Affirmative – Regulated Capitalism
Capitalism is necessary to a thriving economy. Economic competition is what leads to a successful market. The three reasons why capitalism is still beneficial to society is: economic competition leads to more supply and demand, a thriving economic environment puts less people on social welfare and with a healthy capitalist society, prices can be brought down.
Supply and demand is the center piece for any economy. According to investopedia.com, the definition of supply and demand is, “The law of supply and demand defines the effect that the availability of a particular product and the desire (or demand) for that product has on price. Generally, if there is a low supply and a high demand, the price will be high. In contrast, the greater the supply and the lower the demand, the lower the price will be. At least in theory, capitalism lowers prices for the consumer.”
According to the United States Department of Agriculture in 2009, approximately 243,000 people were on Food Stamps or the SNAP program in New Jersey. In 2013, 432,000 people in New Jersey are on the program. As a country in 2009, 15 million people were on Food Stamps and in 2013; 23 million people are on the program. Capitalism gives any one of these people a chance to be innovative and be successful. In a capitalist society, it is a theory, that less people would be reliant on social welfare programs such as SNAP. Making more people reliant on government programs means higher taxes to pay for the program.
I am advocating for a regulated capitalist society. The 2008 economic recession was caused by unregulated lending by banks and other organizations to people who could not afford to pay them back, forcing people to be laid off from their jobs as companies fought off the recession by downsizing. Competition in the economic sphere forces employers to be competitive with pricing, forcing the prices to fall which is good for the consumer.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt said in his inaugural address in 1933, “Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and the moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits.”
The capitalist system offers reward for hard work and allows less people to be reliant on the government. While unregulated capitalism is dangerous, capitalism is beneficial to today’s society because it allows anyone to be the next Bill Gates, Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckaburg.
