conditions. Trade unions protect their rights, but trade unions basically run these industries. Which is also unfair for the employer and not so much towards the employee. And of course a utopian society is the most absurd way to control any society. People thrive on two important things, money and power. When you are part of a utopian society people are suppose to live in a perfect world where that does not matter. But to take things into a realistic perspective is that people are not all nice, people can be evil, demanding, and controlling and could and would take money and power if they have the chance to take it way from anyone who is gullible enough to let it slip out of their hands. As we know now about the Wall Street Protest, or the 99% Protest it has to do with how there is only 1% out of the 311 million people in the states that are in complete power with their money. The other 99% of citizens living in America dealing with all these financial problems when half are college graduates trying to find jobs that are not open, because of the critical loss of the economical downfall. This 1% has the good life that most people want to live in, they can find loop holes to where they can pay less then the average tax rate or anyone else. Which is completely unfair. They should be the ones having to pay more tax, they have the money at the palm of their hands, we don’t. We are a corrupt society and in reality neither of these ways could help a society. Yeah maybe we have tried most of those, but they do not do anything good for us except start more rebellions, violence, and protests. But I do believe that a social democratic party would be more effective. It is a more peaceful and respectable way of showing what we believe as citizens. It is the reason why we have a social security system, when about fifty years ago when Franklin D. Roosevelt established it no one thought it was a good idea. Now in the 21st century everyone desperately needs it. Peoples opinions always change, and no matter what everyone will want their opinion or beliefs to be heard, and I think until people can be more cooperative and more respectful for one another is when our society can loose more tension between the social classes we have.
In my opinion, we’re still struggling to find a solution to the tensions between classes in the United States because there is not one obvious solution. I am not a capitalist because when the market is completely free it is not mutually beneficial to all people. Some people will always put themselves and their family and friends before others and don’t care about the welfare of strangers. They wouldn’t pay their workers a fair wage if they didn’t have to. They would try to find ways to spend the least amount of money and make the most profits. That’s why we do need government regulations.
Why does the government need to step in, some people ask? It’s because nobody should work a full-time job and be under the poverty line. That’s why we need a minimum wage and labor laws. Trade unions are a good thing so that workers can get their point across and be supported by other workers. I think they should have the right to strike, as long as they don’t get violent. Just like the demonstrations against Wall Street have been peaceful, and as long as they don’t get out of hand, they should be allowed to voice their opinions.
But this doesn’t mean that I am a socialist. I don’t think it’s good for the government to be in charge of everything, because some people in it would take advantage of their power and use it for their own benefit. We saw this in Russia where the government became chaotic and corrupt, and the top people lived in comfort while the lower people had no say in what was going on and suffered. I would say that I am a social democrat with some republican views. Our president Teddy Roosevelt was a social democrat and started policies for minimum wage, retirement benefits and ways to resolve labor disputes. This way all kinds of people, rich and poor, have a say in how our government runs our economy.
Right now in the United States our middle class is shrinking. The wealthy are getting richer and a bigger gap is forming between the upper and middle classes, while the poor get even poorer. I disagree with Tyler B. that it is necessary for the top executives in our country to control the vast majority of wealth in the United States. Back around 1915 the U.S. became the world’s wealthiest nation. At that time 1% of the population controlled 15% of the nation’s income. Today 1% of the population account for 24% of the nation’s wealth, and some experts think it’s even higher. We are gradually becoming a country with very large inequality between our people’s incomes. To solve this, I agree with Andrew Green that for the classes to be equal, we need to treat everyone equally. That means that big companies should not get big tax breaks. I don’t think when you let rich people keep more of their money, they actually will use it create jobs and help out people in need. Everyone should have equal tax rates, rich and poor.
Personally, I believe that a Utopian Socialistic society would be great, but that doesn’t seem very realistic. Humans as people tend to go for competition rather than cooperation, so even if we tried to be civilized about the economy, it would still end up a competition for who comes out on top. Because of the fact that a Utopian Socialistic society is highly unlikely, I feel that I’d be in between Capitalism and Communism. Because of human nature and the fact that we have greed and selfishness naturally in us, people shouldn’t have complete control. If people had total control, it would still be chaotic, because everyone would want to be on the top and have everything they can get their hands on. I think the government should have the majority of control over the economy because that way, for the most part, it is at least fair. Yes, not everyone will be happy with the outcome, but it is better than everyone fighting for the highest place in society. People need to work for their place and if it was up to them, no one would do a thing and they’d all just get rich and be the best. Or at least that’s how they’d picture it. In reality, if everyone just got to choose what social class they were in, it would always be hectic, because everyone would want to be the best, so they’d all be fighting for it. People need to realize they’re place and follow it, but I also feel that the rich and elite shouldn’t be flaunting it in the less fortunate’s faces. That’s just flat out rude! If someone is born into a low class, it would be extremely difficult to climb to the elite position, and even though it has happened, it is very rare. The government tries to make people happy, but they also have to maintain order and those two things don’t usually go together. In order for people to be happy with the economy, there’s going to be chaos. It’s inevitable. This is why I agree with Lidia when she said, “I believe that no matter what the government does at least one class will not be happy with the outcome.” That is so true! Not everyone can be happy. It just doesn’t happen! Someone is always going to be upset with how things work out. It’s just the way of life.
I, myself, would love a utopian socialist government. However, I realize that such a regime is close to impossible here in the United States. Realistically, I believe the current way we are running our country is working. Rusty, but working, making me, I guess, a Capitalist, even though I disagree with most of their ideas. If you think about it, there is no such thing as a system that can keep everyone with smiles on their faces. I am not saying are economy or government is perfect in any way, shape, or form. I mean hell, Have you seen our national debt? Or our unemployment rate?
I believe that both Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party movement bring up good points in their arguments. I agree with Occupy Wall Street in the area that, yes, Corporations are money sharks, don’t play by the rules, and don’t care for the general public, but just how much cash they have in their wallets. I concur with the Tea Party Movement that we need to cut down our spending, and focus more and lowering that daunting debt amount. I believe a huge first step in emerging this country out of the hole it has dug is taking a few ideas of both of these movements and, doing something we haven’t done in a while, TAKE ACTION. By the time George Bush had left the presidential seat, this country was struggling significantly. Then, Obama stepped in, and we expected lots of change. Unfortunately, Obama has kept the room dirty, and in some people’s eyes, made it dirtier. In Ben Anderson’s blog, he talks about comparing all the different methods of governing our country. He says, “The list of Pro’s and Con’s can go on and on.” Not only does it rhyme, but he speaks the truth. In every single potential government that is listed above, there are some great pro’s, but not one goes by where there is no downside. What I am trying to get at is, no matter what system we use, some people, will just not be happy no matter what.
Overall, I think the best way to handle the growing tension between the classes, is action. Once we get a president who’s not afraid to take act, and we understand that the Tea Party movement and the Occupy Wall Street movements provide some solid tips for our suffering country, I think well be just fine.
One only has to look back to the industrial revolution to understand why trade unions are important. How can children and immigrants be made to work long hour shifts in dangerous conditions. I believe in capitalism but it must be fair. Ten year olds working in coal mines and dying from black lung at an early age is not fair. If you support capitalism you must understand that worker productivity and loyalty goes out the window when workers are treated like dogs.
Trade unions believe in collective bargaining. Everyone participates; Workers, management, and owners to create a fair contract in the work place. If the demands of one side are too extreme than no agreement is signed. Trade unions do have the ability to end productivity by striking, but owners can hire scabs to take their place. Trade unions keep principals from hiring their friends or family even if they are less qualified. They also provide a process were workers can demand some sort of health care so they can continue working.
There have been many cases were capitalism and trade unions work hand and hand to create a healthy economy. The key is to not ask for too much from either side. Wal-Mart is a nonunion company. They have created a lot of jobs in this country, but no one can survive on what they pay. Auto workers unions often overstepped their demands in America. This made American cars less competitive with Asian and European cars in the seventies eighties and nineties. The British had a large business in the US selling their motorcycles and sports cars in America during the nineteen sixties and nineteen seventies. Labor and union problems caused the collapse of their business in America. Teachers unions in Wisconsin negotiated a healthy contract under the previous governor. When the economy collapsed, people thought the demands of teachers had become greedy. I feel the best way to stop tension between the classes is to be open minded and fair when negotiating. Everyone knows that large corporations in America are sitting on millions of dollars and not creating jobs.
If a Team approach could be taken by both large corporations and unions class warfare could be reduced. Corporations need to be honest about their profits and care about the American worker. Even if it costs slightly more to produce a product in America they should do it. Jobs should not be sent to China Thailand and India. Just to save a few dollars. The key is to be level headed on both sides and think about what is best for America.
Quite frankly, I don’t believe that the “best” form of government has been discovered yet. Political thinkers surely have drawn out some that seem attractive, and others that have worked for the time being—but each has its defining flaw.
Communism is a very simple advocate. The idea of a perfect, wholesome, utopian society can warm the heart of most anyone—but it is direly impractical and nothing more than a fantasy. Throughout history, mankind has proved that greed, sloth, and vehement beliefs can drag a man (or woman) to a terrible end. The idea of communism—true, non-totalitarian communism—taking place on a large scale in modern or future society actually makes me uneasy. Even if it works for a short period of time or with a small amount of people, human nature will take over and someone will rise to power, or riots will break out and society will spiral into chaotic anarchy. In short: communism and human nature do not coincide.
Any patriot could argue that capitalism has worked perfectly for Americans thus far, but upon more thorough analysis this argument is also void. Capitalism can hypothetically give a person the power to shape their life as they please—if they take the right risks and are born with certain benefits. Much talk has aired of the “Occupy Wall Street” protest, bringing light to “the 99%” of Americans who are burdened with the struggle to make a living. Frugality is no longer a savior to these people, but a lifestyle. Capitalism, under most circumstances, gives the strategic entrepreneur all the benefits and the average person little to nothing.
I wholeheartedly agree with Megan’s point of view. There is no “best” or “ultimate” form of government yet known to society. This may be because governmental morals, especially those of democratic nature, are relatively new and still developing. (After all, quite a few countries are still yet to turn to democracy). It is also possible that—quite plainly—no one has thought of the best idea yet. But in my opinion, it is most likely that no one form of government will ever be the perfect fit for every country, since every region comes from different historic, political and religious backgrounds different ideas will be accepted and practices in different places. Society’s morals/ideas are ever-changing and never stationary; therefore the way society is governed must be ever-changing and stationary.
There will never be a nation that doesn’t have any social classes or people that aren’t poor or rich because no matter what, there are going to be people who are lazy and don’t want to work hard for a good living and no matter what, there are going to be people who want work hard and want to have a good life and make a great living. That’s why there is no real official approach to deal with the inequalities between the social classes.
If we try to spread the wealth and pay everybody equal amounts, then people will get upset because some people work incredibly hard and some other people don’t work as hard. Also I’m sure that people wouldn’t like having a lot their money talking away just to make a person who doesn’t have a job as good as their’s happy. The hard workers would be upset and the people who don’t work as hard would be stoked.
If we relied on other people to share there money and cooperate with each other to make a utopia then we would be very disappointed because there are some who would stay true to this trust but others would become greedy and want to have more money and power than others. So unfortunately the idea that Robert Owen believed in wouldn’t really work.
I do believe that capitalism is a very effective way to get the best products and best deals for people but it’s not a real way to solve the inequalities of the social classes because it just makes things stay the same, but it is a good way to inspire people to work hard, rise to the occasion and make a good living.
Believing trade unions and being a social democrat are goods things because workers should have the right to protest and be protected and keep their jobs. Both those ideas help the social classes issue a little bit because they can keep their jobs and be safe while doing them but it doesn’t help close the distance between the rich and the poor.
All of these ideas seem perfect but all of them have been practiced and none of them were perfect so the best thing to do is use what we have been using this whole time and wait out this recession because America has been through worse than this before and with the right leadership it came up again and became one of the most powerful nations on the planet. All we really need is the right leadership.
After reading some of these blogs, my opinion is supported that there is no real ideal form of government. There is no way that everyone could be content with one form of government. Each form of government has pros and cons but none are perfect. I agree with Lidia when she said, “I believe that no matter what the government does at least one class will not be happy with the outcome.”
Capitalism is quite unfair considering how much money some people have. Are $20,000,000 houses really necessary? Many people worked for their job as a CEO, and I respect that, but at some point these people make more money than they will ever need. Also, some people work just as hard, if not, harder than these people yet make hardly anything.
I do believe that workers should be able to express their grievances, but sometimes they go a bit too far. I’ve seen strikes that grocery store workers have made, and to be honest, it’s a bit ridiculous. Many people that work at grocery stores did not pursue an education and have ended up there. With the unemployment rate now-a-days, people need jobs, so having strikes can go too far.
A utopian socialist society is a nice form of government in theory, but human nature corrupts this. I believe that someone who works harder for their money deserves it. And in a utopian socialist society, one person could be working to their wit’s ends, while another lounges about and does hardly anything, yet still with the same pay. That doesn’t sound fair, does it? Having the government in control can also lead back to a monarchy. From history, the people don’t like the government having total control.
Communism is another form of government that sounds nice in theory. However, it simply isn’t possible. People adjust to receiving money from the government and eventually become reluctant to work when they just receive money from the government. However, the work the people soon do not do is what runs the economy, causing it to fail. In addition, most people who strike it rich most likely do not want to give it to the government to split it among the people. Greed always arises.
A social democracy is vital, but the government cannot put forth all its focus on workers. There are wars going on, the economy is not ran by all by the lower class workers in need of jobs that provide services that protect the workers. For example, capitalism is a major factor that gives a positive influence on the economy.
A blend of all of these forms of governments helps the world function and maintain a working economy. None of these forms of governments are perfect, they are all far from it, but they all have some good perks.
I believe there is no way to completely do away with the tension between social classes. The problem is that virtually every class has something to complain about. The lower or working class would either be content or think that it is unfair that they were pay at all. The middle class might always have to live with the wrath of the ever changing economy the constant fear of falling in to the lower or working class. The upper class always has to worry about being taxed more because they have money the money. Although this system refers to more recent times all types of governments throughout history have had their pros and cons, but not one has it all. Utopian Societies have the “perfect society” factor, but people don’t like sharing, and are likely to have competition and conflict between each other. Capitalists have the competition, but not equal taxes. The list of positive and negative attributes is endless. This blog asks us to choose whether we are Capitalist, Communist, Socialist, Utopian Socialist, etc. In my opinions these are labels and theories. These types of government have in no way been declared “the absolute method of choice for a successful nation.” We as humans always have this drive, ambition and sheer desire to be as good as if not better than those equal to and above us. If green is the color of envy then our nation is surely painted a deep stain of it. If people could avoid being envious of others we could very well find that perfect fit for the Utopian Society, but of course that’s a long shot. I believe there is no perfect form of government. People are always going to want success and all the perks that go along with it. Therefore people are always going to want to be the next class better. Like the poorest classes of any age, will often wish for endless sums of money or at least more then what they have which to be middle class. The middle class is usually content and you don’t hear a lot out of them but they probably wouldn’t bother them to be rich & the rich well maybe they want to be like Oprah or Bill Gates I don’t know. All forms of government have their flaws. Take our government for example; everyone thinks that a democracy is “that ideal form of government” but it most certainly is not. Lots of people “mostly republicans” oppose the new taxes. They believe for the most part and in general all citizens should be taxed equally. The rich have might be getting taxed more than the poor, and that’s not okay with the rich. However when the situation is reversed the rich would be mad and the poor would go for it of course because it’s more money for them. Even if the taxes were set equal, the rich would argue that they make their money through hard work which versus basically having it handed to them. There is definitely room for lots of debate and I suppose our society will just have to endure the constant back and forth of economics and all of our flaws until we can create a so called “perfect” society.
I believe the root of all of our problems is money, and that a social democracy will alleviate the problems of the Modern Recession. The current system of American capitalism would not work for much longer (it may fall faster than Rome), as the larger companies quickly put any small competition out of business. Commercial monopolization carries its burdens, and places Americans deeper in their own hole. For example, the large biotechnology companies (Monsanto, Amgen, Genentech, etc…) have effectively monopolized the soybean market, owning 93% of all soybeans exported. It has become almost impossible to get non-GMO seeds, and growers of these GMO seeds must pay the seeds’ company of origin. Court rulings could have prevented this from happening, but the people in power at the court were originally from the companies in question. Another example of the effects of a poorly regulated capitalism system is the graphing calculator market. Texas Instruments (TI) has an 80% market share in this area, and along with large marketing deals, only small electronics store chains (<20 stores) carry non-TI brands. Due to their unwavering market share because they are somehow the industry standard, TI sends less than $50 to China and sells the device produced for $150, and people buy them because there is no other option.
A more strict government regulation of these problems, along with more incentives for small-to-medium sized businesses should help alleviate these problems. This is being realistic and allowing for competition. Utopian Socialists believe that competition is unnecessary for success, but some amount of greed will always exist and multiply with a tetratatial rate. Due to this unimaginable rate of increase, a purely capitalist nor socialist/communist society cannot exist. Therefore, a social democracy is the best compromise given today’s large infrastructure and populace.
I agree with many of the people saying that there is really no answer to ending social tension. As long as there is a government at all, not everyone is going to be happy, it simply isn’t possible. As for the communist view that after a while, eventually no government will even be needed, I majorly disagree. That won’t work either because of human nature. I can picture it right now: the government steps out and everyone goes crazy because now they have the power to do pretty much whatever they want. Who’s going to stop them? Humans are famous for taking advance.
I would consider myself a capitalist in favor of trade unions. If workers are being treated unfairly, they deserve the right to revolt and make things better for themselves. I agree with Jeff that many times people go too far when it comes to trade unions, but unfortunately, there is nothing to do about it.
Capitalism to me sounds like the best idea to being economically fair. Sure, it has its cons too, but so do all forms of government. I can’t help but seeing that there are many types of working people. One of these types are the ones that work incredibly hard, just trying to squeeze by. Another one is those people who sit their lazy, obese selves down and pretend to work, but truthfully, get nothing done. With communism, the hard-worker and the fatso would be paid the same amount. Is that fair? I think not. Everyday, I see my dad go off and work hard for hours on end. If he and someone who worked at Carl’s Jr. got paid the same amount, you guessed it, that would make me spicy mad.
Morally, I want to think that richer people should be taxed more, because often times they spend unnecessarily and they might as well pay a little extra more for taxes. But if I were really trying to think about our Declaration and the way our country runs, I guess I would say that everyone should be taxed equally. I’m undecided on that part.
I agree with many of the aspects Merai talked about, but I have to disagree with one thing she said. She said that hard workers could be rewarded with extra things other than money, such as clothes, tools, etc. That sounds amazing, but sadly, our government can’t be that complex, and people would also take advantage of that.
After thinking about the best way to deal with the inequalities between social classes including the type of government used to keep them equal I decided that a utopian socialist government would be the best choice. It is the best choice because nobody gets more money then anybody else, and everybody has to pay the same taxes to their government there for everybody will be equal by income. Every body will be able to afford the same things and nobody would have any more luxuries than anyone else. But then again in a socialist government there is no drive to be better. With this government why would one want to get a higher education or try to work hard if you were always guaranteed a constant wage? A socialist government suppresses their people by sending a message that they will be nothing other than average. We would be stuck in a slump without innovation or gain.
In my opinion there is no way to establish a government were everybody is equal and happy because humanity is corrupt by nature. We thrive for power. We have our own opinions. We all get jealous, and we all want more. There is no way out of all the theories of how to form a government that will make everybody satisfied.
