Aaron Ramirez
Eng Comp 10100
Prof. Shearer
Due Oct 19 2022
Part 1
In this essay I will be responding to the article “Capitalism Vs. The Free Market”. In this article Ivan Pongracic defines many forms of capitalism using definitions from other scholarly pieces and written books. He concludes that Capitalism as an economic system will inevitably fall flat on its face because there is no way to manage the economy in capitalism.
Pongracic recollects a conversation between “Tom Palmer” (writer of The Morality of Capitalism: What Your Professors Won’t Tell You) and “John Mackey”(Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Whole Foods) where the question of free market capitalism and crony capitalism is discussed. When asked about free market capitalism, John speaks very highly of it, claiming it has produced many “win-win” scenarios for the people. However, crony capitalism conflicted with his “morals” on how the economy should be. This was interesting to me because he made it sound as if both free market capitalism and crony capitalism are opposite. In ideals this may be the case as crony capitalism defeats the purpose of free market capitalism, however, it can be argued that free market capitalism allows for crony capitalism. In my Op Ed I intend to respond to this idea that free market capitalism is good for everyone.
Generally Pongracics’ audience is adults and or business/finance students and the author tries appealing to this audience using mostly logos and ethos. His ethos comes from him being a professor and using sources, as well as logos when he addresses the claims of these sources and deconstructs them using logical reasoning. This use of rhetorical strategy helps to convince students and young adults looking to understand the situation of capitalism at the time of this article’s publication.
Part 2
First to respond to Pongracic’s main point that the case for the free market will fall through and subsequently disaster will follow. Capitalism will never not work to an extent, however it will never bring about the free market capitalism that many idolize. Capitalism is too idealistic and therefore fails to meet the standard it was designed to meet. Additionally, free market capitalism leads to crony capitalism which defeats the purpose of free market capitalism to begin with.
Firstly it’s important to understand that a free market capitalism economy is simply an economy that follows the law of supply and demand. Meaning there is no government regulation involved and that prices are determined solely by the relationship between supply and demand. Crony capitalism on the other hand is when big business owners convene to try and take control of the market to further their business or agenda. This ultimately adds a form of regulation which defeats the purpose of capitalism, hence why it is frowned upon.
Ideally, free market capitalism would defend consumer interest and would be virtuous in nature. This is because the people are ultimately in control of the economy, “by the people, for the people” as they would say. However this isn’t the reality, big business is self interested and predatory money schemes are seen everyday. Take for example video games, an example younger audiences would understand would be games that include in-game cosmetics or characters for sale. Even more costly are gacha games which are essentially gambling in video games for better loot or characters. All you need to understand from this is that, games these days tend to be much more costly than they need to be, and the same could be said for other big businesses. The point is that the idea that capitalism would free the people economically is only true for those at the top of these businesses. In truth, it can be argued that a capitalist-run economy has done much to improve our freedom as a consumer and economically in terms of small business and business in general. Defendants of capitalism will always make the same argument eventually that capitalism may not be perfect but it’s the best we got. Some however choose to hold on to the idea that capitalism failed when in reality we failed to replace capitalism. Capitalism will never be what the people want it to be but we still have our heads on our shoulders so we can make something that will meet the people’s standards.
Until that fateful turnaround in the U.S comes about, why is capitalism failing us? One simple way to put it is “greed”. In the free market, anyone is allowed to do anything with their business and products with some limitations. Just like how I stated before how games added in-game stores to keep people spending money on the game, people can do anything they want to keep people buying into their business. One way business men use more often than they’d tell you is by simply working together with other businessmen to effect the demand and supply for consumers. The higher the demand, and the lower the supply, the higher the cost and business men seldom neglect to try and manipulate this to bring in consistent profit. It’s how big businesses stay big and it’s called crony capitalism. As long as they stay big they control the most of the cash flow and it’s hard to compete with a big business that has that much leverage on top of simply being more popular due to its longevity. The ‘free market” is only more free than a socialist economy mainly because there are enough competitors in the market to keep big business at least slightly honest. The idea that capitalism creates a free market is misled by the same idealism that led to its creation, since passing the test of time however that obviously isn’t the whole truth.
Capitalism IS bound to fail if anything that isn’t a free market is considered failure. Despite the many years the U.S existed as a capitalist country, many Americans still hold on to the grandeur expectations of true economic freedom. These ideals are what America was built on but such a structure may not be sustainable. Some form of liberty must be given up to ensure the longevity the U.S wants. Despite the problems present in our current version of capitalism, there is room for improvement and a truly free market capitalism (one without crony capitalism or any form of regulation). Capitalism in itself was a step towards freedom for Americans and that idea should be instilled in the hearts of every American. Capitalism simply may not have a place in such a world every American looks up to anymore, since after centuries of being promised this ideal, it’s time America delivered in a new way.
