The Oppression Of Capitalism And Poverty In The United States

Marx's theory on Capitalist exploitation is an incredibly deep theory, but to explain it in a nutshell, it is that the working-class people are improperly compensated for their work. The rich, the higher-ups, they continue to expand their wealth by exploiting the working class, the Capitalist system not only allows but effectively demands that Capitalists increase their wealth, long-term or short-term, whether at the cost of the working-class or not. There are three “values” to take into consideration, the use-value, the exchange-value and the

Capitalism upholds the values of the bourgeoisie over the values of the proletariats therefore sustaining the ruling class ideology. These dominant values are perpetuated by social institutions like the mass media and the legal system. This creates a false class consciousness; which is when the proletariats are not conscious of their unjust situation and have upheld the beliefs and values of the bourgeoisie, undermining the awareness which the proletariats have of their exploitation.

At its very core, Marx’s capitalist theory is an economic system based on three things: wage labour, which comes from land owners employing individuals to work for a wage, control of the means of production (factories, farms, offices and machinery), and production for exchange and profit. Considering the majority of society do not own the means of production, and are not private owners, they are forced to offer their ability to work in exchange for a regular wage,

In the book, Poverty and Inequality, it is noted that many people look at the economy and poverty status in the 60s to gauge how to solve poverty today (1997). The sixties saw the longest and strongest economic growth in US history. The unemployment rates went from twenty two percent to thirteen percent. The economy grew 4.3 % every year. This leads many economic analyses to tie the bustling economy with the declining poverty level. The eighties saw two short recessions before the second longest and strongest growth in US history. The unemployment rate went from just over ten percent to just over eight percent. It is important to note that the poverty rate only fell slightly during this period. By 1990, the poverty rate

America is one of the wealthiest countries on earth with having a high imbalance than other industrialized nation. Disparity exists in salary, riches, influence and training. Persons who are legitimately and socially poor in the United States tend to stay in a push through life, not generally by decision but rather in light of the fact that they are given less open doors, training and apparatuses to make progress. Neediness class has a much bigger salary crevice than the privileged, the American Dream is diminishes through circumstance and is demonstrated through measurements.

In recent months there has been endless discussion on how to make America great again. From politician to business men and women, dialog on fixing the present structure in America has been rampant. Within such dialog, topics on the increasing and rather consistent levels of poverty in some regions in America are touched on as well. Poverty is defined as a condition where one’s basics needs for food, clothing, and shelter are not being met ("What Is Poverty? “). From sea to shining sea, more than 15 percent of the American population live in poverty, a total of people over 46 million. Many who live in poverty within the United States live in areas that were once thriving from the country’s economic growth that are now only sad remnants such as the Deep South and Rust Belt cities.

Henslin (2014) said “Richard Rodriguez represents millions of immigrants – not just those of Latino origin but those from other cultures, too-who want to integrate into U.S culture yet not betray their past. Fearing loss of their roots, they are caught between two cultures, each beckoning, each offering rich rewards”

For the first time, this report shows that by investing an additional 2 percent of the federal budget into existing programs and policies that increase employment, make work pay, and ensure children’s basic needs are met, the nation could reduce child poverty by 60 percent and lift 6.6 million children out of poverty.

Overtime issues with the percentage of citizens in poverty has risen. Several organizations have been set up to help those who suffer from poverty and provide their everyday needs. There are always ways where a community can help eliminate the amount of people suffering poverty. Government has an influence on how much money flow there is in the United States such as the FED, which was created to help maintain a stable monetary and financial system and control the money supply. People themselves can also help from falling into poverty, but there are many other issues that cause poverty. Poverty is often caused by discrimination, being uneducated, and how wisely money is spent.

Poverty has been a headache that every country tries to get rid of. The war between every country and poverty has been going on for a long time. This war is not only happening in the third-world countries, but it is also a problem in the leading country such as the United States. Throughout the history, the United States of America has been constantly trying to wage war again poverty by trying to reform structure, improving living condition of the homeless, increase minimum wages. Even though, some reforms may have been able to decrease the percentage of poverty, they can never completely destroy poverty completely. There are varieties of ideas as to how the U.S can eliminate poverty, and one of these ideas is the reforming of the tax system. This idea has become a heated debate whether it can actually make the dream of every low-income family come true. However, reform the tax structure alone cannot completely eliminate the poverty in the U.S for several reasons.

Capitalism is a cruel invention of mankind that encourages the degradation of the working class as the government protects the freedom of the wealthy.

Many proponents of capitalism argue that the wealth is shared with the workers. But is it true? According to an annual report in 2008, an average American CEO makes as much money in one day compared to what an average worker earns in one year1. And the disparity between business leaders and average workers continues to grow over time. From 1990 to 2005, the CEO’s salaries increased almost 300%, while a worker received a scant 4.3%2. The social consequence of this disparity is the concentration of wealth on a small percentage of population.

Capitalism is when the rich gets richer and the poor gets poorer. Capitalism has mercy on no one. Each individual lives in a society where the mass crowd complain about how the big business are buying the smaller ones but just doesn’t grasp the idea that all this is happening because of the consumers themselves. Within a system just as there is pros there are also cons, cons that are costly in the end. One of the biggest cons that capitalism promote is wealth inequality. Wealth can be inherited, so some people can be rich just due to luck of their ancestors. The others that are not so lucky has to work hard for their earnings. So this becomes a problem because not only does it promotes wealth inequality, it also promotes inequality of opportunity. Capitalist societies are failing to create both equality of outcomes and equality of opportunities. Example of this is the Great depression which lasted from 1929 to the beginning of World War II, profoundly shook the world’s confidence in the capitalist system. The crisis began with the crash of the New York stock market and resulted in widespread economic damage throughout the world, including bank failures, massive unemployment, and bankruptcies. According to the article Capitalism it states, “In addition, the suffering that resulted from the Great Depression highlighted the vulnerability of the labor force. In the United States, 25 percent of workers lost their jobs, and bank failures wiped out many people’s life savings.”

The system of capitalism is partially based around the unpaid surplus labour of workers that allows for the generation of profit for the workers ' respective superiors. Marx argues that such a system rewards those who have some sort of domination over the workers, the actual producers of commodities. This results in terrible living

Many Americans believe that America has one of the most powerful economies that is involved in the global market and the best average living standards. Since the creation of the United States it has been known as the land of endless opportunities, regardless of social or economic classes. Under this philosophy, all citizens should have equal rights and given equal opportunity to progress in the workforce. However many Americans are living full lives and do not have financial obstacles to get over. Even so, millions of Americans are still faced with poor living conditions and struggle with providing for their families basic needs. Whether Americans believe poverty and inequality exist in America exists or not, the authors in three different articles:” Culture of Success” by Brink Lindsey, “A Great Time to Be Alive?” by Matt Yglesias, and “Born Poor and Smart” by Angela Locke, and “The War Against the Poor Instead of Programs to End Poverty”by Herbert J. Gans, shared ideas on how to help fix the problems of the impoverished community and address the cause of the problem. The four articles also explain different biases that the impoverish have to endure everyday.