I believe in a government with capitalistic ideas but not fully capitalism. I like the idea of capitalism because there is opportunity and room to grow. Capitalism makes one strive and become competitive. In a competitive environment there is innovation, higher education, and the want to be better. But capitalism does not favor the lower class at all they are consumers. The entrepreneurs employ the consumers, with unprotected rights low wages become a result and this forms a huge inequality between social classes, which I do not completely believe in. To solve this, the ideas of a social democrat come in to play. We would need to pass bills that protect our workers rights. Workers rights include guaranteeing them a minimum wage and keeping them from being overworked. There will always be social indifference’s of money but I believe you get out of life what you put into it.
Overall, the best way to keep the social classes from differentiating too much is to use a socialist type government. But to be more practical we would need to blend some of these ways of government to form a medium to make the public happy.
I prefer not to be a part of this type of thinking because all of them have good and bad points so I rather make my own reasoning call ‘analyzed without personal emotion’ this form of reasoning cause the person to view from the smallest detail to the whole picture itself. Because when you are blinded by emotions you forget about how others who don’t have your same feelings wish to act. Because most persons care for is those related by blood and who think like them. And through this we grow emotions of all kinds to those who do not think like us. So one forgets that this person who doesn’t think like us as natural rights. These natural rights are base off of mind, the ability to think for yourself and to reason, the heart which is the chamber of all feelings, and the most important part the soul were everything about a human is. The place where the beginning and end is. The soul is the center part of a human which cannot die. The soul is every humans’ core and in times of get need the soul can do the unimaginable. The soul is what programs the mind and heart so viewing life as we know it is the soul job. But in an early state like birth the soul knows nothing of the world and as it learns it chooses what the mind and heart should think and feel. This leads to the good and bad in oneself.
Once you teach yourself not to become personal in views of the world it is a lot easier to think of ways for everyone to come to terms with and leaving a lot more problems solve and finish with than to when a country is at crazy hour. Of course it is hard to separate one from ones views but it is worth it. The easiest way to do this is to look at the problem in three different persons two are the sides arguing and the last as the viewer who takes the best of both. This way you have your feelings the person who disagrees with you and the neutral individual’s take on the situation but the neutral role MUST NOT be tainted by Anyone’s emotion or you cannot reason a cause were both sides can agree. The scale will become unbalance and once a person becomes unhappy trouble and unwanted feeling will play a role next.
Anyway I thought up all this stuff myself and don’t ask questions because then I’ll start thinking deeply about it and I’ll start pacing until I find an answer. Also don’t say you thought of this yourself because that just proves my theory and a number of individuals know I think this way so nice try to bad you can’t think like me. See at school and if I feel like it I might say ‘hi’ to you if you care that is.
All of these social classes have an equal amount of pros and cons. If I were to be one of them, I would probably be a capitalist. Capitalism provides every citizen the freedom to decide what their income would be without the government interfering with how you would spend your profit. Sadly the working class is treated like a lesser subject than the middle and higher class because they earn more profit and the working class does not see this as a fair share system of payment. This mishap can result to angry mobs and riots, just like the Wall Street protest. The Wall Street protesters are protesting because they believe that the top one percent of the upper class should have to pay higher taxes due to their wealth. I agree with Keldon that every citizen has great consideration that you can have the decision to get up and work hard every day and that at some point you will be making the amount of money you want to make. 2.6 million people slipped into poverty last year and if the government does not start listening to the protesters then Karl Marx’s theory of the working class overthrowing the wealthy middle class will eventually in time come true in reality.
As Communism is based on a theory that society is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other: The middle class and the working class. And as Socialism believes that Congress should pass bills providing services to protect workers, in reality these two social classes will not last very long. Robert Owen is extremely delusional due to the fact that people would never cooperate with everything and each other being the same. The people in a socialist government would think this is unfair and begin to protest against it. If America were a communist government we would probably believe that the government is trying to control everyday American lives, therefore a revolution could possibly become unleashed. The Trade unions are probably the straightest forward and positive government because they are to make sure that the working class are being treated fairly and paid equally. Although Trade unions should have their voice in opinions, but the final employer should be able to make the final decisions. The only small flaw is that the Trade union workers may ask for too much, but the only reason for that is if the workers are working harder than they normally do. But for the most part Trade unions are a great form of government.
Personally a Utopian Socialist government sounds like the way to go but past events have shown the realistically it will never work, and implementing that hear in the United States where everyone earns there share and take pride in democracy it would simply never happen.
What we need to do is find a balance in our current system, capitalism, I think it is great that people have an opportunity to make money the way they want to and achieve whatever they set their mind too but it also comes with a down side. Not everyone will be successful in their lives, some will lose their jobs, maybe foreclose on a house, or not even graduate from high school. When these people with little especially those who have worked so hard see themselves rise, fall it creates class tension they start asking the hard questions, like “why is the man making so much more than I ever will taxed less?”
I am not saying that we should abolish the system that is current system, but we must improve it! We need to provide greater access to better education and just chance in life. We will never be a socialist country, that is not the way to go , but if people have more opportunity then more will succeed and the class distinctions will be much less noticeable than they currently are.
Social democrat would be best way to deal with the inequalities between the social classes.
First, I have to agree with several of my peers that our society is corrupted. For example in our fourth period class “The Star Competition,” where our society is corrupted with those shiny pointy objects. I only agree with capitalism about “economy thrives on competition”. The stars creates competition, which makes people try harder, to be better and be in the top. This would be beneficial for the people that are trying, where in a communist society people are getting payed equally. Like Janelle C. explain that a doctor that took time and hard work to become a doctor would be unfair for a clerk to receive the same amount of money. If everyone was getting paid equally they would not have to try as hard, there would be no competition and everyone would get paid the same amount despite if they tried or not. When our class got more stars they wanted even more and then violently asked for more. I believe the workers would get paid a little bit more but also believe someone has to take charge to say no (Mrs. Houlahan). There has to always be a leader or boss in a social class and in society it is those with wealth. The workers in Occupy Wall Street and in Tea Party has blamed the elite or wealthy class for the problems in the United States. I agree with Tyler B. “It’s easy to point the finger of blame at the people at the top”. This is similar to how Jews were blamed for Germany’s problems and were doing the same by pointing “the finger of blame”. The tension between social classes has always been in our society and will continue to be present. (The tension between Buena and Ventura High School.) With the Social Democrat workers can protect themselves if they think they are under paid instead and holding signs in the sidewalk. Utopian Socialist would be great but their has to have a person in power and it always failed. In the end if all the social classes(periods) were going to be created equally their would be an ice cream party for everyone which the government (Mrs. Houlahan) can not afford. That’s why social democrat is the best to deal way to deal with the inequalities between the social classes because it will give workers more rights passing bills to protect them.
WHY ARE PEOPLE REPLYING TO PEOPLE’S COMMENTS!
Americans have always adored the people of a higher class, because they want to be like them, rich, powerful, and happy. Some of them are high working businessmen like Bill Gates, and, until recently, Steve Jobs. Others are more popular, and less working as they inherit the money, or simply receive it for entertaining the public, people like Paris Hilton, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Derek Jeter, who hardly work, but have such fame that they are constantly bothered by the public. Entertainers earn more than a hardworking engineer or doctor who spent most of his/her young life working on achieving their dream, instead of simply applying for an acting job, and hoping for the best. They simply lay back, smile at the camera for a few minutes, and in no time they have a few thousand dollars rolling into their front door. That is where our society has come to, where football players, who toss a ball a few yards every day, make more money than a teacher who spends his/her day dealing with arrogant children, grading paper, and hoping for a raise.
In a perfect world, communism would be the society run, where the government is non-existent and the people all share the same amount of wealth. But this world is not perfect, and the people have to deal with the fact that pathetic entertainers make more than a hard-working fireman or policeman. That is why I prefer a real trade union, where people could protest against the pay of entertainment, where workers could demand heightened pay, and hard-working men and women would be of the higher class, not worthless ball players and actors.
Now the Wall Street protests have spread throughout the world, hooded protesters rampaged Rome in protest for the same reason as Wall Street. It was a “day of rage” as their protest waged against the bankers and politicians. They started due to high unemployment, raising taxes and healthcare costs.
Although I do hope that one day we will be able to live in peace (a dream that humanity will never achieve in the chaos that this world has become) the best way is for the government to try to aid the economy, but let those who deal with the economics run the trade. If the government pulls of one move that costs everyone thousands, then they will revolt, and the highest of the upper class will be the first to feel the blame from the protest.
I do not believe that there is a certain political party that has the right idea and I don’t believe that the people of the united states should be stricking either. In every society there is class difference unless you make it so people can’t spend their money while at the same time not letting them recieve money from jobs. Then the government would have to give them a certain ammount of money every week. So as you can see there will most likely be class difference in society where you gain money from working and lose money from buying not just necesities but your desires as well.
I believe that the smart way for these people to fight class difference would be to not fight it at all and accept it, but that’s not what this response is about. So i believe that the best way would be to have persistance and don’t use violence. I think this will be the best way because persistance is a good quality in anything because you never give up and not using violence may cause people to pay attention because you aren’t destroying property.
All in all, I think the class differences will always be in society but hopefully we will be able to look past those differences and come together and fix the economic crisis of today’s world. Which i don’t think will really happen because the presidants can’t pass laws without them being looked over and almost always some people will disagree
Well, all of you people are saying that you are one if these topics but I think that I am me and I have my own opinion. I think that everyone should be equal and that everyone should get taxed the same. But if you make all of this money all on your own, you should get the money you earned. You shouldn’t get it all taken away. And, everyone should get only like 5% of your check taken and everyone should get the same taken!
So this means that the rich people will have more taxes but that for one, it is for a good cause, and two, the people that are already poor, wont have to end up owing taxes rather than getting a check.
Looking over these blogs I have noticed many people saying that Socialism and Communism doesn’t work and many of them are supporting Capitalism, but the truth is none of these governments have ever survived in there purist forms, they all simply get too corrupt. I believe communism is a beautiful idea of government but could never work in large numbers due to the need of a leader, if a war broke out, or a disease strikes, someone would have to step up and do something about it. Capitalism is a good idea, but in a pure form is corrupt and hard to control without a form of government controlling it somehow, keeping it in check, and making sure it doesn’t get too wild, but its simple motivation for a selfish human being can keep people working hard and it can be very effective. Socialism is another good idea of a government, it makes people more equal, and if the government is not totally corrupted can be run efficiently, but people may not be motivated to work as hard. If you combined the Socialist style of government, with capitalist ideals, sort of a merit system, everybody gets generally equal benefits and services, but if your job is difficult or you work hard you get extra benefits, its a system of helping others (the government) to help yourself. With modern technology and communication too, it may also be possible to help people communicate with the government more effectively and possibly not need such big sources of leaders, and simply the government will be a small leadership group supported by the people, along with the common public services. This could be a highly effective system of leadership, but its just a theory
Overall i think all of these governments are very good ideas as theory’s but corruption and greed, and sometimes just the sheer numbers of population will make these theory’s almost impossible to accomplish.
I think that there is no government that could ever be able to either stop the tension between classes or prevent recession. The world today is really hard and economically these days and for some people is hard for them and other times it’s easy for them. I disagree when people say that everyone should pay equal because people have different amount of money they win and different income and also different income. For example if you’re a doctor then the doctor wouldn’t like to get pay the same amount as other get pay they want to get paid better. This could make thing go worse or even hard times in this world. I think that if the government says that they want to tax everyone equal was very high I think that the lower classes would struggle to pay their own taxes and they will be in this economically world today . i think that the richer classes would be happier if the government says that they want to taxes everyone equal because they would be richer and the low classes would be unhappy. In my opinion I think that no is happy with the government and i bet to that they are having a hard time decide if they should have this law.
In my case i will be between a communist and a capitalist because i believe that economy does not tend to thrive or competition. For example, we all thrive to be the best in everything whether its in sports, school etc. Adults are almost the same way but just adults want to have a better job and a bigger amount of money on the income. The more people work harder in their jobs then they can be at the top and get paid better. I agree with capitalism because in our world we do have social classes. People think that there isn’t any social classes but there actually we do have it . in the end i think the government is trying but not really trying their hardest to have equality which is what everyone wants.
In my own personal opinion, I think that the best way to handle the increasing tension between both the economic and social classes is for the government to set up a standard tax percentage for everybody. If that strategy doesn’t work then I think the government shouldn’t tax the people who are on welfare or living in poverty and that can’t find a decent job as much as they should tax the people who make a good amount of money. In addition, people who have millions of dollars, like Bill Gates, should most definitely not be complaining about making the amount of money they make and the taxes they have to pay, when in all reality they make enough money to feed the starving children in Africa.
If I had to deicide on whether I’m a capitalist or a communist, I’d have to place myself somewhere in the middle. They both have good ideas and intentions, but I think that the best form of government would be communism. Even though I think that communism is the best form of government, I don’t think that it’s very realistic or successful in reality. Nevertheless, a perfect capitalist society wouldn’t be that likely to happen either because it would be almost impossible for everyone to agree and think alike.
With all due respect to Megan, I personally disagree with her thoughts that the communist ideas are “inaccurate.” Communism is pretty much just based on equality. Moreover, saying that these ideas are “inaccurate” is like saying that women don’t have equal rights compared to men or that people of color don’t deserve the same rights as the whites. On the other hand, I do have to give her props when she said that it is very unlikely to have the perfect theoretical system of communism. The most unlikely form of society, in my own opinion, would be socialism because all the citizens share everything, which goes against humanity’s nature.
With not only businesses, but also the economy in general dropping left and right, you have to stop and think about the ways that things could worse in the near, or distant, future. We are always hearing on the news and seeing on the internet about how people are on welfare and how most of society nowadays are living in poverty and it doesn’t seem like things are showing any signs of getting better. The newscasters are completely right, unless both the citizens and the politicians work on getting things back on track our economy won’t get any better, our society will just continue to get worse and we may end up having to go through another situation like The Great Depression. Moreover, the politicians should get out from their single-celled cubicles and face the situation head on. They also need to stop worrying about protecting themselves and start helping the average man, or woman, that they’re supposed to be looking out for. I also think that the citizens should stop blaming everything bad that happens with our economy on the government because it isn’t just the government’s fault, it’s everyone else’s fault too.
I belive that tere relly is no real way to stop class tensions the rich will always think they are wealthy people and they still will not give away any of ther money this is called greed take walmart for instace when they throe a fundraiser to get funds for sick people or whatever they raise money for they only put in out of there pockets about 10million total year round where they make in one year is about 110billion they still have all that money left over and when are you going to have the chance to spend all that money it would take years to even blow that kind of money on stupid items or clothing even though theres already an outragous charge like when i go shopping the store charges me 20 bucks for a shirt that they make in china for like 5 bucks and so they make money on them like 75% and that money pays the workers and then the owners take the rest and they still have a pretty good amount of money I also belive that a society should be able to rely on its government electives it chooses like take for instance obama when he was campining for president he promised change and that he would relive some of the nations debt when he got into office all he started to do is increse the amount of money we owe and he didnt even change anything even when he tried to pass the national health insurance bill that would of only increased the amount we have to pay for regular health insurance and make it even harder to get an appointment at the doctors. I also belive that people should have a greater choice of government and vote on what are the best ways for our elected officials to run it by decresing taxes and changing that form of government to communism like karl markx like china where your only allowed one child per household to keep your population down and natural selection should still occur because that would also keep the population down to prevent the cities from being even more overcrowded than they are now
I belive that most of these different types of goverment would work in one way or another only in their purist form. For the most part, being a capitalist, wouldnt work becuase the money that the corporations or 1% save over time would effect us cuase slowly the money that circulates to keep us (99%) moving will dry out. Our economy will suffer, we would struggle to live our daily lives, sound familiar?
For me personally, i would be a communist just because i would like to be in a riot to over throw the wealthy. Without blood shed, well maybe just alittle so that i dont have to hear bretty spears horrible music, and Justin Biebers Girlly, squeeky voice everytime i flip through the radio stations. Maybe Obama so i can sit in his office and sharpen a pencil, i dont know why but i always wanted to do that. But back to the main point, communism would be the best so that everyone is equal. There wont be any tension between classes, since there wont be any classes, and everyone will be happy to not worry about money all the time.
“Capitalism is what people do if you leave them alone” This is a quote by Kenneth Minogue. I completely agree with his point. If humans were to start over at this time with the technology and all the new stuff that we have and made them come up with something for government this is something they would come up with. Capitalism is a way of government that rewards thoughts who work hard and takes away from though who aren’t working as hard to reach their goals. The definition of capitalism in the dictionary states “economic system based on private ownership of the means of production, in which personal profit can be acquired through investment of capital and employment of labor.” Capitalism is all about making your own way in the world and not depending on anyone. If you are a hard working person, make all your money, support your family, and have some money left over you will want to have government ran in a capital style. If you slack off and what to have others work because you just don’t want to or maybe just because you want everyone to be equal in every way. In my personal opinion I am a strong follower in Capitalism which lets everyone make their own way. From what I have seen and heard I think capitalism definitely runs on competition. It’s the reason we have so many different brands of the same thing. Government Regulations wouldn’t be so good for our own place here in the United States because we are an “entrepreneur” kind of people that live in a place and want our way and to start our own businesses. Any regulation of government would damage it or even demolish it. As far as Adam Smith’s theory that there is always in invisible hand around guiding the economical government, Yes I see where he is coming from with that and would have to agree. As I had said before. “Capitalism is what people do if you leave them alone”
I believe in the trade union so workers can say their complaints about their pay if it does not fit the amount of work they are doing. But sometimes they can go a bit to far some of these strike that the grocery store works have are dumb to be honest most the people who work at the grocery store didn’t go to school after high school and it is kind of a last resort job i mean dont get me wrong there isn’t anything wrong with working in a grocery store i just feel that for what they have done they shouldn’t be complaining about their pay. But with the occupy wall street thing that is more of a reasonable they are all hard working educated people.
After reading several reponses, I think khere is no way that everyone could be happy with one form of government. Each form of government has positives and negatives but nothing is perfect. I like when lidia said, “I believe that no matter what the government does at least one class will not be happy with the outcome.”
Communism is something that sounds like a good idea but thats all it is an idea true communism is impossible. Its natural to want to be the alpha male in society in other words everyone competes with each other and communism eliminates that natural thing in all humans. Thats were you think okay what about capitalism capitalism would be good if some people didnt already have a ton of money and makes it so the lower class has no possible way to compete with the upper class. Then there is a democracy which is hard to have because democracy means everyone is equal but everyone isnt equal when some people cant afford to feed their family and others could feed 50 families.
In conclusion i think that there is no solution to class tension because there is alway going to be people who are unhappy with were they they are in life and they are going to want to be were other people are but until everyone is paid the same and pays the same taxes there will always be class tension.
I am a trade union. I believe that each person had there own rights in government and in society. We are not all equal citizens and there is not one right or wrong government. I think that I am with trade unions I believe each employer should be allowed to say what they want and try to get what they want or go on strike. Everyone should have to pay an equal tax so its fair no matter what your social class. I also don’t believe there should be social classes even if some people don’t make the same amount of money we should treat each other like we do. We should all be treated the same. I think they shouldn’t have to be taxed as much as we do. If you work hard than you should be rewarded for it and able to keep your money not have your money taken away. Everyone should only have like 10% of what we earn taken away and we should all have the same taken away. I agree with Dominica’s point. This would help protect workers rights it’s important for workers to be treated fairly. I do still think that some people work harder than others and so everyone should not get paid the same amount they should get the amount that they deserve but let us all be treated equally.
