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Schweickart's Argument Against Capitalism

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Capitalism is an economic system which is defined by 3 major characteristics; private ownership and control of the means of production, a market of goods and services, and wage labor. Private ownership of the means of production is when an individual or corporation has control over the factors of production, a market of goods and services is the competition between businesses to sell those goods or services to consumers, and wage labor is when an individual sells his labor to an employer under a contract. This essay will elaborate on why capitalism isn’t the only viable option and how alternatives such as economic democracy or socialism are possible.
Karl Marx criticized capitalism and one of his main arguments was how it was alienating.
Marx’s definition of alienation was when the workers felt isolated and didn’t have a connection to their labor or the products they were making which led to the feeling of being controlled and exploited. He presents the concept of species-being and how workers are alienated from that due to …show more content…

Economic Democracy is a form of socialism that is defined to have the same market for goods and services like capitalism, but democratic control in the workplace and over investments. A workplace democracy compared to wage labor in capitalism allows control to be distributed among the workers and the profits are shared. Furthermore, a democratic approach to the control of investments would be different in the sense that the investment funds would derive from a capital-assets tax which is distributed to banks and loaned to businesses based off certain criteria. Economic democracy also supports the concept that government should provide a source of labor for individuals who are capable of doing so but can’t find work because it is dehumanizing to not do so. It also promotes the entrepreneurs in a society which play a vital role in society and the

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