Connection: Capitalism Destroys Resraint

Capitalism changes how we see global markets and the world. One of our driving goals in a capitalist market is to maximize profit by almost whatever means possible. Looking at even in the 2008 and crash the financial industry profited largely especially Goldman Sachs. We have lost our restraints from doing immoral tasks to gain enormous profits. Around 500 year ago we made a shift towards this capitalist world.

In this book when they discuss how the Europeans have no restraint compared to the Africans, it is because we are taught we are only supposed to maximize profits. Capitalism really creates a view of a person as an individual and separates himself from everyday society.

This connection drove me to ponder, is having restraint better?

Looking at history, we used to have an economic system in which people had much smaller profits. If it costs $5 to make a product it would be sold for $6 rather than the larger markups in today's economy such that this same product would cost $20 or $30 dollars. But this is not necessarily a bad thing because then companies make more money to pay people more and thus spend more money into the economy. We no longer restrain our selves from charging people absurd prices.

Additionally, we will produce things at almost any means possible. If we have to use slave labor or sweat shops, we would. No matter the immorality we would still try to make more money. This has greatly changed how we live. Without laws people become more likely to steal and plunder because they are still working towards capitalist goals.