Learning Paths » 5A Interacting

FChiesa-The Crisis of Capitalism
by FChiesa - (2012-09-20)
Up to  5A - A Crisis of CapitalismUp to task document list
 

The text Capitalism is taken from an economic blog called Schumpeter Businnes and management . Joseph Schumpeter was an economist who  is most known for his definition of capitalism as a "creative destruction". So the reader expects that the text will be about Capitalism, in particular its meaning. The reader can notice that the text is organized into two parts: in the first there is the presentation of the main theme of this work, in the second there are quotations of important economists, philosophers and authors.                                             Al Capone, a gangster, described Capitalism as a "legitimate racket of the ruling class". Winston Churchill, the British prime minister, said that the majority of people didn't understand what capitalism is. Churchill thought to Capitalism as "a healty horse, pulling a sturdy wagon". The writer Thomas Friedman had a positive opinion about Capitalism. For the writer, it is a good economic system only if it is linked to a freemarket system. The philosopher Eric Hoffer stated that "Capitalism is at its liberating best in a non-capitalist environment". John Maynard Keynes and Naomi Klein had a negative vision of Capitalism. The last author declared her negative idea of capitalism using words such as crisis to convey her perplexities about this economic system. The philosopher Karl Marx, had a positive vision of Capitalism: capital is money and commodities. Samuel Smiles, an author, likened Capitalism to a man who doesn't spend all that he earned. Thomas Sowell, an economist, stated that Capitalism concerned everybody and  Deng Xiaoping, a Chinese Communist Party leader affirmed that "To become rich is glorious".                                                                                                                                       In conclusion the reader can understand that the term Capitalism has a lot of meanings.