Capitalism would be a great way to form the government in my opinion. Some people work better with competition others don’t. For me, I try harder when someone is competing against me. Unlike utopian socialists where everyone’s equal in everything they do, but that’s not realistic, because everyone is unique and everyone has different ideas and opinions. If we were all equal we would all agree on this matter, but we don’t and were not equal. But I think that having equal rights for everyone is important. No one should get special treatment just because they have more money or are popular. I think if you work hard to get your money, in comparison to people that don’t do much and just want to get by, it’s not fair that everyone gets an equal share like in a utopian society. I think ideally the less fortunate people wouldn’t like the idea of capitalism for obvious reasons. They would much prefer communism or socialism where people have equal amounts of money and share with each other. But I don’t think that idea is realistic either. If everyone gets equal amounts of money people won’t want to work as hard and they can’t be challenged. People need challenges in their life. You learn a lot from your mistakes so in this society there aren’t really ways to mess up so it prevents you from learning new things. I believe in trade unions when all they’re doing is listing their grievances to their employer, but I don’t like the trade unions that basically revolt against their employers. Well there are different kinds of employers. Some respect their employees and respect their needs and try their best to get them what they need. Others don’t care about other people’s needs and just are basically greedy, so I guess protesting would be appropriate in this case. There are many different ideas for what the ideal government is. In my opinion the best kind of government would be something with all these different forms of governments combined. It sounds a little crazy, but it would make mostly everyone happy. Instead of giving everyone equal amounts of money give the people that work the hardest a “tip”. So the people that work hard won’t be upset and the people that just want to get by can get by. I know this is kind of impossible to work out and understand, but it would make most people happy.
To be honest, I believe that even though most forms of government sound useful in terms of relieving tension and conflict between the social classes, I feel that there is no true way to make everybody satisfied. There are a couple billion people on this planet, and each and every one of them is entitled to their own opinion, and because of that, it is virtually impossible to make each and every single being agree on just one thing.
In a capitalist form of government, it is easier for the somewhat lower class small business type people to thrive off more beneficial business opportunities and possibly even become wealthy in the future. It’s the freedom to make their own decisions, rather than a planned economy. But because of the fact that capitalists have the ability to privately own their resources, little money is distributed to everyone else, thus causing tension between the classes. This is a quote from a capitalist, in his blog, he writes: “The reason I love capitalism so much is because of the opportunity it affords [relatively] young business owners like myself. I consider myself a mixture of 1/10th socialist, 9/10th capitalist. While I believe in ‘spreading the wealth’ I also believe that those who help themselves deserve to reap the rewards.” While it does seem fair to capitalists that they deserve what they earn, it enrages those who want to “spread the wealth” amongst those who aren’t so fortunate. This form of government would eventually lead to possible violence against the capitalists from the socialist groups, and would not prove helpful in a tense situation.
For Trade Unions, I have to be honest, I think they’re one of my most favored groups. That is because it takes common sense to realize when employees are not being treated fairly be their employers, and it is obvious that they should have some sort of defense against unjust situations, like low pay, inhumane work hours, etc. I don’t see what would cause a dispute between other social classes by Trade Unions, because how I see it, the Trade Unions are only there to help the mistreated workers, they are not trying to disrupt the whole cycle of classes. Also, I think it is absolutely vital for employees to strike against their employers, because what other way do they have to show retaliation without getting in trouble? But, I do respect that some people feel that when the privileges of Trade Unions cause strikes, there is some form of mob mentality, and they feel uneasy that some form of mob violence can break out. So I see why some people could disagree with Trade Unions, but in my opinion, it is favorable to me because it is only there to help the people, not leave them in the dust with the rest of the lower classmen while the higher classmen are sitting in their thrones.
For the rest of the classes, like communism, social democracy, etc. I feel that while they do have valid structure improvements for the classes, they only end up backfiring in the long run, and I think that they would only make things worse because they directly benefit one group, leading back to the complaint that other classes are being treated unfairly. So I believe that there is no true way to relieve stress and tension between the social classes, but if I had to pick one, I would point to Trade Unions for the sake of helping average human beings when they are troubled in the area that earns them the money that they need to live and raise their families off of.
To begin, it is necessary to be said that no type of government currently implemented in any society has worked in large scale. In a large, populated, spread out society, there are too many factors to account for. With a perfect democracy, everyone needs to participate for it to work as it should, but many people don’t, and it is unrealistic to expect everyone to try. With communism, there are too many people with conflicting opinions and too many corrupt people, too many competitive people, etc. Socialist democracies have corruption and competition. The argument goes on.
But, despite this I still feel certain aspects of different governmental forms are successful in their own way. So, in order for the class tensions to dissipate, this question needs to be looked at another way. Instead of looking at it with the intent to prove which system is best, we need to take the best parts of each, and form a new system in which everyone is pleased, not just the poor or rich or the in between.
In the system of capitalism, the competition drives the advancement of the society. I agree that completion is extremely important for a society to thrive, without it, there would be no need to make anything worthwhile. However, the problem with competition is that it is driven in the wrong direction. What I mean by that is that many people do and make things that are unimportant (to an extent, because even the stupid stuff drives moral) to society. So, in my perfect society, only those who do something really worthwhile to society will push past the rest to make more money than them. This will be determined by other people in society.
Communism, theoretically, thrives because everyone makes the same amount, and no one has to worry about their money, or if they will survive, because the amount that everyone makes is determined by those in the societal group, which is an excellent idea, because there is a grantee of work, food, luxury, etc. But it fault is revealed in large scale when people realize that if they don’t work hard, they don’t have to worry, because they still make as much as those who do, if enough people gain this state of mind, then the system fails. I not eliminate, but reduce this with the previously discussed capitalist idea, where in the people who do something extraordinary will receive a bonus in pay, small, so as not to create a large gap between classes, but enough that they can have a few more luxuries than others.
Now, with this communist slash capitalist idea we are presented with a problem: what if those who try to make these amazing things abuse the system by abusing those around them? Well, that’s where the trade unions come into play. The trade unions will present any problems that they are faced with to a committee who will determine if the problem is serious through investigations, discussion and other such things to be decided upon latter. They will then (this is where the socialist side takes place), if the problem is serious, make changes, laws and what not to solve said problem. If said problem continues, of a person or group gains multiply infractions, they will be replaced by another person and be put into a job of lower importance.
Of course, we have to keep competition fair, jobs will be rotated so that everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed. If a person decides they really enjoy a job, and because everyone is paid the same, the can petition to be placed there permanently. If they are sufficient at the job, and there isn’t too much demand for it, then they can be approved. Alternatively, people can petition to not have a job in a particular sector of work, opposite rules apply. Obviously, the children will be educated in all sectors, so hopefully they will be able to have permanent jobs for people right out of school in a few generations.
I would like to say that, as I said before, every system of government has flaws, and the same is true for my system. But despite this, in my opinion, this system has the best possible chance of successes. With the combination of all systems, the government has the ability to control, while allowing freedom. My system is very flawed, I know, and it is open to discussion over details, but it will be called Martinism (bit egotistical, I know).
In my own eyes I believe that I would be a utopian socialist, Because I think that is the most successful way to be in this world. I think are government is doing just fine don’t get me wrong, But I think Utopian would be an ideal approach to handle how government is run today. But to get to the fact’s right, Here in the United States we would never run are Government that way, Probably because it would never work out.
The Reason I think that Utopian socialist would work so darn good is because I think that there would be less fighting in the world and arguing on the stuff that does not to be argued on. No matter how things are in the government you can never make everybody happy, There will always be that one person that makes everyone else against how government is run.
So like Andrew Green said how we should just set a tax percent that everybody could pay, I think government would be a lot smoother and I personally think that there would be less fights over Rich and Poor ‘s Taxes and how they are too much money and too less money.
With all the crazy stuff your hearing on the news and the Chaos of the Wall street protest I think right now is where the world needs to have a Utopian Government to even things out and make the world a more peaceful place.
Society has always been a piece of work. Never in history has a form of government completely satisfied everyone. And that is why we need a society that is more individualistic, with minimum government interference. I believe that we need to get back to what society was in the ancient ages, and do things on our own account.
A small-sized society will work for a short time, but as what always happens in history, a small group of people will become corrupted. The people with seemingly the best intentions (ahem, Robespierre) will often times corrupt as they gain power.
Communism will never be successful, because people will always want to be more successful than everybody, and be the best. These are the overachievers. And the slightly offsetting are more favorable in modern society.
Capitalism causes too many problems, as seen in the Occupy Wall Street protests. There are always going to be the greedy people, counting their money in their well-decorated lofts. They are the sour antagonists of the entire working class. Instead…..
I believe we need to morph the favorable parts of all current forms of government into one. But I don’t think that will ever happen. We have too many people in society, so we must become a more individualistic society, and do things ourselves. As the 99% continue to protest the unfairness of the social classes, the better thing they could be doing is working hard to increase their wealth, and using their determination to make a better life for themselves. There are the complainers, the dreamers, the talkers, but then there are the doers, and sadly, we are running out of doers. Protesting will not get you very far, but dedicating yourself to your work will lift you to your dreams. The doers made something of what they were gifted with. Many started with almost nothing. The adversity they faced made them stronger, and gave them the experience they needed to achieve their dreams. The people protesting need to use this adversity to become what they want to. We are all born with no money, it is what we do during our life that will make us great, or make us flake. We must overcome or shortcomings, and try, try again, just as Thomas Edison did. But yet, I believe this vision is too perfect too happen. The friction between social classes will always be evident in society.
The best way, I believe, for handling the growing tension between classes, is to go with a utopian socialist government because that way everyone is treated equally and people don’t become jealous of those who have the expensive homes, or cars, or who is able to afford a vacation home, or who can buy the latest iPhone. I feel that a natural part of humanity is to be the best. People will grow unhappy with everybody on the same level. People will want to find ways to rise above the rest of the population. People are greedy and selfish. They want what is best for themselves and their family, but not what is best for everyone.
If everybody receives the same amount of money from the government, then the social classes would be gone, in a perfect world, and spend their money on what they should. But the world is not perfect, and some people will blow it all on one thing and then be bumming on the streets to survive till their next paycheck. One way the government could control how much money to give to each person is to not give actual money, but make the people work together and cooperate to survive. People would have their jobs and they would finish it, and they would take their goods they produced and trade with others for what they need. Although, this would allow people to become lazy and find a way to benefit off their neighbor’s labor. There would have to be an enforcer to make everybody do their job and not let people slack off and take the easy route in life. I think that in order to decrease the tension between social classes is to have the government own and control parts of the economy and distribute the wealth equally among the people. However, this is an unrealistic way of government. It can’t satisfy everybody. The people would revolt and overthrow the government for controlling their money that they worked hard for and deserve, which ends up in other people’s pockets.
There is no practical form of government that lessens the tension between social classes, and makes each person satisfied. A group of people so large would never come to a unanimous decision on a form of government where there is a minimal tension between social classes, if there would be any. The people at the the bottom of the latter would be upset they are there, while the handful of people at the top would be loving life and living large while they look down upon the less wealthy. There is no way there can be a perfect government to satisfy all, but a utopian socialist is a dream for some.
I’m sorry to say but I really don’t believe any of these so called government systems is the way I would run my ideal country. I have to say though that my ideas mostly reflect what Keldon Schmitt said. Capitalism is the closest to what I believe to be the ideal form of government. The economy should be run by the people not the government. Everyone should be able to take the skills they have and use them to make a living and get the things they need to have a happy family. Like Keldon said it is not fair in any way that some people should have all the money they will ever need and do not have to lift a finger while others barely scrape by while working as hard as they can.
The people at Wall Street are right. The poverty level is much higher than it has been in a long time and the rich are just getting richer. The difference between the rich and the other ninety nine percent isn’t even close. Even the wealthiest of us not so rich still do not have even half as much money as that one percent. The ninety nine percent should have their say and should be the ones making the decisions instead of the rich one percent.
Unlike the world today, in capitalism you earn your living based on how hard you work not from some stroke of luck. Anyone who was willing to work for it could be rich. What really bugs me is that some of the richest people complain that they aren’t getting enough money. I mean what’s up with professional athletes who get paid tens of millions of dollars doing something they love and they still refuse to play because they are not getting paid enough. This would never happen in a capitalist government because it would always be your fault if you were not making the amount of money you wanted to.
The people on Wall Street who are blaming the elite are very right. If they do not want to be blamed then they should let us ninety nine percent have a voice. We can’t be blamed because we have not made any of the decisions in the government and the government was the cause of our countries issues. I know I am being very blunt but I feel very strongly about this and I want to get my point across.
I believe in a Utopian socialist government, some say its impossible, i say it is very possible and makes much more sense than the democracy we use now. a way to fix the problem of people in a socialist government abusing the system, is having to show a document to the government every 6 months that shows their employment, where they are employed, and if they are working up to par with where they should be. if we had a socialist government, the crime rate would drop dramatically, because if we all had the same amount of pay per month per person, they would be happy with the fact that they weren’t getting shorted their pay monthly. the way they should be paid should be a rate that covers their utilities(everyone will have the same utilities rate) and then 20% of their pay check for what ever else they wished to spend it on. and another 10 % for food. if we had a socialist government we wouldn’t have to go to war as much with other people, if we could get the whole world on this form of government we would have a Utopian PLANET!! even in this government we will still have the people that commit crimes for the hell of it, and they will be dealt with accordingly. and a way to make it so everyone has a job, if we all get the same amount of pay per month the business owners will be able to keep their companies funded and wont go out of buisiness when not enough people go there, this would be the perfect society
Yeeeeeeee Buddy(: Utopian all the way!
I believe that the best way to handle our class issue is to just leave it how it is. There is no way that we can possibly make things perfect and make everyone happy without having some major problems on the side.
I agree with what Ben Anderson says, but I believe that instead of being taxed equally, the rich should be taxed more than the poor, otherwise the rich keep getting richer, and the poor keep getting poorer.
I think that we should just stick with capitalism. It lets us have our choice in business, and lower prices from competition. I believe that if the government came in and regulated the economy, it would severely slow down the income to major corporations. I believe that trade unions are a good thing because it allows the worker for more of the conditions they like, and the pay that they feel they need, but we already have that.
A Utopian Socialist society is a very good idea in theory, but I believe that this would never work because competition is in people’s nature. We can’t always go against something we were born with.
I believe that the ideas of communism are great, but again, it would never work. People are too greedy to share anything, especially money, and to keep this form of government forever we be more than impossible. This form of government would only be good if it worked 100% correctly, otherwise, it wouldn’t.
I think that adding services to protect workers is unneeded.
Overall, I believe that the only thing we should do, or the only thing we can do, is to tax the rich more than the poor. This would loosen the tension between the higher class and the lower class from the lower classes perspective, but may enrage the higher classes. But it’s only fair that people with more money should be taxed in a time of great debt.
In the perfect world I would be like Robert Owen, a utopian socialist. Everyone would love to be able to live and cooperate but that’s not completely realistic. Most of the time there would be disagreements between the people and or government. It would be unfair for someone that doesn’t work as hard as others to make the same amount as them. If you really truly have a more important, demanding job in society you should be compensated and rewarded with a higher paying salary. Realistically I would favor trade unions. The logical thing to do would be having the workers organizing and working together to share their grievances with their employer and trying to convince them. If the working conditions are poor and the wages are low then yes I believe they should strike until they get what it is that they deserve. On top of that social democrats could add to trade unions protecting the workers with bills passed by congress.
On the other hand I am definitely not a capitalist or a communist. Yes our economy competes but I don’t imagine that there is an “invisible hand” guiding our trade. I don’t believe that government regulation of our economy would severely damage it but maybe slowing break it down over time. I completely disagree with Karl Marx. Our class system isn’t two complete drastically separated groups like the Bourgeoisie and Proletariat. There are class differences but I don’t ever think that they would become so intense that a violent overthrow would be in our future any time soon. We will never have a classless society.
Iam in favor of a trade union. I believe that workers should be able to organize their own grievances so that they can communicate with theirs employers to provide a safe and fair employment. For example When an employer wants to change something for example benefits for their employees that may not be fair, the employees should be able to approach the employer and negotiate a fair agreement. What I think would be best to handle conflict better would be to talk to everyone else about the situation and see what people have to say and everybody will go on from than. Because if you just make a decision on your own for everybody else, some may disagree with it, and when people disagree with the situation that you have changed soon enough people will had enough and revolt. That’s what happened with the revolt in the Vons and Ralphs strike, the employees striked because of the wages, they knew it wasn’t fair. Another good example of this would be the storming of the bastille, the people went into the palace of king Louis the 14th and tried to kill the family because Marie Antionette had spent all the money I think it was taxes ? only on her, she bought expensive clothes, jewelry, shoes , hair make up, etc. The people had , had enough of it, and finally cracked and try to get revenge back on them for not helping them at all. Im pretty shocked that our community hasn’t done anything of that, but I have feeling something is coming our way. Also why people revolt so violently is so that they can be heared, because no one would listen to them, and no one would care what they had to say. So that’s why they finally had enough and try to make them listen to what they want by going straight to violence, sense no one wanted to hear what they had to say or what they wanted , they decide to go violently, because there is no other way. Even if people wouldn’t revolt the world would be completely different now… In my way .. I think it was a good thing people revolted not the way how they did it like killing people but it just shows that they care, and they matter as well as the king or the queen or the president or the manager.
The best ways to deal with the inequalities between the social classes is for them to simply not exist. In an entirely communist country where there is NO leader and everyone is raised to perform at the best of there ability there will be no riots, and no protests, because there will be no one to be jealous about. Although the concept of this sounds very comforting, the chances that this will be obtained on a large scale is, sadly, very slim. The reason for this is because of the corruption that the world has put into the minds of human beings, before the subject of government and the mass production of products was an issue, the world was a generally more peaceful place that what it is today. I am in favor and not in favor of the trade unions. One reason I am in favor is because it gives people the freedom of speech and taking away the trade unions would obviously be against the freedom of speech. A reason I am against the trade unions is because some of them create unnecessary drama/strikes because they are not getting the pay/wages they deserve. But if it was such a big deal that they were not getting paid enough they could just go on ahead and find a different job instead of waste time they could be working, striking. There are plenty of other competent people that would gladly take your place in really any job.
One reason why I think a communist government would be good for the United States but would not work is because of the sheer amount of people that are already used to a capitalist government. There would be really no way to change the way the United States is ran by not affecting huge amounts (over 300 million) of people.
In conclusion, the only realistic way of dealing with class tensions without disturbing anyone’s lives is basically non-existent/realistic. Taking money away from the rich would only anger the rich, giving money to the poor would anger the rich, not taking money away from the rich would anger the poor, etc. The only realistic way to deal with this issue is just to ignore it. Or completely abolish the current economic system we currently have in place which would just confuse everyone, but, if worked out correctly, would make everyone happy until another fault is found and this cycle repeats.
