Some libertarians argue that, from a moral standpoint, if actions of an ordinary thief are wrong, then the actions of a government who taxes certain people in order to support others are wrong too. I disagree with their argument because at some point, corporations and wealthy people are doing harm to others and the environment. Many corporations harvest natural resources and pollute the environment, and therefore they are responsible to give something back to the community. Taxes are one of the ways.
Hospers did mention that people will never go hungry: "with the restrictions removed, the economy would flourish as never before" (pg 326). Yet is it always true that with the restrictions removed, more and more consumers needs, will be satisfied by the expansion of existing business and establishment of new business? Is it always true that the employment rate will increase? Is it always the case, as I think that those who control the business will gain much more profit, and they will not think about assisting the needy (unless it will lead to even more profit) and thus the poor will be even poorer.
In class, we discussed about how government plays an important role to supervise companies' operation. There should be regulations and laws enforced by the government so that these companies will keep producing goods and services that are up to standard. In the social condition of minimal government interference as suggested by Hospers, big companies that have achieved monopoly in the business will start producing products that will not last long just for profit. Consumers are forced to buy these products and eventually, they will be dissatisfied because the products are not worth the money they spent.
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I agree. While some argue that a purely capitalist system would be the most beneficial for the majority of people, many more argue against that. Our system right now is not yet completely capitalist, yet the distribution of wealthy is very uneven. Imagine how uneven it would be if we were in a purely capitalist system. Schweickart says that the current distribution of wealth is such that the top 1%, the next 9%, and then the next 90% have an equal amount of wealth. A purely capitalist system would just worsen the situation, according to Schweickart. Unemployment would not vanish because unemployment would be the only way to ensure that workers worked as hard as they should. If there were more jobs than could be filled, workers would be in more demand than jobs and could negotiate some. Since the opposite is true, they have no say, and are unhappy. According to Schweickart, a purely capitalist system would not lead to an increased amount of happiness for the general populous.
It was discussed in the reading and in class today how the crop that we have kept alive for so many years (corn) is not just a form of agriculture that we like to eat. The author explains the evolution of corn and why it is so important to society. I seemed to observe some very interesting links among the topics discussed in the reading and how this simple crop is very much a catalyst for profit making and is the key ingredient to capiltalism. Just look around the super market. The supermarket is full of inventory that is solely there because somebody is trying to make a profit off of it. Almost everything you see in the store can be linked to corn somehow. many of the food contains corn syrup or corn flour. Many of the foods in the store are made up of animals that once ate corn. Take a walk over to the deli section. There is a plethora of meats, all different kind of animals. Most of these animals grew up on similar farms and were served similar corn feed everyday. The author talks about the relationship between the steer and corn. As I just said the steer eats corn. And as most of us know the steer's main purpose is to one day be a beutiful slice of medium rare steak presented to us at a nice five star restaurant. So the steer eats the corn and is then sent away to the slaughter house. The meat and poultry industry is a huge profit making industry and once again we trace it back to corn. One fifth of our petroleum consumption in the US is used just to ship our food. This same adventure that we followed corn on through the meat market can be done with many other products in the supermarket as well, proving that corn is quite a smart species to create this partnership with humans and become such an importance piece to so many capitalists profit making strategies.
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