Berg 1

Jaxon Berg
Mrs. Fontenot
Honors English II
25 September 2016
Untiled Essay
Capitalism allows for the One-percent to abuse the rights they are given to control the
general public by swaying their beliefs, utilizing the media, and extending to other countries,
while socialism and more restrictions on the One-percent would allow the hard working to reap
what they sow. Socialism, an economic theory based on allocating diligence and profits equally,
would, in theory, nullify the concept of capital, allowing for pure economic egalitarianism.

Peoples opinion is swayed very much by the media from which they receive their
information. Major corporations control the age groups, which view certain forms of media
including: movies, music, videogames, and literature. Corporations also own many providers of
media. By controlling the media, corporations control the public opinion. Corporations control
the government of a democratic nation. Stephen Fortunato states the importance of opinion in his
essay The Soul of Socialism Connecting with the Peoples Values, a socialist critique has
been excluded from political and popular debate One reason for this is the domination of the
mainstream media by corporations (Fortunato 114). Fortunato puts forth the idea that
corporations make a great impact on the absence of socialist principles in countries like the
United States, where the majority of people would benefit from socialism, indoctrinating into
believing in predominately Capitalist ideas. Shows like Celebrity Apprentice and Shark Tank
emphasize the ideas that corporations work hard for their money, that anyone can form a

Berg 2
corporation from nothing, and making capitalism appear as if it benefits the creative and
hardworking. In reality, a hardworking store manager, that receives a pay of eleven dollars an
hour, cant afford to take care of themselves nor their family.

Many people believe that investors have control of their investments. The reality being
four companies (the One-percent) owns the 147 companies that possess everything else, from
which general society purchases most of their merchandise. In Forbes magazine, Brendan
Coffey stated, McGraw-Hill, which owns Standard & Poors, Northwestern Mutual, which
owns Russell Investments CME Group which owns 90% of Dow Jones Indexes, and
Barclays, which took over Lehman Aggregate Bond Index (Coffey). In other words
he who owns the indexes controls the money invested, distributing money as pleased. The
funds are truly invested into the corporation that owns the company the
investor chooses to invest in. For example, if an investor puts his money into
Wrigleys the money actually goes to MARS because MARS owns the majority
of Wrigley. Since corporations are regulated as people, they can appropriate investments in
other corporations or political candidates, leaving an investor's money in another corporations
hands.

Corporations encompass the competence to request national armies and the money for
mercenaries, to create valuable sources of entertainment and news stories to feed the people,
assuaging their hunger for a fascist regime that the masses can abhor without labeling
corporations as the fascist. Fortunato articulates the fact that corporations, backed by
national armies and freelance mercenaries raising flags of globalizationOur times are

Berg 3
marked by the overlapping unemployment, squalor, and hunger (Fortunato 114). During the
Cold War, democracy depicted morals while Socialism depicted corruption. By spreading Cold
War Democracy, otherwise Capitalism, fewer people would suffer from poverty and hunger.
Today, capitalism has a strong influence on all countries, even China, because they trade with the
United States of America, the largest Capitalistic country; however, poverty and hunger rates are
at an appalling high.

Capitalism allows the rich to ultimately become richer while

Democratic Socialism allows all to survive. Workers of high profession will
have more funds to survive on, allowing hard workers to enjoy the fruit of
their labor. Roemer believes, One advantage that social economics has
over individualistic economics is that it makes most parameters in the
system endogenous (Roemer 148). Basically, if a society works together
economically, the issues that the society face, come from within the society
instead of outside the, allowing for the discovery of an issue before it is a
problem, making the problems easily correctable.

The Communist Manifesto generalizes the idea of capitalistic-bourgeois

dominance, as so, for those of its members who work, acquire nothing,
and those who acquire anything, do not work (Marx 47-48). When Marx says
this it should be noted that he is speaking of hardline capitalism, a Laissezfaire system for example; in modern society there are laws that attempt to
prevent such economic imbalances, such as a minimum wage or anti-trust

Berg 4
laws, however theyre commonly ignored, fought against, or looped holed
through by corporation looking to save or make money. This can be observed
by referencing how corporations are monopolizing as I speak on in paragraph
three.

Many anti-socialists, usually conservative Cristian-Americans, tend to

agree on at least one thing on socialism, that of which being that its sinful,
anti-Cristian, etc., this should not matter in a democratic government;
however, it does, for democracy reflects its peoples beliefs; so in order to
strengthen the social-democratic view, these misconceptions should be
resolved. The Bible, and other Abrahamic texts, commonly have egalitarian
views including socialism; in America, and a vast majority of the world, The
Bible is the most important of these books, due to the large amount
Christians in the world, so it shale be quoted in order to help put this to rest,
Jesus entered the temple courts He overturned the tables of the money
changers It is written, he said to them, My house will be called a house
of prayer,' but you are making it 'a den of robbers.' (New International
Version, Mt. 21.12-13). In The Bible Jesus flips the tables of the bankers who
were, in theory, stealing from those getting money changed. Today, some
banks and money exchangers do the same. Some say that this is fair and
economically just, because the bankers arent stealing from people theyre
just collecting an exchange fee, and that it qualifies as work for the bank

Berg 5
itself. Exchanging is work for a bank teller, that is why they receive a
paycheck, but the teller isnt collecting the exchange fee, the bank is.

Berg 6

Works Cited
Coffey, Brendan. "The Four Companies That Control the 147 Companies That Own Everything."
Forbes. N.p., 26 Oct. 2011. Web. 27 Apr. 2016.
Engels, Friedrich. The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State. n.p., n.d.. Project
Gutenberg. Web. 19 Sept. 2016.
Fortunato, Stephen J., Jr. "The Soul of Socialism: Connecting with the People's Values." Monthly
Review 57.3 (2005): 114-25. ProQuest. Web. 28 Apr. 2016.
Holy Bible, New International Version. Colorado Springs: Biblica, 2011.Print.
Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. The Communist Manifesto. n.p., n.d.. Project Gutenberg. Web.
19 Sept. 2016.
Roemer, John E. "Neoclassicism, Marxism, and Collective Action." Journal of Economic Issues
(pre-1986) 12.000001 (1978): 147. ProQuest. Web. 29 Apr. 2016