I am in favor of trade unions, I do think or believe that workers should be able to strike for higher wages and improved working conditions because it’s not fair that we work so hard to get so little of what we should really have, it’s not fair that we get barely anything! And like Maddie said, I also believe that each person has their own rights in government and in society, and that we shouldn’t be taxed as much as we do get taxed. I think that workers should strike for higher wages and improved working conditions if they want to, If that they want more money, let them, go ahead! If they want a better job, same thing! I think people shouldn’t have something stop them from doing what they want to do, from livin’ the dream. People should be treated the same, paid the same (if it’s a high wage). I would also say that I am capitalist. I do think that the economy thrives on competition, I think that’s what the economy is all about nowadays. I would also have to agree with Janile on that, it’s better with competition. When you have someone or something to compete against, you work better. And then if you mess up then later on for the next time you learn from your mistakes and you know what to do and what not to do. But overall I just think that people should really be treated the same, and get paid the same. Everyone’s always talking about justice and stuff, and I’m just not seeing any of that.
I’m a capitalist but I support regulation of the system because frankly, unchecked capitalism scares me. The whole “the industry will police itself” thing is a really bad idea. We let it police it self when Bush was in office and look what happened. The housing market collapsed because it was unregulated which caused a chain reaction that wound up being one of the worst financial disasters since the depression. We can easily follow a paper trail back to Wall Street. The people of the 99% movement have every right to be angry. We have watched Americas wealthy get richer and richer for years while the middle class drifts farther away, widening the gap between the classes. We made the mistake of not watching large companies in the past and it was a huge mistake.
I agree with Shannon. The class system has been around probably as long as humans themselves have. There is no way we can totally eradicate this system. This can be done by having the wealthy pay the same tax rate as the rest of the nation, about 22%. This would be equitable. House and Congressional Republicans seem to have this mind set that the rich shouldn’t be taxed because they are the most “successful” among us. What they tend to leave out is the fact that the mega rich have achieved success by crushing anyone who opposes them and buying out little companies that they see as a threat. They seem to not be particularly virtuous people. For example, the U.S. firm Goldman Sachs, hired by Greece, found a sneaky way to hide the amount of debt Greece was holding by using offshore accounts. They did this so they could receive European bailout money. By the time the E.U. found out how bad the situation in Greece accualy was it was too late.There are plenty of other stories like this radiating from Wall Street.
I am not saying we need a Stalinist government, with the government intruding into every part of our lives but we need to give to regulating branch some teeth. We can’t afford to let bankers and corrupt and greedy CEO’s continue to do what they want. They need to be held accountable. We also need to let the Unions know that we support them, because if it wasn’t for them workers rights would be non existent.
I agree with Megan W. when she says that there is no government that has the correct way to go about humanity. The “ ideal government” is non-existent hopefully only for the time being but currently all the different types of governments presented have their flaws and have already been proven to be unsuccessful. I also agree with Megan when she states that there is no solution to stop the tension between the social classes because truly there isn’t a solution.
For example Capitalism is bad because it causes the greed in people to come out and they get corrupted with the power they hold. It is also bad because it can lead to an Anarchy, which is the absence of political authority which would there for most likely lead to chaos since people wouldn’t have the protection of their rights from the government and others would try to take advantage of them. But like with everything else in the world capitalism has its good qualities as well, such as the fact that it puts the power in the hands of the people and they can decide what they want to do for themselves. Although this sounds like a good system what with giving the power to the people it completely fails in the attempt of easing the tension between the social classes since there will always be the winners and the losers. The winners being the people who gain wealth from the system and the losers being the ones who ends up being poor because of the system thus leading to people stealing, others taking advantage of others, rebellions, war and much more.
Same goes for the rest of the systems that are considered to be the ideal way to run a society were everything is fair and everyone is happy. All the systems have their advantages and disadvantages but I believe that the only reason none of them will work is because they are meant for humans. We as humans are imperfect and have many horrible flaws such as greed, jealousy, and anger. That’s not to say that we’re all completely bad because we’re not but any good person can be easily corrupted and there is also the fact that we are all different and have our own opinions and we all favor different things so while some people might be in favor of Communism others may be in favor of a Utopian society and if Communism was found to be the ideal government and every one had to live in a world were Communism was the main government those people who favored the Utopian society would be unhappy and would eventually protest for a new type of government. Point is that although these systems might seem to be the correct way to run a society there not because at the end there will always be a group of people who are unhappy with the system there for leading to the rebellions and wars. Although if I had to chose a government that I think would work it would have to be a balanced mix of all the systems. That way maybe all the people would at least be happy that the government has a bit of the system that they prefer in it. A compromise might not in fact be the solution but it may be the next closest thing to it.
Personally, I don’t think there is a defintite way of handling the growing tension between classes. No matter which approach we take to handle this conflict, there will always be a tension between social classes.
Of course, a utopian socialism would be the ideal form of government, but it isn’t realistic. Human nature is greedy and selfish. Someone will always have something to envy, and someone will always want more than what another has. Socialism isn’t fair in my opinion, because if everyone was treated equally, than the people who work harder are rewarded the same as someone who didn’t work as hard. It causes people to lose incentive, because why strive to be a doctor when an easier job pays the same?
Capitalism isn’t a good idea in my opinion. Although it allows the freedom of competition, some people end up with nothing, which leads to a class struggle. This would do nothing to improve the tension between classes.
Trade unions are a huge benefit to America because they provide the average working person with a little bit of power. Before trade unions, companies could pay workers extremely low wages, give no benefits, and have unsafe working conditions.
I personally think that I am a utopian socialist because, I think if we could work together that would be the best society. If everyone made the same amount of money then there wouldn’t be any arguments everyone would be happy although maybe a few capitalists would try to change that and eventually plunge the society into capitalism where everyone would just try to make a good enough living. The communist might try to ruin this society as well but, would just have to standard classes where one is higher ranking than the other and that finally, the tension becomes too much so that the lower class tries to take the upper class down a notch and maybe succeed making them again equal which in turn make another socialist society. The trade unions could work out for a while and keep it fair for the workers until a certain point where either the workers get too greedy or perhaps that the employers stop listening and take away the right to a union and then it would turn into another communist society which would again turn to a socialist society. The United States is a social democracy and we are having the wall street protest in which the lower classes of the united states are fighting because, they think that the top one percent or the “elite of society” are the problem, if they made it even with a socialist government then there wouldn’t be any protests. If we had a utopian society then we wouldn’t be in such a big mess because, everything would be fair. If we tried a capitalist society we would have a bunch of greedy fat cats under paying everyone, the trade unions could be good for a while but, would then go bad. If we had a communist society than people would fight for fairness which would then lead to a socialist government. It would be a good idea for the socialist democracy to switch to socialism so that the protests would stop because, socialism would level the playing field. All in all socialism is the best because it makes everything even, and everything in the end after all the other societies would end up turning into a utopian socialism. It would completely get rid of all tension between social classes would be the best government for society.So, I would personally choose to have a utopian socialist society.
There are many different forms of governments. The form of government and the amount of corruptness in the government does matter, but I do not think that the government is what to blame for the amount of inequality in our past and present societies. In Ian’s blog he blames the celebrities that have enormous amounts of money when they hardly do any work at all, though this is a valid point, I do not think that this is the cause for the inequality in societies. I believe that it is mostly about the taxation of the people and the system used to tax the citizens of the state, also the amount of work accessible to the people of the state. If the taxation is corrupt, like the protestors on Wall Street seem to believe, than change is necessary. The protestors believe that the wealthiest 1% of the population pays less tax than the lower 99%. Also the condition of the job market has a huge impact on the amount of wealthy and the amount of poor. Now the job market is horrible for one main reason, outsourcing. Most major companies outsource to counties who have workers that will work for less pay. If the rich who owned the major companies gave the American workers jobs then the percent of poor would slowly rise to a reasonable standard. I believe that the best way to deal with inequality in society is to have the major corporations stop outsourcing to other countries and to make work for American workers, also if everybody agrees to pays their fair share of taxes.
I believe that the best way to handle the growing tension between classes is with trade unions. I think that trade unions are a common-sense ethical approach. I think this because, without trade unions, capitalist entrepreneurs who hire the working class could make workers work long hours with minimal pay, and if the workers didn’t like it, they could replace them in a moment. However, with trade unions, workers can organize into a union and express their grievances to their employer. Also, if workers think that their wages and working conditions are not what they deserve, they can form a strike and continue to strike until an agreement is reached with their employer, but without trade unions, none of this would be possible. This helps with tension between classes, because it allows the working class to get their own input in on their own work and salary. While trade unions help relieve class tension, they cannot work alone.
I also think that Congress can strengthen the work of trade unions, and further relieve class tensions. When Congress passes bills to provide protective service for workers, they prevent the higher class employers from imposing harsh conditions and low wages on workers, and to provide certain worker’s benefits. This relieves the class tension, because the working class has a sense of security that their employers can’t suddenly lower wages and harshen working conditions.
I believe that Communism would not help relieve class tensions, but only worsen them. The idea of communism is to have a classless society, with wealth distributed equally among everyone. This would worsen class tensions, because, even though there are no classes, the people who used to be in the higher classes would be unhappy, because they had worked hard for the money they had earned over their careers. The old higher classes would not want the money that they had once worked so hard for to be distributed among people who did nothing to work for it. Also, Capitalism without some form of government regulation would anger the lower classes. With Capitalism without government regulation, a company could monopolize their business, and without competition, raise prices to any point they want. This is completely unfair to the consumer and luckily cannot happen because of government regulation.
All in all, a combination of trade unions and congress, in my opinion, is the best way to handle tension between classes.
I think the perfect government system should be Utopian Socialism and Communism. I think people spend so much time bragging about what they have and I think we should all be equal but at the same time not controlled fully like they do in “Allegory of the Cave” where they control your every move and not let you explore the world and learn from your mistakes. I think full government but no government would be weird because right now our government is not doing anything to help us but at the same time where would we be with no one making the right decisions for us. It is just making our parents broke, people homeless and hungry. Karl Marx is right about not having a leader to control our lifestyles but full freedom would just make the world worse. Marx tended to use the terms communism and socialism interchangeably. I believe if our system was a communism people would be nicer to each other and there would be no jealousy in the world. Evelin makes some really good points about humans treating each other horribly. The world would be a much better place if everyone treated each other equally and respectfully. I doubt that would ever happen because our world is falling apart. Obama is aways saying he is going to help us and change the world but actually hes just an ornament because nothing has changed since hes been president.
At the same time I think Taylor B makes a good point about no one being happy with any system of governments. No one if going to agree on just one government. People will be unhappy with any government. I am only one person so I can not change anything by stating my opinion. I am not really sure trade unions would would because it would lead to competition. And competition just leads to hate and jealousy.
That is why I believe a mix of Communism and Socialism would be the best form of government. No one should feel less then anyone else because everyone is equal and they should be treated fairly. No one should think they are better then another person like when King Louis was ruling and making peasants feel less that they exploded and starting killing everyone that was ever mean to them. This makes me realize that maybe Charles Dickens did write that book as a warning to us. If we don’t work together and treated everyone equal we will not live in peace. And we may be experiencing this without knowing.That is why i believe a mix of Socialism and Communism would be my dream government.
Pesonally i think i am a utopian socialis because i really like the ideas of the concept. The social classes these days are over run by the rich. In a utopian social class everyone gets along. Everybody shares. Also everybody contributes to equal work. This i think would be the best social class for me. I feel as if this would really be the best for everyone because we would all have to contribute equally and work together to keep our city or social class running smoothly, and of course theres going to be those couple people or groups that wont agree with what the city has to offer but they can just move out 🙂 If i was able to decide my social class i think i would definatly choose a utopian social class for its traits of kindness, communitys working together and helping each other. thank you.
For long amounts of time people have always strived for and wanted an equal socierty. A society that is fair, just, and looks out for the best interests of its people. But guess what this society doesn’t exist and never will. So then how do we solve the problem between social classes? In my opinion it’s quite simple you really can’t. Since the beginning of time people have been searching for equality, but we obviously haven’t found it yet. Utopianism is unrealistic and too soft. By nature humans are greedy and want all for themselves. This form of government in my eyes will not be very successful. At the same time Capitalism is too harsh therefore people will naturally resent it. It doesn’t appeal to what everyone wants. In my eyes this also will be a bad form of rule.
For me the only way for us to solve our problems we must come together to form a classless society that is in the favor of everyone. If the rich and the poor tcan manage to get together and discuss their thoughts and differences then and only then can a working stable society be built. If this society was established I feel that the best form of government to run this society would be a democracy. That way everyone could express their feelings without rejection and everyone for the most part would have a fair say in the goverment. I don’t think this ideal society would completely destroy class tension I just think it would narrow it down. There will always be class tension.
The only problems with this idea of society is that eventually the remaining capitalist around would eventually let their greed get to them and before oyu know it they would form an upper class. Then the lower class would be restablished. Soon the class tension would be back and all would have failed. Yes class tension exists get used to it. We can all start to change that, but the first thing you can change is yourself.
I think I am a Utopian Socialist, because of it trying to make the society and everything about it equal for the people in it. I believe that this could best help the tension between classes for the most part. In class we did a somewhat similar thing for the most part in which we all had candy and then you, Mrs. Houlahan came in and took the candy back. After taking the candy, you evenly distributed the candy among all of us. The only problem with this philosophy is that the people that were “richer” or had more candy, were upset because in this seemingly fair process they lost most of their candy and it was “donated” to others with none. It seems fair to the ones that get the candy but causes grief among those who lost rather than gained some. I do not agree with what Rachel said about trade unions completely. Trade unions, like communism can be a very good thing but only if people don’t abuse the system. It is good for people to be able to fight for higher wages but what about those people that aren’t doing there jobs correctly and still get more too. My mom is a teacher and at her school a fellow teacher does almost nothing to help the kids but strings along and is in a way immune to being fired for the fact that her husband is the superintendent. It is not fair to the other teachers that are in the union, who work very hard and well, to have this teacher rein the benefits too with so much less effort. Other than that, i agree completely with what Rachel has pointed out. We deserve to get our better wages, jobs, etc. I also agree, even though i agreed most with Utopian Socialism, that competition does bring out the best in almost anyone. We all in some point of our lives need to have something to motivate us to try harder and be better at what we are doing. With out it, we think we are so much better and that we do not have to try to do something right, or because we just do something right, we do not strive to do something amazing or better. Utopian Socialism gets at the point though that we should all have equal parts and positions in our societies today.
I believe that all people should have equal amounts of money, an equal amount of property and the same access to medical care. That no one will look down on other people because everyone will be the same and everyone will be treated the same. I would have to agree with Andrew that in theory, communism would be a perfect society, however, history has proven that in reality it is not a perfect form of government. We can see that in today’s Cuba, there is still a lot of poverty amongst the population and you still have the “haves and have nots”.
Since communism is not an option for me, I would have to say that I am more of a Utopian Socialist. I lean more towards the beliefs of the Occupy Wall Street group than the Tea Party Movement. It seems to me that the supporters of Occupy Wall Street are willing to come together as a group to help each other out with their needs. They are more willing to cooperate with each other. They seem to be more inclusive and tolerant of differences within their group than the Tea Party Movement. The Tea Party Movement seems to want to exclude everyone that they determine is an outsider and they only want to help themselves.
It is very difficult for me to see the people around me lose their homes. Homelessness and hunger should not exist in America. My friends, classmates and family should not have to lose their homes. Their parents should not have to choose between paying their mortgage and putting food on the table. The bailout that the banks received from the federal government should trickle down to these families and bail them out as well. Why should CEO of these banks that received the bailouts enjoy hefty bonuses in the millions of dollars, while their customers lose their homes and many of their low earning employees lose their jobs?
I hope that politicians really pay close attention to Occupy Wall Street and all similar movements that are sprouting around the country. A Utopian Society might not be realistic but if our government can work together to find a way to reach something similar this will not make every single person happy but the majority of the United States population happy.
I would classify myself as a capitalist, everything has to be competition. If you work hard enough to become the best you have earned it. For example, if you look at McDonalds and Burger King and you want to know where to go, you look at who has the most discounts, who has the most commercials and advertisements, and who has the best quality of food. These businesses compete to be the best at everything and compete to get the most money. I would say I am a capitalist, because I believe you should work for your money.
On this particular subject though I think to resolve what is happening right now to make everyone happy we need utopian socialists. If people don’t agree with what is happening in their country and want change, they will just keep on trying to get their way. I would hate to see riots and violent things happen in our society, so to keep everyone equal and everyone happy we would need to be utopians. If people are just going to complain that they are not treated right or complain that the wealthy are treated better than everyone else, I think everyone should just be equal in everything so there is nothing to complain about or start a riot about. Although I do not think that the utopian lifestyle will last forever, I think it will resolve the problem that’s going on right now. Being a utopian for a short period would work, because everything is resolved quickly and with no harm done. But the long term effect of this is that people would all be the same and no one would need to compete or no one would be their own person. Also with a utopian everyone has to agree on the same thing. No one has to vote or fight about what is wrong and what is right.
Class systems in the United States seem to have defined us for many generations. Us as human beings are attracted to power and money, which not many people have. We are a society dominated by the thirst for more money, it seems as if they cannot make enough money to satisfy the needs of everyone. Personally I believe that Robert Owen’s idea of a Utopia would be the most beneficial in distributing equality, money; and power, sadly I, like so many others do not believe this society could function correctly. I believe that a Utopian society sounds great on paper and inside the protection of our very own minds, but human beings are influenced with competition, some of us even need competition to function correctly. Cooperation is one of the many things our class system’s need to improve on. On the other hand, I also have a strong belief in trade unions. I believe they allow workers come together with other workers of the same profession and express their feelings and grievances towards their employer. Even though I do prefer trade unions I do not agree with strikes, I believe that the unions should be able to find another way to receive higher wages and better working conditions. Workers and employers should be able to come to a compromise without the workers having to strike. In one of the above blogs someone says that communism is a beautiful idea of government, but it could never work because of the need for a leader to follow. I agree with this statement because although communism is a great idea in theory, yet people need someone to look up to, to lead them to victories, and to have power.
In our society our biggest problem is the economic crisis, at this time the movement, Occupy Wall Street is huge in the media and even within our schools. Occupy Wall Street is a protest against bank bailouts, corporate greed, and the unchecked power of Wall Street in Washington. So far Occupy Wall Street has spread to over one-thousand five hundred cities worldwide. The lower and middle classes are being cheated out of money and kicked out of their homes because of the corrupted banks and major corporations. As of not the top one percent of the population seems to have a huge influence on the rest of the population because of the amount of power they have. If only the amount of power each class system had could be dispersed equally then we would not be in such a horrible recession and on our way into a depression.
In conclusion I am convinced that if all of the social classes could learn to co-exist with each other we would not be in a recession. If the top one percent of people were able to learn to share some of their power and money with the other people of the world we may no need to protest against them. Overall if we lived in a society with a system that favors cooperation over competition, where workers would be able to voice their grievances against their employer, and if maybe we were able to become a functioning society with shared power distributed equally between the class systems, we could become a model like society for other countries.
I am a capitalist. I believe that what you earn is what you receive. Life is not fair so you must try your best to succeed on your own. I do see where Socialism could be successful and I do not think that the economy is dependent on competition. I feel that capitalism is the American way; that “The American Dream” includes personal achievement. By creating a government like a socialist one, we are essentially putting down “the American Dream” and saying no matter how hard a person may work or improve their way of life from where they started, it’s pointless because they would be rewarded in the same manner if they were to accomplish nothing at all.
During the industrial revolution social classes were distinct and arguably unfair. In modern society of America social classes still exist. However, they are vastly different. In contrast to the social classes of the late-mid 1800’s in England and France, social classes in America are virtually non-existent today. And to those who feel otherwise, they are given fabulous opportunities through public education, scholarships, volunteer facilities and government plans to take initiative and work to better their lives. I believe that improvement in technology can be made with or without class systems and government regulating the economy would greatly disrupt the little peace remaining in our society.
My choice Is capatalist is the best of the Options we have today. The ecomany revolves a lot around Competition.Threre is many different levels of human wealth. These levels are a problem, People with big amounts have different mind set on things than the people with little amounts. People start to think only about, “I have more money than him”, “I want more money than him”, or “Im way more succesfull than you”. Many different reasons is why im Not fully on the capatalist side, I just am in favor with it more than the others.
A utopian society to me does not sound to appealing when you really think about it. I would not want to spend my life in a smaller area, following many simarlay routines daily.Today I have just sort of routine and I hate it. The routine that my life has been for a while is waking up way to early, going to school, craming six different subjects into my brain a day, go to football practice for 3-4 hours, go home ice and homework, fall right to sleep, and do it again and again.
Communism seems to be favored my a majority but when put into perspective, it doesn’t look to me like it would be succesfull. In easier words The way of government is run today and the sufferring of our economy is Horrible. Although Many people are saying this, and saying what they want and blaming it on the representatives of our government. The idea of just randomly changing the way our government is run seems almost unrealistic to me. A factor that I also constantly think about is the fact that there is countless peple on this world and even when divided by countrys. Its impossible to say, “ this is perfect”. The one thing hat seems to make sense is taking alll the posotives from all the diffrents forms of government and putting them into one. This still would not work because not all the same things are posotive for different people. The advice that I can give to all the people is to just deal with what your givin and make the best of it. Life is never perfect and and never will it be. Instead of whinning and complaining, just be quiet and accept what you have and make the best of it!
I wonder where one should begin to evaluate and determine the best form of distribution for the population or society in a given geographic area or world. We have seen different forms of distribution over the millennium, and most if not all, have failed at some point. It appears to me that in any of these choices, without an ethical and moral code, they are doomed to failure. Having said that, I am left with just trying to understand our own capitalist society in the USA. It is because of our own moral and ethical weakness as human beings that trade unions, communism and social reforms pull at our consciousness. If we could only live peacefully together, have an honest work ethic, balance our responsibility to ourselves, our fellow man and our planet, then there would be no need for the variety of protectionism that arises due to our failures. It appears that our own capitalism has pushed our country to the brink of possible collapse. All due to greed and power. What a shame because capitalism and a free marketplace allow for all the wonderful things we are enjoying today. Like writing this blog!
I doubt communism would have ever gotten this far due to its control of people through power and fear. Trade Unions only came about because Capitalist wanted all the money for themselves at the expense of the worker and Social Reforms came about because people forget about the poor and the stranger in their land. If people would only believe in themselves and each other, respect each other and the earth, then capitalism would thrive. And Utopian Socialism would be a natural result of those fruits and effort.
However, the reality is not so nice. Therefore, I believe it is important to have government pass bills and place some regulations to protect the public from greedy capitalists. Socialism is only a response to our moral ethical failures and communism is nothing more than a few wanting to control the many. Having said that, I am left to wonder where we are going in the early years of the 21st century. There is so much uncertainty in the world today. I am afraid that I may wake up one morning only to find that our own system of government is at its end. And then what?
One day I do believe that class differences will become so intense that the workers will violently overthrow the wealthy and form a classes society. People will argue which is better Communism where everyone is dived with the power and wealth at the top and the working class at the bottom just how it was in the Industrial Revolution or Capitalism were everyone is equal and we all share the power and the money . But in reality we all know human beings are all greedy and power striven no matter how kind heart each person is we will all be defined as these blood sucking creatures and its 100% true once someone has had just a taste of the “good life” or power we won’t stop at anything until it is ours, it’s just how we were made.
I would have to agree with Communism and Karl Marx because one day we won’t need a government to control us, we won’t need rules to restrict us. People have so many new and creative ideas out there that our people are being limited to express. We need to stand up and fight our own battles instead of what to be told to do. Karl Marx believed that a workers Revolution was destined to happen, he knew that the people were getting tired of the harsh working laws. He also believed that the societies were “more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other: Bourgeoisie and Proletariat” Marx fanaticized. Marx’s believed that a dictatorship would abolish capitalism. I think that splitting up into two main groups is a great idea because it levels out the place people are suppose to be in like the Bourgeoisie (middle class) or Proletariat (working class) when this idea by Karl Marx was created people rejected the idea and didn’t give it a chance. But soon adapted with the new classes and compromised with the idea.
Matt Densing says in his blog how our last two presidents George Bush and Barrack Obama haven’t done our country any good. They haven’t helped us get out of debt or win any wars “they left the floors dirty”-matt. Shouldn’t a good leader, be able to pick a country up or even communities up and give them hope and reassurance? Shouldn’t they be able to lead successfully? These are all things they should have done but don’t know how , so do we really dont need a government and president to control our country or can we handle it by ourselves with just to social classes to keep is in check and organized ? The way one person feels about saving a country is worthless but a whole civilization could change something, promoting our ideas will change things, so people need to speak up and be courageous.
Personally I believe I am part utopian socialist and part trade union. Workers should not be forced to work many hours for little pay and risking their lives for it. If the employer knows of the employee’s opinions then maybe more work can get done and more people will be willing to do the harder jobs that are life threatening. Also cooperation over competition is better because in today our economy isn’t doing so hot, but if the big corporations, like McDonalds and Jack in the Box, work together maybe our economy will get better. Working together can also provide more jobs for people who are looking for jobs making more and more people happier and less likely to strike. The only downfall would be with the more employees needed more people may want to get paid more. Of course everyone would love to be the next trillionaire but that is impossible. It would be very difficult to have the government give everyone the same amount of money; people will be mad, like Joeseph Danker did when Mrs. Houlahan took all his candy and shared it with the class. But it will also make people happy, mainly the people who have nothing. With a government trying to control everyone’s money there would be no room for new inventions because no one could get richer than their neighbor, even if everyone was equal.
I like how Cameron Ellis stated “The United States is a social democracy and we are having the wall street protest in which the lower classes of the united states are fighting because, they think that the top one percent or the “elite of society” are the problem, if they made it even with a socialist government then there wouldn’t be any protests.” If the government can barely keep control of Wall Street, it, personally, makes me feel like the government isn’t trying hard enough to make everyone happy. To prevent strikes bosses simply say ok I will give you a little more but end up having them work harder!! When people go on strikes they are simply saying I don’t feel like I’m getting paid enough for the hours I’m working. If the government would get out of debt then maybe we could actually go through a strike where people get paid a little more/a lot more without making sacrifices! Those are my simple opinions but these simple words can’t get me thousands of dollars, in the end we will all have to do some type of work to get money. Unless we want to become Charles Darnay’s Uncle and sit on our big butts and do nothing.
In my opinion I do agree that our government is all based on this big competition. It can almost be described as a race. We have the big shots with all the money who are in first place, the average money makers who are in second, and the poorer, or even homeless people who are just trying to make it. In Kelodon’s post he explains the way the people were treated back during the industrial revolution. How some people were working hours and hours and hours everyday in the most horrible imaginable working conditions just to barely make it. But then you had the wealthy people who lived life with wealth and comfort and seemed like they had no problems. I don’t find that fair at all. The people who are working hard have to work hard cause they weren’t born into a wealthy family so they couldn’t affor an education hence the reason why they are working like dogs in these cold, damp, smoke filled factories, but the big shot wealthy factory owners and farmers, and such were born into these money filled families so they had money for education witch led them to how successful they became. There not treated like dogs. There treated like royalty. If they switched lives for one day and experienced first hand what type of labor these “dogs” go through just to get enough for scraps would they change there perspective? Would they change the way they see things. Probably not cause after that one day they get to go back to there worry free royal lives, With there soft beds and 3 course dinners. One more comment I would like to make is that THESE DAYS people who go on strike I think in my opinion are pointless. These days education is free. Paid by taxs. If you want a better job with higher pay, go to school for it. Get to a better job. Get a degree in something and work twards what you want and deserve. don’t stop working and complaining cause your job that you qualified for isn’t payiny you what you want, no that is just useless. Newsflash, no one is going to hand you everything you want on a silver platter! You need to put in a little something called effort.
In my opinion a Social Democrat would be best way to deal with the inequalities between the social classes.Our society is corrupt. For example Mrs. Houlahan has a star system which only creates competition. It is good in some aspects, creating competition gets people to try harder at what they are doing. This is very beneficial for the people who are trying to overachieve others, where in a Communist society everyone is payed equally. Many jobs with different difficulties. Some more than others. Is it fair for everyone to get paid the same even if one person is doing most of the work? If everyone is getting paid equally most people would just slack off, knowing they are still going to get paid. Their is no need to over achieve and move up.The star system got the students to rebel and ended up getting none. I do not like communism and capitalism because it is not fair for all classes. Being a Social Democrat would mean having a safe environment to work in and feeling safe. A minimum wage is also their, knowing what you are going to be paid and never getting anything less is very good.
I believe that there’s really no solution to the tension between the classes because no matter what people want or believe in, there’s always someone that disagrees with them and it will usually make problems even worse. I also believe that the only thing we should do, or the only thing we can do, is to tax the rich more than the poor. This would loosen the tension between the higher class and the lower class from the lower classes perspective, but may enrage the higher classes. But it’s only fair that people with more money should be taxed in a time of great debt. I think that the best way to handle the growing tension between social/economic classes is for the government to set up a standard tax percentage for everybody. What I think would be the best approach to solve the inequality between classes is that each of these options have faults and theoretically could work. But realistically none of them will have a large enough effect to change what is happening.
In my case I’m in between a communist and a capitalist because the economy does tend to thrive on competition. For example, we all thrive to be the best at something whether its school, sports or something else. Adults are the exact same way, they compete with each other about having better jobs and bigger. Although, both of them have good intents and ideas, but in my opinion, I think that Capitalism is what will work best. Competition will always be in a society, it is how individuals thrive to do better. After all are we not the country founded upon the belief that anyone can be something or reach their fullest potential. I certainly believe that not as many people would try to reach that potential if everyone was equal. Ideally we would live in a society where everyone was happy with sharing and cooperating with one another, corporations wouldn’t be self-interested and every citizen would be taxed the right amount based on what they earn.
I believe that no matter what the government does at least one of the classes will not be happy with the outcome. Once we fix the tension, another issue will begin to up rise and all the classes will be unhappy all over again. It’s like a never ending cycle. No one is ever truly happy which in my opinion makes government have a hard time deciding what would be the most effective. I believe that the ideas of capitalism and communism are great, but then again, it could never work and there really is no solution in this.
I would have to call myself a Capitalist, or at least mostly Capitalist. Our economy is truly drive by the competition of the people, most of the 1% that are up there all worked as hard as they could to get there. With people coming from all over the world to the United States to find jobs, and live better lives, there comes the struggle with them finding good high paying jobs, or being able to go to school to get those good high paying jobs. Not everybody has an amazing job, but without the need to do better, without people thriving off of passing up others, without the drive that people get from the competition aspect of work, what else would they have to look forward too? If nobody passed anybody up, there would be one solid line of pay, and nobody would be better than anybody else at work, which also means that people would not excel at anything, nothing new would come out because everybody would have to stay on the same level of intelligence, etc. On the other hand, there is the concept that with this equality in the job system, all of the more poverty stricken peoples lives would be easier. I only say this because then there would be no supposed poverty, everybody would be sort of like a middle class for everybody. There are some very good things about this, nobody would have to work that hard because there would never really be that issue of having to get better at your job. People also would not be poor which would fix the economy, and a lot of other things. But then there are the bad parts that come along with this. For example, without everybody excelling past each other, nobody would figure out anything new or become any better at anything, which would cause a major world halt in a time we need to be pushing through and creating new things. So all in all, I would have to stick with Capitalism as the correct way of thinking, people need to blow by each other for the world to excel and for us to make the new things everyday like we do.
I believe that there is no clear way to eliminate the existence of tension between the social classes. I do not think that there is one specific approach, but rather a combination of ideas and methods to resolve many of the issues that create tension between classes.
I think that I would consider myself more of a supporter of the capitalist ideas. I also believe that the ideas that form a democracy provide for greater equality of members of our society.
Capitalism certainly does not promote the idea that everyone should be considered or treated equal. Capitalism supports a dominant system of ownership of individual wealth. The very nature of capitalism promotes increased opportunity and competition to do better and thrive. The hope is that Capitalism leads to productive members of society and a thriving economy. The Capitalist approach is for profit. Greed and envy very often follows increased profit and income. The wealthy desire to realize more and more in return for their involvement and investment of money. Tighter government regulation of the economy is not necessarily the answer. Businesses need to continue to have some freedoms in order to compete and thrive. This system does not appeal to some because they feel that it does not favor the needs of the middle and lower classes. In some ways I agree. Unfortunately, as we have seen in recent years the middle class is dwindling. The current protests taking place all over the world and in many areas of our country stem from the idea that the top 1% of the population continues to earn the most money and therefore enjoy the richest lifestyles in yet they are responsible for paying the least amount of tax. This does not seem fair. The members of the hard working middle and lower classes seem to be facing more and more threats and challenges to their ability to meet their basic needs. This is evidenced by the high unemployment figures and the individual stories of financial crisis that many families face today.
I do favor the trade unions. I believe that they serve a purpose in that they offer some basic protection of the rights of employees to fair wages, safe and acceptable working conditions and benefits for a job well done. It also affords them the opportunity to express their ideas and concerns and take a united stand when necessary to protect their rights and have their voices heard. I believe that trade unions force large corporations and businesses to participate in negotiations and not have total control.
Socialism, on the other hand, has the government owning all industry, the goal is for the economy to be equal, and aims for a classless society. Communism did not need a government and achieved a classless society. In capitalism the working class struggles over wealth while also working a plan to overtake the upper class. It also does not favor the middle or lower classes.
The ideas of the utopian socialist encourage cooperation and promote the concept that no one person is better than another. In theory this is an ideal way to live. This world would be a much better place if all members of society upheld these ideas. Sadly, this is not the case.
In conclusion, as stated above I do not think that there is any one approach that will serve to eliminate the tensions between classes, but a combination of the ideas might be the best method and produce the greatest results.
I think of myself as a social democrat because the taxes and the basics people need, like education, health care, and housing. Capitalists need to share the wealth. Working middle class people can’t afford the basic needs they need to even support themselves let alone a whole family.
Our society is beginning to create a place where people might even have to pay for education. I think that everyone deserves the right to have education. Not just to benefit themselves (which it would) but to support our country. Most capitalists don’t want to pay their taxes, they just want to be greedy with having their money while the other people who are working hard to support their family pay way more taxes while the capitalists benefit off of them. This isn’t fair. They cannot have their cake and eat it too. If education only became available if you were to attend a fancy private school, the majority of the United States wouldn’t attend school. Then where would our world be? We would be stuck in a society filled with people who don’t know what they are talking about. Not everyone can afford the lifestyles of the upper classes. Just because people don’t have the same amount of money as them doesn’t mean they don’t deserve to be smart and have a chance to get far in life. The capitalists are being selfish and greedy with their money.
Another reason I consider myself a social democrat is because of this healthcare issue. Working people deserve healthcare for their selves and their family. Big corporations like Walmart (a disgusting corporation) do not provide healthcare so they can save their money and make the big bucks. That is all they care about. They pay their workers the lowest amount of money they possibly can to save money. They are basically using their workers for their own good. They get treated like slaves in a way. Sure, they make a little money but that’s all they get. Not health care, no nothing. People often say “Well why don’t they just quit and get a job somewhere else?” My response to that is, there are no other jobs! The economy is doing so poorly people can’t risk quitting the job they have that hardly gives them money to put food on the table. A job is a job, what else are they supposed to do? President Obama tried to pass the healthcare bill but it got shot down. And guess who fired that gun: capitalist. The government is listening to the top 1% of the United States. Is this fair? WE are the 99%. Shouldn’t the government listen to us? Not everyone owns some big corporation that thrives off of other people’s pain. This is what the Wallstreet pro-tests are about. The people. We are the people. We should get a say.
If people don’t get healthcare OR an education they should at least get a home to live in. Families who work, pay taxes and hardly can put a meal on the table are getting kicked out of their homes by banks because they can’t afford rent. Now-a days the upper class has more money than they know what to do with. While people are getting kicked out of their homes rich people are on the phone buying planes. It is absurd. Capitalist need to pay taxes!! It’s only fair. I’m not saying that the lower class shouldn’t, but they should pay less. If the government took have off what each person made a week that would be fair. If someone makes $200 and another person makes $500 then they should cut that by 50%. The people making more money would have to pay more money, but it is fair because the tax is the same. That is what I think would be fair. So, to answer your question, yes congress should pass bills to protect workers. People might have a chance.
Oops.. forgot to edit the first sentence! It’s supposed to be something along those lines but actually make sense.
To be honest, I agree with both a trade union and a Utopian socialist because I see that if both of them are in some way combined, then the tension would not be as bad as it was and in some ways is today.
In a Utopian socialist, I do agree with the idea of this like Robert Owen, but in some ways I do not. Everyone equally getting money would partly relieve the tension between classes, yes, but I don’t think the tension between the classes will be gone because of everyone getting equal money. Some people may not like that idea and want to get the wealth back where it was before, with the wealthy and not the workers. Also the government distributing the wealth equally among the people, in some cases, is not always a good thing. I think this because it won’t show people that we need to work hard to get the money we want and deserve. If it is distributed equally then they will think they do not have to do anything and they will just get money for it, when that is not right. I do believe in having more cooperation than competition because competing against someone is not always the best way to get what you want from someone else, but if cooperation is involved, it is less trouble for the people involved.
In a trade union, I do believe that workers should express their grievances against their employers because people have the right to voice how they are feeling about someone. Also workers have a right to tell their employers what is being done wrong, so they can fix the problem. People should also express their grievances to their employers because they work in the environment and no one should work and an extremely dangerous environment, especially if it is the type of environment that can get them sick. I do believe that workers should be able to strike for higher wages and improved working conditions, if they have asked their employers multiple times and the employer just will not listen and grant their request. The workers should not go on strike because they just realized at that moment that they want higher wages and improved work conditions because if they possibly talk to their employer, they might realize that they are right and grant their request. I do feel, though that people should go on strike to voice what needs to happen, for example with the conditions they work in, and the employer just will not listen.
I believe that there will always be competition for money and power and that no government will be able to control this unless it’s a dictatorship, but even then the person at the top is holding all the power and money. Humans have an endless thirst for money and I don’t think that we will ever overcome that competition instinct. An example of how a perfect society where everyone shares cannot happen is Robert Owen’s idea of a perfect Utopia. His thought was that everyone can live together and share their money and power and that everyone would be equal. He dreamed of a perfect society with an idea of a true communist government. This Utopia crumbled and fell apart very quickly because of humans tendency of controlling everything and having all the wealth and power. The human race cannot live in a society of sharing and equality. We are even having trouble with our democracy with people taking all the money and not being taxed for it. So I think that the best way to deal with inequalities between social classes is to crack down on the people who don’t want to play fair and tell them to suck it up and pay the right amount of taxes and be equal with everyone else. But this probably won’t work and that’s the truth, society will never be able to be completely equal because there will always be that one person that messes up.
To me there is no one true perfect form of government. Social structure in itself is a self destructive system that can only operate for so long. Looking over the past there is not one society or form of government that has remained 100% stable throughout history. There has always been conflict and strife between parties and individuals. But, if a society is put up against class conflict the best way, I think, to handle it is through social democrats. We are said to be all equal and seen just as important as those around us. However, in society today this is definitely not true, there are people with power from many different areas who slip through the cracks of our government by pushing their agendas onto political figures. They work hard, become successful but then try dominating further by obtaining favor through the political process. These special interest groups are what now take away the voice of American people. Going back to being a social democrat, I believe it is a great idea that Congress pass bills providing services to protect workers. I think it is completely fair and just that workers are provided protection and safety they can rely on. But, that’s where I see it becoming shaky. Congress can pass bills and everything but with political leaders being bribed, strongly persuaded, to make changes or other decisions by higher power individuals like company owners, it is hard to feel completely confident about workers’ rights. So in conclusion I agree with Jacob Brown because he is right in saying that if the people in power on Wall Street do not want to be blamed they should let us 99% have a voice. And that the decisions the government has made have put this country in deep sh..situations. To be equal and have decisions fairly made for all people and workers, the government must protect its loyalty to the country.
I believe that there is no form of government that is perfect, because there will always be one or more groups of people that are cut out, however, I think that capitalism is the best way to go. As long as no company got too big and overtook the other one, everything would work well. There would need to be rules and regulations to stop any one company from monopolizing, but if there are hard set rules then it would run smoothly. I don’t think there is a hand the will guide the economy, so the government would have to be that hand the guides the economy onto a positive path. The problem with capitalism is that the company that needs to be regulated will try to find loopholes in the rules, and before we know it, one company will own all of one industry. One way to make a law that cant be interpreted in different ways is hire the people that right the rules for the NFL, or NBA. Those rules are pretty clear.
Rachel Tovar said that she favors trade unions because they allow people to go on strike and get higher wages. I don’t like the idea of trade unions, because if a company has to pay there workers more, they will have to raise prices on their products, making it harder for the rest of society to get by. That would make other workers go on a strike and get higher wages, causing higher prices on product, causing more people that can’t afford living. Now, I’m not saying that people that get paid ridiculously low wages should not get to go on strike, but if the person is getting paid a reasonable amount for the amount of work they are doing then they should not be allowed to go on strike.
I agree with Miztli Tinajero, they way that she explained herself and made the connections to Allegro of the Cave made me believe that a Utopian Socialism and a Communism would be the best type of government.
I believe that in these rough times the best type of government would be Utopian Socialism and a Communism. I believe that the Utopian Socialism government would work very well because most people spent their lives saying how much better they are at something than others or how well they can do things. The Utopian Socialism is more cooperation than competition meaning people help each other on daily a basis rather than bragging and ignoring what other people think or need help on. A Utopian Socialism is also distributing wealth among all people and not just giving it all or most to one person. Some governments believe and encourage competition, while our government doesn’t help us achieve anything. California is in big debt because our governor made some dumb decisions now teachers are getting fired, and school days are getting cut. Our government thinks that to make money they should just make people pay more taxes on food and other important daily things, it is just makes our parents broke, people homeless and hungry, and even pushes other people to extremes like stealing, kidnapping for rewards, or maybe even killing. On the other hand there is Communism in which a goal for a class is set and once that goal is achieved no government will be needed anymore. This is Karl Marx theory, he believes that we need no leader to control how we live, but too much freedom would just make the situation worsen. If our government were a Communism or a Utopian Socialism I believe that there would not be so much violence going on, that poor people would stop hating on the rich, and that there wouldn’t be so much hate going on or even jealousy . Our lives and the lives of others around us would be safer and in better conditions if everyone saw everyone around them equally, no racism none of that. If we keep on going down the same path we are going we may have another revolution it might just end up being the same of worse than the French Revolution.
Even though I strongly agree with what Miztli wrote I also agree with Taylor B saying that no one is ever alike, so none of us in the world are ever going to agree with one type of government. I think of each person as a snowflake, no snowflake is ever the same how could they expect us to agree on one type of government when we will never have the same thoughts as the one next to us. No type of government will ever please every single person.
This is my believe; a little bit of Communism mixed with a little bit of Utopian Socialism would be the best government. No person should ever be put down; everyone should be able to have the exact same quantity of money or anything else. Since Charles Dickens wrote “A Tale of Two Cities” it was chaos, no in the 21st century our government is still chaotic and it seems like no one is trying to fix it. That is why we should put Communism and a Utopian Socialism in to a blender and make a good government smoothie :).
People are entitled to have their own opinions within everything. These opinions have led to many different happenings throughout history. Whether it be revolutions or workers going on strike to recieve higher wages. Some may say that one type of governement is better than another based on their opinions. But in my opinion, every government has it’s flaws and every governement will be liked by some and despised by others. Not everyone can get what they want all the time and this is shown within our class structures not only today but in other times throughout history. I am not one of the people who has one idea that I feel strongly about. I like some things about some governements and other things about other governments. I think that capitalists are right in the fact that the economy thrives on competition. I mean, with out competition in anything, where would we be? Competition is what drives us and pushes us to do our best and overcome. People always want to be in charge, be higher up in rankings than other people, be wealthier, etc. This is the mind set that pushes people to do great things. But, on the other hand, there are people who don’t think this way. They do not try their best, maybe they don’t even try at all. I think that if the government were to regulate the economy it could damage it but it could also help it. It would help a lot of people who have lost their jobs because of something that wasn’t their fault but then what about the lazy people? Wouldn’t they be able to just sit around and do nothing their whole lives while the rest of us work our butts off to no avail? And what about trade unions? Trade unions can be a great thing to a certain point. I believe that workers should be able to express their grievences to their employers by going on strike to earn higher wages if their current wages are not fair for the amount of work they’re doing. But, on the other hand, this could be taken too far. What if they are being paid the right amount but they become greedy and keep going on strike in order to get more money? This could be a very bad thing. Employers could go bankrupt trying to please their employees. And how much is a fair amount? It’s extremely hard to judge with our economy the way it is today. This is where the government comes in. Sure, the government could try and regulate the flow of money but then they’re considered a utopian socialist. This ties back to competition and the different mind settings. If the government distributes wealth equally among people, someone could be doing extremely hard work and be over achieving but earning nothing more than the person who sits on their butt all day doing nothing. This is where a Utopia goes wrong. The hard workers are paid the same amount as the underachievers. But, a Utopia could be a good thing for people who are willing to contribute to the community. Without that contribution though, a utopia crumbles. What about communists? I would consider myself a communist to a certain point just like anything else. I think that class tension is deffinately building up slowly but not as much as it was during the French Revolution. I belive that in the US, we do have some class distinction but I wouldn’t go so far as to call ourselves the Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat. I mean, how do you think the Bourgeoisie today got where they are now. Hard work. Most of the time they started off as working class citizens (the Proletariat) and worked their way up to middle class. I think that class distinctions may start to build up as time goes on but not to the point where it becomes too violent. Humanity already made this mistake once and sure, it changed the way things worked but many innocent lives were lost on the way. Do I consider myself a social democrat though? Yes, I think that Congress should protect workers rights. They’re people too. They’re the people who work hard to produce the things that we buy. But would I go so far as to title myself as a social democrat? I’m not yet sure. Like I said before, I don’t have one mind set. I’m still young and I have plenty of time to decide these things once I’ve gotten out in the world and experienced more but for now, I’m in between.
What is the “Best Way” to deal with the Inequalities between the Social Classes?
After reading this question over and over and over again, I have leaded myself to think about, “Is this part of the reason why this country is in a 14.38 trillion dollar debt? Is this what occupy wall street and the tea party movement are trying to achieve as their main goal, but have different ways of achieving that same goal which is reducing the national debt and the federal budget as much as they can. In my opinion this is not possible unless we cut down on government spending. Mostly everyone thinks that Obama’s at fault, but Bush is actually to blame. When Barack Obama stepped into office this country was already at the verge of self-destruction. Mostly everyone thought and said, “Go Obama make a change do something you’re the president”. No, that’s not how it works. One man cannot make a huge change such as dig the U.S. out of a 14.38 trillion dollar debt in 4 years. Another issue is the top 1% rich people not getting taxed as much as they should and the poor getting taxed too much which is basically the reason why Occupy Wall Street started.
In my opinion a social democracy would be the best way that helps our economic crisis issue and the fact that the rich and the poor should be taxed equally. I do believe that Congress should be passing laws that protect the rights of workers, but that can only happen if Obama agrees to it as well. It’s a dog eat dog world. One hand washes the other hand. If people in the U.S., want our country to hold our heads high in glory like we did a decade ago then we have to work as one or nothing is going to change If workers feel like they are not been treated right or not being paid enough they should go on a strike. Taxation in my opinion should not be judged on how much one makes. Isn’t that what the U.S. is all about which is everyone is equal no matter what. It doesn’t matter how rich or poor one is. What color one is. This brings me to another issue which is racism. A lot of people are not being hired, because of the color of their skin. I thought we were past these 60 years ago, apparently not.
(accidently posted it twice)
What is the “Best Way” to Deal with the Inequalities between the Social Classes?
After reading this question over and over and over again, I have leaded myself to think about, “Is this part of the reason why this country is in a 14.38 trillion dollar debt? Is this what occupy wall street and the tea party movement are trying to achieve as their main goal, but have different ways of achieving that same goal which is reducing the national debt and the federal budget as much as they can. In my opinion this is not possible unless we cut down on government spending. Mostly everyone thinks that Obama’s at fault, but Bush is actually to blame. When Barack Obama stepped into office this country was already at the verge of self-destruction. Mostly everyone thought and said, “Go Obama make a change do something you’re the president”. No, that’s not how it works. One man cannot make a huge change such as dig the U.S. out of a 14.38 trillion dollar debt in 4 years. Another issue is the top 1% rich people not getting taxed as much as they should and the poor getting taxed too much which is basically the reason why Occupy Wall Street started.
In my opinion a social democracy would be the best way that helps our economic crisis issue and the fact that the rich and the poor should be taxed equally. I do believe that Congress should be passing laws that protect the rights of workers, but that can only happen if Obama agrees to it as well. It’s a dog eat dog world. One hand washes the other hand. If people in the U.S., want our country to hold our heads high in glory like we did a decade ago then we have to work as one or nothing is going to change If workers feel like they are not been treated right or not being paid enough they should go on a strike. Taxation in my opinion should not be judged on how much one makes. Isn’t that what the U.S. is all about which is everyone is equal no matter what. It doesn’t matter how rich or poor one is. What color one is. This brings me to another issue which is racism. A lot of people are not being hired, because of the color of their skin. I thought we were past these 60 years ago, apparently not.
I believe that tade union is my way to go. I think that trade unions is the way to go because it gives everybody a say in something that they believe in. I believe, as a nonworker, that a worker of any career should have a say. I think workers should get their word out because no matter how little the persons position may be, for example a cashier, they have a say on what they think is right or what is wrong. For example there is a strike going on between a big chain of grocery stores. I believe one reason the people are on strike because they are taking astand for something that they want to justify.
You maybe be asking yourself: Why would the employee be mad at their boss and not the head of the company?(which is a thinking way of some). There is a good reaosn I could think to answer this and its because the people think their boss is being unfair(which they probably are) and they know if they speak up something is going to be done. Also, what we have been talking about in history is back in the day when bosses are giving their employees not enough money and that still most likely still occurs to this day.
I am not saying that workers should be able to strike for higher wages and improved conditions, but I do think that if a worker believes what they are doing is going to have a good outcome then good for them for trying and most likely getting at least a little or possibley alot out of it.
Im not saying that trade unions is the only good choice but I am very sure that this is the way to give everybody a say. Other ways may have good reasons but not a way to give everybody a say in something. So in all trade union is the best way you are going to make a majority of people happy even if it doesnt make the government super happy.
There is no real way to make everyone happy with the government since everyone has different opinions but after reading a lot of the posts I believe that I am a Utopian Socialist. I think that this would be a great form of society because every one would all earn an equal amount and no one would earn higher than someone else. As Tanner said crime would go down because everyone would all have the same amount and there wouldn’t be anyone that’s upset because there would be no one making a ton more money for a job that is less work than someone else’s job. But sadly as Ben stated humans don’t like to share and always have competition between each other. For some reason a lot of people like this competition they like to think that there better than other people just because they might have more money or a better job then someone else. Honestly I think that even with a Utopian society that something like the Occupy Wall Street movement would still happen because someone would come in and start a corporation, be really greedy and not spend there money on there company to create jobs like they should be. They’ll just spend there money on themselves and buy things that they don’t necessarily need but what they want. Then people would go to that company and complain and when the company doesn’t listen people would start a protest. The protest would probably start out peaceful and no one in the community would care if the protesters stay because there not doing any damage there just fighting for there rights but if enough time goes by and there demands are not met then they might start to get a little aggressive. As the protesters get more aggressive then the police would get called which would make things worse because they might have to use brute force to stop the protesters which would just make the protesters get violent which would just turn the whole situation into a giant riot. Then if the riot gets big enough it might lead to a civil war and it would all just go downhill from there. Really there is no way to find a ideal form of government because for that to happen everyone would have to be happy with it but that necessarily wont happen because we all have different opinions
i believe in trade unions. if the employer is treating his employees badly and not keeping a watchful eye over what goes on in his company then the employees should be able to protest. While the corporate fat cats are comfortable in their offices making money, they are relying on the real people that work hard in order to barely support their families. If the company starts failing, then they ask the government for a bailout which ruins the economy for everybody else as their irresponsibility with their company results in no punishment. it seems to be that companies are being rewarded for going bankrupt. if the workers see injustice and unfair treatment they should be able to protest it. Why should the CEOs of these companies that rely on the workers and do minimal work use employees as their workhorses and get away with it. The workers should be treated with good wages, and nice benefits, not poor working conditions and low wages for some people. The class system is completely messed up and should be treated harshly. The people of the higher class who make more money than your average person should be taxed a good amount higher than the normal citizen. While this may seem unfair to the higher class this is essential. What do they have to complain about, them not being able to buy a new Porsche that month? while the lower classes have to think about if they are going to be able to pay the rent that month or feed their family. The companies should not be getting bailouts and should be paying their workers more and treating their employees with the most respect they can give. unless the CEOs can do all the labor themselves, i suggest they do something about this now. It seems that now and days more and more people are doing walkouts and protests because of the unjustifiable things taken away from them like their healthcare and getting cuts in their wages making their pay just above minimum wage, making them get two jobs in order to support themselves or their family.
If this continues to happen, the employees and people of the mistreated classes will have to resort to violence, because it does not seem that the message of the need of better wages and such is getting through. When these companies start failing because of financial carelessness, it seems that when they get bailed out, they are taking away part of our tax money from the government that should be used for things that benefit society. With the tensions between the classes growing greater and greater, i predict that soon the people of the 99% will resort to violence to put their message through to the Corporate Fat Cats.
I am one hundred percent on the side of Ryan Seemiller. Ryan stated that many people were talking about how they chose that Capitalism, Socialism, or Communism were the best forms of government, but Ryan stated that none of these governments have ever succeeded so it is impossible to choose which one is better. The idea’s that these governments are based on are genius but they have never succeeded and probably never will. I fully believe in Ryan’s blog that none of the governments have worked so it is impossible to choose one.
Karl Marx created an amazing theory we all know as communism. Communism allows for no government and everyone is equal and shares everything. This is a genius idea but also a very fragile one. For example, if everyone is equal then the people have to share everything, but if there is just one corrupt person then it creates a disturbance in the communist ecosystem. Also, the idea of communism has been attempted, but it has never succeeded. If Karl Marx was alive he would frown upon the people who have ruined his idea. Communism has never been achieved except in words. The “communist” societies we have now are not true communism. They all have a monarchy in which a dictator rules all.
At first i wanted to write about Capitalism, but then I read Ryan’s post and it changed what I wanted to write about. If I did write about Capitalism then I would incorporate how in class we did the candy activity. How some people were born with a lot of candy and earned more. Some people had to work their way up the ladder into the elite class. Then there were others who had lost all their candy. Adam Smith’s theory of Capitalism is also a very genius idea, but it too has not been achieved. It has not succeeded because there is too much competition until one person takes everything over and yet another dictatorship is born.
Socialism also has never been achieved. Socialism is the step before communism. Socialism is when the government owns the government but distributes their money equally to the people. Since Communism has failed Socialism has too.
In conclusion, I agree entirely with Ryan Seemillers argument that it is impossible to choose which one you prefer if they have all failed. Only the theory may be chosen. All the thoeries are good,but none have ever been achieved and i dont think they will ever be achieved because they require a perfect society. There is always at least one person who corrupts the society…. AAre you that person? 🙂
*Are (not aare)
So what I’m mostly seeing in every reply on this post is that none of this governments are right. And well I guess they are right but then I still have to choose one of them so I guess I’m an Utopian Socialist. Why ? Because MAYBE that way everyone would actually stop complaining about why the rich people are so high in society while we are in the middle.
Starting out an Utopian Society would pretty much fit us in almost every way (If it were to run as it’s on paper) We wouldn’t have any social classes, no poverty, everyone get’s the same amount of money and resources, it sounds perfect. But then the problem would arouse that people are going to want more and you know what that leads to. Corruption and/or criminal activity, thus creating chaos and basically ruining the whole point of an Utopian Society. But going back on topic the reason this type of government would work out is because like I stated before you have equality and that is what most people in todays society want. People wouldn’t need to worry about who is winning the most money or who are the government is taxing the most because it’ll “equal”.
But then again, you may ask yourself what would the law system be like and really that’s where its going to turn bad for most people. Since everyone is going to be treated equally, everyone would receive the same sentence weather you made a minor crime or a big one. So it goes both ways, and there’s really nothing you can do about it since it is after all an Utopian Society were EVERYONE gets treated the same. And I mean, I rather choose this system over any other because of the way its going to be. Nothing else.
I am a trade unionist, who beieve’s that we should be able to organize and express our felings to our employer. People should be able to speak and have their voices heard, no matter the situation. We as Americans areprotected by the First Amendment of the Constitution of the US, the Fredom of Speech, where we can say anything we want, to express anything we wish to (even though some may just be better if kept to ourselves). By expressing what you feel, you and others feel a sence of releif where you let your inner thoughts that bug you, out, which can lead to a better working environment, and less tension. For example, a person who bottles anger and felings inside will become tence and hate work and their life, unlike a person who can stand up for what they believe in, feels a sence of burden off their shoulders. I would also like to add on to what Camron Ellis and Sage Fazzone were thinking about the Occupy Wall Street, how the 99% are the general US and the 1% are the rich who seem to get richer. We are arguing today, at this moment that the rich should be taxed more because they have more money, and we the 99% should get taxed lower because most people these days cannot keep up with the taxes.
I believe that trade unionist should be able to protest, strike for higher wages, and better working conditions. Having the right to protest is again, the First Amendment of the Constituion of the US, Freedom of Religion, Speech, Press, Assembly, and Petition, we are allowed to protest. Striking shows the people rising like waves and crashing down on their bosses, demanding for higher pay that they deserve. Striking shows and sence of courage and strenght, because it is esaier said than done. First of all, you are pretty much striking aginst the one person who signs your pay check. Second, you are quitting your job until your boss rises your salaries, if your boss does, today it is dangerous these days because once you are out of there, they can just hire someone to easliy take your place. In a way it is like gambling, you risk it all for higher pay, but sometimes you walk away with nothing. Now then, working stations should defiantly be a number one prioitize item for working. If your work station is gross, dangerous, or just plain nasty, you should protest against that for sure. Working stations make a huge difference, next to cooperating with employees, but that is for another time,for now lets focus on work stations. Having safe, clean, and healthy working condition, and according to the US Department of Labor, it is required to have safe working conditions for all employees. for example, say for some bizarre reason your work consitions are unsafe, unhealthy, and you would rather work in the blazing hot sun picking up trash insead, you should strike for you feel is right. A trade unionst is not just some worker, but someone who makes adiffernce in the community everyday, whether we know it or not.
I think that being a Utopian socialist would work the best because then everyone is treated equal. This means that no one would be left out and we would all make the same amount of money and we would all live the same.
With a Utopian society people will make the same pay because the government will have the control and they will give everyone the same money that everyone else made. In a perfect world everyone would love this idea and it would work because no one would cheat or take more money then anyone else and the government would not lie (but it is hard for things to go that well in our society). This will make social classes more equal and people would not have to worry about how much better some one is doing then them. But in some ways i will have to agree with some of the people that say that the governments would not work because to day it is hard for people to be fair and not fight over things because we as humans always want to be better then the next person even if they say they don’t there is always that part of them that love to be competitive, but if people were not like that then we would have a much better world for the people of today.
I belive that a Utopian Socialist government would be a great way to go. I think it would be great if people could cooperate and not compete with one another. Taxes are our main issue right now. People cant pay for things because taxes keep going up. I think if all social classes had the same amount of taxes they had to pay everything would work out fine. If the government owned and controled parts of the economy I think we would be far better off. I do not think people would be struggling financially as much as they are now. I believe that if the wealth is distributed equally we would all be living with better economic conditions. As much as I believe this would be a great idea, I do not think it is possible. It does not seem realistic at all! People are too competitive with eachother and a Utopian Socialist Government is not ideal. So on that note, I feel I am a Social Democrat. I believe that the government should pass bills providing services to protect workers because workers should feel safe doing the job they enjoy. Everyone should have a chance to succede and excell as far as they would like to. But if we do not make any changes, no one will be able to aford to do so. I feel that no matter what form of government we choose to have, there will still be issues between the social classes. They will always be treated differently, and there will constantly be arguements about how we are all being taxed unfairly and how we can barely suport ourselves.
The only part of the Capitalist point of view I agree with is the fact that the economy thrives on competition. I feel that everyone is trying to be better than everyone and there is a lot of competition between social classes. People want to come out on top and many people are willing to do whatever it takes to reach that point and become very successful human beings.
The only part of the Trade Union point of view i agree with is how people should have the right to strike about their working conditions. The working conditions of people should be reasonable. They should be treated properly, be working in healthy conditions, and be paid a reasonable amount depending on the career the person has.
I believe that the Utopian Socialist point of view would be amazing. However, i do not believe it is realistic at all like i said before.
And I do not agree at all with the communist point of view. I feel like all the communists want to do is fight and I do not believe that is the proper way to go about things. I mean sure if we have tried anything and everything we can in order to get a better government and nothing has changed, then yes deffinately we should fight for what we believe should be happening and want to happen, but not until then.
And finally, I completely agree with what the Social Democrat point of view is, that congress should pass bills providing services to protect workers.
As the children of business owners, I find myself to be a capitalist. Ever since I was a little boy I was told about how when people say tax the business owners, they think of the huge franchises like McDonalds, dominos, etc, when it affects the little people. My parents said a few years ago “Socialism is sweeping the nation and it’s not right. Yes sometimes you find a gem in a pile of rubble but does that mean all the rubble should deserve to be a gem? No, to get to the point of wealth we are now we had to work hard, now yes we do work a normal desk job and get off work whenever we want, but we try to not abuse that and the rifraft that manages to get in doesn’t deserve to make as much as a successful business owner.” By this I realized that yes everyone deserves the right to make money but a factory line work that most likely never went to college does not deserve the same as a doctor who spent 10+ years more n school. In theory socialism is great in practice it is worse than anarchy. If they automatically get whatever they may need, why would they work?? With no government to enforce them to do so? I say capital ism, the governmental ideal behind the runners win and the walkers make it by, deserves to be a prime government and yes 99% aren’t it because if 100% were the richest, there would be no richest. Some people don’t realize if all the nations’ money was split, if they had 2 million to heir name in assets they would not gain much and it would feel like you got paid twice that week.
Also, if you were to give a man who can barrel speak do to the life they lived (homeless since childhood) they would not use the wealth properly. This is not to say that some would, but the majority would waste it. Negative effects to socialism or communism are that no one would want to work. Most people work to ay the bills and eat. I have never met a man who would say “I love to work a 9-5 job filing papers” most people enjoy leisure, like non-competitive sports, games, naps, television, etc
Overall socialism would work for the poor that are now hand feed where as the rich live the same life but now with less money and cant afford to keep there business.
I believe im on the side of the trade unions because if the workers are working really hard for these people and making them a lot of money then i agree that they should be able to strike and demand more money if they work for 16 hours a day. Also they should be able to choose there working conditions so its not dangerous to work. The employers should also notice that if the workers are working really hard and long hours a day at least they could provide a safe working environment for the workers. Another reason i’m on the side of the trade unions is because people have the right to choose where there working and it should be fair on how much they get paid and should be able to go on strike for more money and better working conditions. Also the workers should be able to organize and express their grievances against their employers because its only fair that they get that decision after all there the ones who are working really hard to make the employers all that money on whatever the factory is making. Also i’m on the side of a social democrat because i believe that the people should be protected by the government and that they should pass bills providing the service to protect the workers. One example is that you get fired from your job and have no place else to work and provide food and shelter foe your family, well if theres a law that passes the right to collect bills for the workers who got fired and don’t have money then its a good idea. You will get some money i’m hoping that the government will, but they will give you some in order to survive until you get a job. And if there’s people who think that they can live there life off that money then there wrong because you should get a certain amount of time to go find another job and stop using the money that the government is giving you. Also if you get hurt while your working of say theres an accident and you die then there should be bills that the government should pay of other people depending on the government that says you will be protected from these work accidents.
I am definitely a capitalist tried and true as you put it. The economy does thrive on competition and I believe that government regulation would not damage it if it were done minimally and correctly. What I do not believe is that an invisible hand guides a mutually beneficial exchange of goods in a free market. And I couldn’t see anyone else believing this either. In the industrial revolution the invisible hand was in effect and disaster happened. There were wealthy people who invested and owned most or all of the market. They abused their workers, making them work long hours with little pay. That’s when the government regulation would come in handy. The problem is it seems that the government sucks at doing so. I don’t know or really even understand much on this subject but it seems to me that the government has made it so our economy has tanked due to their regulations. Also I would have to put it in there that I do like unions but most of them want everyone to have equal pay. This I do not approve of I believe that there should be social classes, and that you should be able to chose your own path to reach the top. The unions do protect the workers and provide good benefits though.
Ok now off with Adam Smith’s theory of the invisible hand and on to competition in the economy. This is what makes America what it is, competition. People are able to come here and set up shop selling products and compete with other shops to sell. This drives the price of goods down and the consumer rating up. If we did not have competition I cant even imagine what prices of consumer goods will be like. And also I don’t think there ever will be able to be a time without competition. It is in our nature to compete with each other, humans have been doing it since B.C. times. Yes competition makes social classes but they are not a bad thing! You can work to get into a higher social class, just look at Bill Gates for example and even Justin Bieber. I strongly dislike that kid but he went from some average kid, like me, to a multi millionaire. He got a talent of singing crappy music that everyone likes and made something from it. And Bill gates was a middle class citizen I believe, but then he pretty much invented the computer. Both of these people deal with competition in the economy everyday. Bill has to deal with Mac and Justin has to deal with the millions of other musicians.
Now on to this occupy stuff. Most of these people that the “occupy” protesters are against worked hard to get to there position. The top 1%, yea they are richer than you, yea some of them can evade taxes, but honestly who cares. They say it is “unfair” but guess what, life is unfair stick it into your brains. I’m sorry Ms. Houlahan but this is the only way I can think of putting this. The “occupy” people need to stop b**ching about these millionaires and move on. Occupy Wall Street’s slogan “We are the 99%” is from the idea that they represent the difference in wealth that separates the top 1% and every other American citizen. The top 1% of Americans is defined as anyone who has an annual household income greater than $593,000. So why are multi-millionaire celebrities showing up to offer their support and grab attention? And why is Occupy Wall Street taking them seriously? Some of them include Yoko Ono, the widow of John Lennon who is estimated to be worth $500 million, Kanye West who is estimated to be worth %70 million, and Roseanne Barr who is an actress worth %80 million. I would like to point out also that she said anyone with over $100 million should be beheaded. So it seems to me that this occupy Wall Street is a load of bull. And I don’t think the Tea Party is all that much better, they are just mad at the right thing the federal government. Maybe everyone should focus on all of these major company bailouts that kind of irks me. Obama and Bush were pretty much like, “oh hey you company is bankrupt? Let me give you millions of dollars!!!” Whatever I don’t even really care about any of this, at this moment I’m 15 years old and living in a decent middle class family, I’m fine with that. I just think the government should’ve stayed the way it was in the 50’s and 60’s. The average family had a care and a three-bedroom house, with money to spare.
All done.
my paragraphs got all messed up
Throughout history and its many forms of government, class systems have always been a part of each respective society. Every type of government has one but it becomes even more evident and dysfunctional in societies run by the few and the wealthy. Sadly a class system ranging from the dirt poor to the filthy rich can never be eliminated. The only way to realistically run a long lasting government that creates equal opportunity for all is with capitalism. Capitalism relies on the money cycling through the corporate system with the supply and demand that large companies create. From the poor to the rich, every cent that is put in to the system creates the economic structures that all of our lives rely on to thrive. The Tea Party Movement wants to cut taxes on all levels and reduce government spending. By cutting taxes the amount of money that is given back to the government is reduced creating a larger debt. The reduction of government spending, as great as it would be, is not possible in the near future. The spending is necessary to keep the country running on par with the standards that it was founded on. Without the spending that the government must do, there could be a systematic failure and cause the second great depression, the fate of the economy is in the governments (invisible) hands. At the same time the rights of the workers must also be protected and conserved, which is why a trade union is also necessary. If the employers are unjust in any way, from hours of work, to wages, the workers have a right to strike their facility of employment to create awareness about the unfair actions taken by the employers. This is a harmless way of making unfair actions known to the consumers. This same course of action has been happening for the last month at occupy Wallstreet in New York. This mass show of protesters has spread their reach to every state and even other countries, where now thousands of other people are doing the same type of protesting. The protesting calls for equality in taxes considering the top 2% of the nation’s wealthiest people is taxed considerably less than the other 98% of average Americans. This shows how relevant and real the class system is today even in our very own society. There may never be a time where we can abolish the differences in wealth amongst the various people in our nation, but we can call for a load to be take off the shoulders of the already under payed and over worked middle class Americans and for it to be put on the people who have the ability to create more jobs and revers the recession all together.
The inequalities between social classes and how to deal with the tension that is growing between them.
First thing, we defiantly need a government. Some form of government is needed in order for society to function. I think a government needs to be formed of members of all classes in order for all the different classes to be happy. But even if this is done someone will always be unhappy, just as Lidia Vences mentioned. I agree with many of the points that Lidia made. I do not think that we will ever be able to find a system with the government that works. If we put lower class and middle class into the government as representatives they will move out of these classes and will stop making the decisions that the lower and middle class would make in order to find peace and equality.
Andrew Greene mentioned that everyone should pay equal taxes, but are we not already in a recession? If everybody is paying equal taxes then the upper class will continue to pay with ease, the middle class will continue to hold their place, while the lower class will struggle and stay the lower class. I think that taxes need to be to be based off of the income you make. Everybody should be required to pay taxes. I think the government should not be spending money on things that are unnecessary. I also believe that government officials should not be payed so high. Merai Dandouch said that she felt as if “the government is sitting back watching this catastrophe.” I completely agree. I think the only way the government will try to come up with a solution is if they somehow are put in jeopardy, or possibly if they feel threatened. I am not saying that we should go out and make them feel threatened. But the greed has created a state of mind that if we feel that our own life is in jeopardy then we will act otherwise we will sit back and watch.
The top 1% holds the decisions that the government makes. They are making way too much money in my opinion. The reason that they are in charge of the government’s decisions is because that is where all the money is. Where money is, power will be found. As Domenica Stoll mentioned people are greedy, corrupt, and untrustworthy. These are the biggest reasons that we cannot come up with a government system that will work or function.
The way that the economy is set up today reflects the greed and corruptness in people. Today there are laws against monopolies but everything else is “free game”. Big companies use other countries to produce things for cheap labor so they make more of a profit for themselves. In the United States we have laws against child labor or sweatshops. In other countries they have sweatshops and the workers conditions are similar to those of the labors of the Industrial Revolution. I think that trade unions have and should continue to be part of the government system. Under trade unions workers are able to organize and express their grievances against their employers. Workers are also able to go on strike for higher wages and improved working conditions. This is a key part to the happiness of a whole people. In order for everyone to be happy the workers must be satisfied just as the boss.
I believe that we already have a part Capitalist government and I think this a good idea to incorporate into the economy and society. In this type of government the economy thrives on competition. I think this is where much of our greed and corruptness comes out. The idea of a “invisible hand” guiding a mutually beneficial exchange of goods in a free market is the idea behind a Capitalist government. This is a good idea but without rules or laws it will easily be blown out of per-portion. I think that the government should be involved in making decisions and passing laws in favor to protect of the workers. This is the idea behind a Social Democrat.
Unfortunately the greed, corruptness, and the untrustworthy has greatly ruined and damaged the economy. It has created a endless cycle of greed and bad habits that continue throughout the generations and the problems of our society only multiply. The debt that we as a whole have created is unbelievable and the future problems that we have created are terrible. When you as a person take a step back and look at what we have become and we will create for the future it makes us wonder if we have really learned from history at all. It makes wonder what will come once we are gone, if the problems will get worse or improve.
I completely 100% think that what Ryan Seemiller said is true. These ideas of government are great!….for ideas. The truth is though once these ideas are put into action they fall apart. Communism for example is supposed to be equalizing and settling right? Is that what’s happening in China and North Korea? No. Those people are watched under strict rulers and harsh government. A communist economy is supposed to make the world happy and peaceful here’s what goes wrong. One person works as a CEO from 6a.m. to 10p.m. everyday (excluding holidays) at the headquarters of a major world wide corporation(lets say toyota?) and gets payed 50K a year. Another person works at a junkyard 4 days a week from 8a.m. to 7p.m. and makes 5K a year. In communism the government would take both of their money and distribute it evenly. Now this would make our junky very happy sure but the CEO of toyota? Not so much. So the idea of communism, to make everyone equal, is great. To put that idea to action? Bad idea.
Capitalism seems like a good idea too but having a government constantly watching over and keeping everything in check just seems to hard. A Utopian socialism sounds like the best answer so far. Everyone is happy and peaceful. But what you have to consider is HUMAN NATURE. It’s just not right for people the get along like robots forever. Competition is in our blood. It’s one of the things that makes humans human. There is always reality to consider. If the government tried to make a utopia they would have to have a dictatorship first to get everyone to cooperate. Then there would be rebellion and it would just be messy. Trade unions would be nice just because you’d be able to speak up against your employer but isn’t that just called freedom of speech?
If i were too choose it would be capitalism because it seems like the most realistic version of government. I really think that all government systems are wack and people need to come together to create a new more ideal and realistic version of government so that everyone can be happy!! Is that to much to ask? Everyone is similar in one way right? Maybe it can be in points of view on government. Or not according to these blogs…. And we are only teenagers (;
I would probably classify myself as a mix between a “Capitalist”, because I believe that completion is healthy. It is in human nature to use competition and I think the economy strives on competition, because without competition there wouldn’t be the jobs that everyone has these days. Although Capitalism may sound good, because people can do the work and get the job the want, but things about Capitalism can be bad. For example: Capitalism pretty much led to the “Occupy Wall Street” protests, but Capitalism is more of a free choice type of government, because you can choose what kind of job you want and you can choose if you have a high paying job also. Communism isn’t really fair, because people who have more experience than others should get paid more money because of all the hard work they have done to get to where they are at, and to give them the same about of money as everyone else, even the people who didn’t do much in life, is just absolutely belittling to all of the work they have done. Now Communism looks good on paper, but it would NEVER work out, because people do not want the success hindered by just giving them the same amount of money as other people, and that it mostly because of the natural greed in people. There are many countries that are living proof that Communism can not work. Example: Cuba, China, and North Korea. Most of these countries have a leader and the leader pretty much does not treat them as they are all equal.I honestly think that there is not really a type of government that would work out, because no matter what kind of government the people get there will always be social class that will NEVER happy, and that is a current issue. Just like Andrew said “Also people who have millions of dollars, like sports players, should not complain about getting 50 mil a season, and ask for double or more. They should not complain like a bunch of babies without their binkies”, but this is not always the case. For example Warren Buffet, he is one of the richest men on the planet and even he demands that he and other people who make over a million dollars should be taxed more than everyone else, because they are not doing anything important with their wealth, so they should help out the economy , and country!
The world we live in today is not the same world we knew a hundred years ago. Today we have higher standards on everything, including technology, schooling, living styles, and also the way money is perceived. Some people may say that this world is full of greed and selfishness, while others may say there is hope, and one day we may be able to have a perfect society, where people share all wealth and all things. For me, I agree with what Shannon Galvin said, how in order to obtain this perfect world we would have to go back hundreds and hundreds of years back to where the growth of humans started so we may change how we have come to be today. In this world, such a perfect society is not possible if up to the people.
The society we live in today has a mixture between the poor and rich, the workers and the owners, and the selfish and the giving. So let me ask you, if the giving people in this world decided they want to share everything, as they are working hard to do their part, why would anyone else want to work hard if they are already as wealthy as they could be? They most likely wouldn’t. Therefore, a communism would be simply impossible when this is the state of mind among people. I believe in what I know, and I know that the world is cruel, and not perfect, and if the people in this world are not perfect, how can we have a perfect society? I do not take one particular stance on this subject because I believe that competition is necessary for this society in which we have already set in stone for ourselves, but I also believe that people should have a say in their wages if they are being treated unfairly. People deserve what they work for, which brings me to my next point.
The idea of a communism is supposed to be the ideal form of society to live in. But what is the justice in it? If a person who went to medical school to become a doctor, and works unreasonable hours to save the lives of others, gets taxed more than a person who dropped out of high school and gets a part time job at McDonalds, how would that be just. The amount in which you receive should be depended on the amount of work and commitment you put into it. Therefore the idea of a society where people break their backs working gets the same as a person who just wants to get by on the work of others is unrealistic.
Competition is the means on which we have built our world and social classes. Today it has nothing to do with where you were born or who your parents were, it has to do with your effort, so therefore I must say that I am a person who believes in capitalism, trade unions, and even a partial social democrat. The ideas in which a utopian socialist and a communist rest on, is most likely never going to happen. Although a perfect world may be able to maintain these ideas, our world simply cannot.
As for the whole Occupy Wallstreet deal, i do think everyone should be taxed fairly but who said that it will resolve everything. It won’t, people will keep finding things that are unsatisfactory to them until the end of time.sass for Robert Owens and his ideas of a utopian socialist society, I disagree because honestly it is not realistic or what I see as fair. There are people that are honest hard workers and then there are people that (excuse my French) “half-ass” their work and are just lazy. If I were one of the hard workers living in a utopian society I would be so angry that I get paid the same wage as someone who barely does anything. I also think that living in a utopian society where everyone is treated the same and gets paid the same wages would make people lazy, they would have no challenge, nothing to fight for, and they’d lose motivation to be hard working citizens. On Karl Marx’s ideas of communism and a classless society, I’d love to say that that would work but I wouldn’t be talking realistically. I don’t think there will ever be a classless society. There are always going to be those people that thirst for for more power and control. There always have been people like this and there always will be. Like Shannon said in his blog ” Before someone can change the class system to make equality a large factor in society, they must first change several thousands of years of human history.” I think that is a really good point because the thing is, you can’t change those pas years. Even when famous and infamous history figures die, a new set are born exactly like them to repeat their work. As George Santayana puts it perfectly in this quote ” Those who cannot remember history are condemned to repeat it.” I also don’t think a society without government would work. There are always greedy, untrustworthy, havoc wreaking people. Without rules to control people like that, it would be very corrupt. As for trade unions I think that if there are unhappy people in a workplace they should all come together to discuss their grievances with their overseer (or whoever may handle the problems) first and if that doesn’t work they could have a peaceful protest. I definitely agree with the social democrat in the ideas that congress should provide services to ensure workers rights and protection. We can’t have people being treated like they were in the Industrial Revolution, it was too horrid for repetition. I don’t think society can work without government and there will never and should never be a utopian society. Government now is definitely not the best it could be, but it could be a lot worse.
I think I am a utopian socialist/communist/social democrat. Because in a way a utopian socialist are trying to give everyone equal amounts so they don’t have to fight over money, property, and politic rights. So the people don’t have to worry about it, and they can live a tranquil life wih their families. Also these benefits alot, because te government gets in charge of the people’s property and secure. A utopian socialist work is to always dustribute the money in equal amount
Приветствую товарищей. Based on that most people would be able to guess, in this context, that I am supporting communism. Those people would be right, unless they guessed specifically Russian Communism, in which case, no you almost couldn’t be more wrong. This is highly likely to turn into a rant, and I may end up flaming at people. As a disclaimer, nothing against anyone. I rant. That’s the way I am, flaming tends to come with an unchecked rant and in my experience, no rant can last very long without converting to be unchecked and still be considered a rant. So you’ve been warned.
I support communism, pure communism, because it is the perfect system. When most people think of communism they think of Russian communism which can be described as, “You have two cows. You have to take care of them, but the government takes all the milk.” Where as pure communism is, “You have two cows. Your neighbors help you take care of them, and you all share the milk.” Although, however perfect it may be it will never work on a large scale. Humans are too greedy, too self-centered, too weak and easy to corrupt. Most don’t understand the idea of “sharing” and think that what they do should benefit them more than others, but at the same time think that what others do should follow the same principle. This leads to something similar to a Tantrum Spiral from Dwarf Fortress. A Tantrum Spiral is when, say, a dwarf turns melancholy and starves himself. His death may be hard to cope with for a few dwarves and they may become so sad that they throw a tantrum. These dwarves in tantrums make others sad enough to throw a tantrum, and pretty soon all your dwarves are bouncing in and out of a tantrum and nothing is getting done. Then goblins show up and kill everyone, but that’s unrelated at this point. Or is it? Looking back on history, for, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” (George Santayana), every time you have two classes who are separated by money, power, etc. and put them in a room together one or both will usually end up dead. This is exactly what Karl Marx noticed. That’s why communism is perfect, everyone gets equal shares, and no one is better than one another. Sadly, America isn’t capable of this. Even if we were capable of it, it would just be The Red Scare all over again as soon as communism was mentioned. To address Conner Mazzola’s point about the economy thriving on the competition brought on by capitalism if it truly did “thrive” on capitalism then America would be in a better state right now economy-wise, but it isn’t because all the massive capitalist corporations are hoarding the money they get and making themselves like kings, or nobles. These people are using money as fire wood while people are starving in the streets all over the country. However I do agree that the government sucks at its job and it is the main cause of everything. Too bad, this world seems like it will never successfully achieve the greatness of true equality. As the sniper from Team Fortress 2 said, “Sniping’s a good job, mate. It’s challenging work, out of doors, I guarantee you won’t go hungry, cos at the end of the day, as long as there’s 2 people left on the planet, someone’s going to want someone dead.”
You may think your feelings and reasoning’s to whatever you choose is right, but to this question of, ‘What is the best way to handle the growing tension between social/ economic classes?’ My feelings are mixed between trade unions, utopian socialist, and communist. You may not agree with my statements by any means but again, everyone has their own views on things.
I strongly believe that workers should be able to strike for higher wages and fight for better working conditions. Why? Well if you were in the position as an employer and you had to work under horribly constructed conditions, had to work your hardest during long days, working lots of hours to receive little pay, I think you would rebel and want to let your voice be heard by going against what is happening and sticking to what you believe is right. That is what I feel for the side of the trade unions, that they should fight for what they want and what they believe is beneficial not to only them, but to everyone in that position.
On the other hand like Robert Owen, on the utopian socialism side, I believe that the government owns and controls parts of the economy and should distribute the wealth equally among the people. Isn’t that what everyone wants, is equality? Maybe not for the upper classmen because they have everything that they need and their already at the top. For everyone who’s at the bottom and who wants to keep moving up, they don’t understand that when people move up in the social class system, people from the upper class system must come down. People are never going to be please no matter what. There’s always going to be disagreement among the people not matter what their ranked as.
While Karl Marx believes society is “more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into great classes directly facing each other; the bourgeoisie as the middle class and the proletariat as the workers.” I think that one day, if not in the near future, that workers will violently overthrow the wealthy and form a classless society. By forming a classless society isn’t that just doing the same thing as the other societies? Making a system of what they only believe in. Don’t you see that as being quite hypocritical?
Overall do I and should I believe that the best way to handle the growing tension between social/ economic classes is a mix between the three topics I chose, trade unions, utopian socialist, and communist. Well those are just my opinions and views on how I see it. Everyone interprets this question differently and this is how I see it.
There are many ways to deal with social inequalities, in the French revolution the used violence to deal with the inequalities of the clergy and the nobility. Although violence is not always the answer to social inequalities. When martin Luther king was alive, he tried to stop social inequalities by protesting. In ways, he succeeded although many social inequalities are solved or stopped by violence. Many revolutions are usually in times of high taxation and class systems. For example, French revolution was caused by both high taxation and class systems. Although in my view there was a point, were the revolution of France got out of hand when the revolution started to not only destroy the nobility but those of the third class.
Also there is a protest on wall street for this such of an equality were there are people who inherit money and do not have to pay as much tax as those who do not have as much money and have worked hard for it. In a sense there are some cases were violence is necessary to get your point out though too much violence can lead to a controversial ending like mob mentality were they protest for a noble cause but then leads to other situations such as robbery, uncontrolled violence, vandalism , slaughtering of the innocent, overthrowing authority and much more. Yes, violence is needed but if it gets out of hand, it leads to controversial violence and others will not take them as a serious group if they do all this crime in the process.
Although protests have been achieved with, out violence but do take a long time to get across to the authorities or the government Mohandas Gandhi for example lead a protest in India, which was successful, which goes to show that not using violence you can achieve the same as if you used violence. It at sometimes may take longer but you still get your point across. You can see that both violence and nonviolence can achieve many things.
In conclusion, violence and nonviolence are both ways to achieve something like class difference. Violence is a more negative way to achieve but can also lead to controversy to what they are trying to achieve other than uncontrolled violence. Nonviolence it is more clear as to what you are protesting about but the government or authority or king of the certain area may or may not take you as seriously as a violent threat. So both violence and nonviolence to achieve have pro’s and con’s of each method.
I think I am a social democrat and believe that people should be protected at there jobs. People would be paid a reasonable salary for the amount of work and have reasonable benefits with out these people are treated like a slave for little pay for more work than a rich person who ahs to work little and gets to decide how much money get to be put in to there wallet. We also should try to commission cap on people who make a lot of almost useless money like Bill Gates and use that money to give to poorer people because Bill gates has about 500 billion dollars and if he had 1 billion less it wouldn’t make that much of a difference and would be able to give 1000 people a million dollars (oh yeah I can do math).
I also sort of agree with the ideas of Karl Marx and communism where it is necessary to have rich people and poor people because if we were all rich than there wouldn’t be anybody to work the rich like a person who owns a factory would have anybody to work in the factory and if everyone was poor and worked in a factory no one would be run it. Karl Marx also thought that eventually class differences will one day become so intense that the workers will violently overthrow the wealthy and form a classless society. I believe that this may come true where there are still are people who have jobs that pay high now like doctors and lawyers and business owners but they will be paid far less so more money will go to poor people and someone like a doctor would be considered to be just doing there duty to help others
Over a hundred years ago we lived in a completely different world, where society didn’t tell you what you were supposed to think as much as we do today. Today, we believe in anything anybody tells us; in other words, we are all gullible. We have high expectations and get everything we want pretty easily unlike a hundred years ago, when people would have to fight for rights they knew it wouldn’t be as easy and would take a lot of hard work and time.
I agree with Janine Raduechel in her opinion about society. We definitely don’t live in a perfect world especially when we have society is making us believe things that aren’t real; for example, the “perfect body” or the definition of “beautiful”.
The social classes we had a hundred years ago still exist to this day even if we don’t show it as much as they did back in the day. If you were born into a wealthy family you’re most likely going to stay into that wealthy atmosphere the rest of your life and you’re not going to want to do things with people that don’t have as much wealth or that isn’t in the same social class as you. This isn’t how society should be but it is, and there is nothing we can do to change it. Whether we try to change it we most likely wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.
As we all know, we don’t live in a perfect world with a society that’s perfect and makes you feel like everything in this world should be fair and we’re all beautiful etc. Society is what’s ugly; NOT you. Even though this world is messed up with the different social classes and everything, I kind of believe that this should be the way things should be; only because the fact that we all have to compete to win what you truly desire. How much you work is how much you deserve. I believe in a democracy; for the people of the people. Democracy can be unfair at times, but what you work for is what you get. Like my kindergarten teacher used to say “You get what you get and you don’t throw a fit.” Democracy relies on the public to make the choices so everything will be at least somewhat equal, even if some people don’t agree on what other people’s opinions are it’s probably the most equal way to do things in this ugly society we live in today.
These days people debate and fight about who’s idea of government should be in motion. They go through so much trouble trying to prove themselves right, that, that form of government is correct. Why? Because we crave being right. Capitalism, Trade Unions, Communism, Social Democracy Utopian Society? All different ideas and forms of how to run countries. The goal of all these ideas is to make all the citizens happy and prosperous. But, it’s clearly impossible. You cannot make everyone happy, but people try to think of ways to make a form of government so close to making everyone happy; kind of like a puzzle piece.
My personal preference in how well of an ideal way to run is government is either a Utopian society, but i think of it as unrealistic because of the way human beings are, and capitalism. You might want to argue, say I’m wrong, blah blah, whatever. My opinion, man. Whenever I think of a Utopian Society, I think of the song “Why Can’t We Be Friends” but, we obviously can’t all be friends because of how different we are. So, second choice, Capitalism. It seems the most fair. Make your own money with hard work, support your family. Sounds good to me. With Communism, like what Katie Dorsey said, is it fair for a guy that earns 50k a year that works his booty off from 6a.m to 10 at night and a guy that earns 5k a year and is halfassing it (pardon the french). Do you believe they should put their money together and divide it equally? Doesn’t sound right. What if the guy that makes 50k has a baby on the way and is working extra hours to support it? and the guy that earns 5k a year is a drug addict, or an alcoholic that wastes his money? That is not economical. Sure the guy that earns 5k would be happy. But he’s lazy and barely works hard. So communism is just an excuse for hippies and people who don’t want to work to get money without effort. Don’t let the hippies get free money for drugs. You EARN your money, why give it away?
Concluding, the closest thing to a perfect fit in the puzzle would be Capitalism, in my opinion. Sure you may disagree, and that’s perfectly peachy.
I am on the utopian side of society like Robert Owen. I believe that we as a society should be trying to help each other out, if you are fortunate enough to be well off or at least able to make it by in this economical crisis, then i feel that you should help out the less fortunate somehow. I feel like i am lucky to be having a shelter over my head and to be well off, while other people are on the streets. it makes me sad seeing people having to live a hard life because they got laid off of their job for pay reasons. The hardworking people shouldn’t have to pay for our economy by losing their jobs and ending up on the streets. I feel like as a community the government gives us all equal payroll, and what we do with that money can contribute to if we become rich, or poor. i feel like the government should sort of watch over us more and try to help us out. in Denmark people that live there pay 70% of their income to taxes, but the people are happy to incorporate taxes into their lifestyle, because education from preschool-college is completely paid for, which takes a big load off of the parents shoulders worrying if they will be able to send their kid to college or not. they have retirement totally covered, meaning that they wont have to put money aside in the bank for their retirement fund. living in Denmark as long as you have a house, all you really need money for to support you is money for food, and gas. In America we have to be wary about all of these challenges in life. we have to put money aside for college, retirement, and if you have investments you are always worrying about your investment tanking, and being left with worthless investments. in America when you have an investment you can become rich off of it, or the bigger risk that you take is that your investment crashes and your left with junk. in a utopian society, i feel like the government would sort of watch your investments and sort of give you insurance on your investment, so that if it did tank and your investment was worth absolutely nothing, the government would pitch in and try and help you out and make things right. when i hear utopian society i think of everyone as being equal and sort of picture a suburban community, where everyone lives in unison, and has no worries in the world since everyone has sort of the same lifestyle.
Of all of the sides to choose from I think I am on the trade union side. I think before an all powerful ruler (or owner) decides on something they should run it across ALL of their employees. I believe that employees and workers should have the right to speak their peace and tell their grievances and problems while working at there job. I believe you should be happy where you work and be able to speak your mind and not let it all in and boil up. I think so things don’t always lead to conflict at first people should send a letter of what is going wrong in the job atmosphere. Kind of like the Declaration of Independence when America sent King Louis a list of grievances. Of course some people will not always listen… Like King Louis did not I think it’s good to put a word out there in the world that something is not going right. When talking about trade unions there is always something people don’t want to hear, strike. Although it’s a hard and awful thing for any company to go through I believe that it really gives employees a way to speak out even more, and with a big impact. I believe that strike is always a good thing to have in the back pocket of an employee because it gives them more of a power than just speaking. Also it’s for what EVERYONE in America needs, money. I think if people believe they are not getting the proper pay for what they are doing they should definitely revolt. Don’t worry, I don’t mean Tale of Two Cities revolt. I think a strike for a certain extent also. Hopefully never too far. I think that all of the sides in society have a couple of rights and a couple of wrongs. I think it’s sad that with the different group’s sides and classes we all begin to go against each other. I think it’s sad that when we all have different beliefs in each other we want to accuse or think of them as something because of what they believe. I think that employees SHOULD get rights and be able to tell their employer if there are problems with their job. Would YOU go on with problems and let them prolong until your head exploded? I would think not. I also think that employees being able to strike it good. Because it can give them a sense of power if only words does not stop their problems. Although I can see that many people could disagree with my beliefs on trade unions I believe they are the right thing to do and have for ALL people. Not letting appearance, race, beliefs or anything step in the way.
I personally think that the world would be a better place if we lived in a Utopian society. I think a Utopian society is best because if we all lived in a peaceful environment, there would be less need for violence. Also, I agree with Conner Smith when he said that if everyone is given an equal payroll, less fortunate people have a chance to function properly in society. Another reason a Utopian society is best, is that if we did in fact live in a Utopian society our visual media would be totally different. Our view of the perfect man, woman, and life would probably all be completely different than today. In today’s society, being a perfect woman means you have to look attractive, you have to be skinny, you have to know how to make a mean sammich, and you have to endure sexism with no complaint. But maybe, in a Utopian society, if women were to be successful as anything they want to be (ex: Doctor, Labor Worker, Lawyer, etc) men probably wouldn’t feel intimidated by women. Therefore, men wouldn’t have to result in sexism just to have a sense of victory over women. We should consider a Utopian society in the near future because if we have that kind of society, society would be better in general. There wouldn’t be any racism, and you could do want you aspire to do not matter what color your skin is. If America ever reaches a state of peace, I hope to have it be and equal society in which no one if judged for their sexuality either. In a Utopian society, I imagine gays to be able to live with their partners without being afraid of society and what society thinks of you. I think that if we converted to a Utopian society, war wouldn’t be necessary, and if there were people who tried to abolish our ways of peace, they would be put into a place where they could truly enjoy the fact that society has actually reached a state of peace. A Utopian society could decrease the tension between classes because there really would be classes. If everyone got paid the same and treated the same, classes wouldn’t really be necessary. With that being said, a Utopian society is best for the world because the abolishment of classes would also successfully abolish the tension between classes. So overall, a Utopian society is best.
For some reason, this did not save.. So I re-typed it up.
Out of all government systems.. I’d have to pick Utopian Society.. Why..? Well you see, there are a lot of reasons why a Utopian society would be able to work, and there are several reasons why it wouldn’t. These are just some.
Some of the reasons an Utopian society would work, is that everyone could work together.. Everyone could be nice and pleasant to each other.. Everyone could share and be polite.
Some of the reasons an Utopian society wouldn’t work at all, would be because the people.. They would choose competition over cooperation.. And if just one person does not cooperate. Then the whole community can fall apart. That’s just so important.. Everyone has to participate, and cooperate. I believe that the government would be in charge of the money, as long as they were equally distributing the money. I find that this Utopian society system would work best, rather than the others.
I believe that we should all live in a Utopian Society. I do believe that the economic system should favor cooperation over competition because when they favor cooperation over competition people will start cooperating more to make this world a better place and it will benefit all of us. It could be okay to have competition but as long as it doesn’t get violent and the cooperation system will not be at risk. The government should distribute money equally so their will not be any different social classes. No one should have more money and abuse of it and be greedy with it like it is in some cases today. No one should be more important than another. Having people have the same amount of money distributed will make goods and some bad’s. People who dont use the money for good to them self’s or family should be disciplined and shown the proper way to do it. A Utopian Society is the better way to go.
I believe that no matter what the government does at least one class will not be happy with the outcome. Once we fix the tension then another issue will begin to uprise and all the classes will be unhappy all over again. If the amount of “equal amount of tax” was a very high price wouldnt the lower classes struggle to even pay their taxes?. Were already in a recession. This would just make matters worse. It would leave the richer classes happier but the lower classes unhappy. You see? no one is ever truly happy which in my opinion makes government have a hard time deciding what would be the most effective.
In my case im in between a communist and a capitalist because the economy does tend to thrive on competition. For example, we all thrive to be the best at something whether it be sports, school etc. Adults are the exact same way. They compete with each other about having better jobs and bigger money incomes. People work harder so that they can be at the top. i do agree about Adam Smiths theory because it guides the free market because by exhchanching things each person is better off with because it increases their wealth than when they are just producing for themselves. I agree with capitalism because we do have social classes. People like to think that there are no social classes but in harsh reality there is. People are too afraid about what social class they would be placed in because they dont want to be in the “lower class”. I dont think we should face each other because that would only cause more tension in between classes. I dont think that the lower classes would try to overthrow the wealthy class because even though it has been done before. What difference would it make now? were in the 21st century. thing are way more different then they were before.Most likely it would return to the way it was before. It would also most likely be very un-orgazined and they would breakout in a mob and use more violent approaches to try and get what they want. The case and point of this is that there will always be class systems, but is it really the right thing for them to be there in the first place