Pros And Cons Of Robber Barons

America's greatness, result of Capitalism

When people think of capitalism many think of a greedy, money hungry, overweight man. Capitalism obtained a bad reputation that goes back to the mid 19th century. The stereotype is a product of robber barons; the people that created large amounts of wealth by participating in unfair business practices. Robber barons are one reason for which society perceives wealthy people as uncaring, rude, and selfish. They are known for having unethical businesses that corrupted the government and took advantage of both the consumer and the worker (Mises Institute). The truth is that although many of the conceptions of corrupt ancient business owners is true, capitalism is the best economic system in existence as well as the most moral oriented. Capitalism is what made the United States to most powerful and wealthiest nation in the world.

In order to understand how capitalism works, first we need to understand what it is. Capitalism

is defined as "an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit" by the Merriam Webster dictionary. We see the outcome of capitalism on the daily basis, everyday items are mostly composed of products made possible by capitalism. The only products that are government own are basic necessities such as water, energy, railways, in others. Bread, canned foods, cell phones, cars, clothing, electronics, houses were all created for the consumption and benefit of society. There is no perfect economic system that could fix all social problems but capitalism has demonstrated to be the most effective system to reduce the misery of a society. Other systems such as socialism have a good intent but are based on fiction and are realistically impossible. Socialism is the system that advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the whole community, this sounds very appealing but it has demonstrated to be a failure in reality. Venezuela is a country based on a socialist ideology, it is experiencing a sad economic hyperinflation, it has reached the point that people have no food to eat even if they have the money to pay the expensive prices. Socialism ideology is to have equality among society where people work together. A simplified reason as to why socialism doesn't work is because human nature makes people work less when they know that they can depend their well-being on others.
Capitalism has shown to be effective by lowering poverty, decreasing unemployment, and improving the lifestyle of people.

Capitalism works because it is controlled by individuals and not by the government. When an official is elected in a democratic system, he has power to make decisions for the well-being of the state or nation. He or she doesn't have direct responsibility over a decision, he can always blame other people. Bureaucrats also have different incentives for when they have to power of companies or assets. For example, in the 1840's the telegraphs were born but it was agreed for the government to own and operate the telegraph. For many years the government was losing money with this new invention. It wasn't until it was given back to private investors that the telegraph was a success and America created a transcontinental line of communication in 1852. This and many other achievements are thanks to capitalism. Capitalism is "responsible for the greatest reduction in human misery."

(Williams).
Another way that we can see the success of capitalism is by looking at the starvation level poverty, it has dropped about 80% since 1970. It wasn't the cause of foreign aid or government distribution, it was due to the innovation and creativity of entrepreneurs. The way in which poverty decreases is by making people work and private companies are the ones that create most of those jobs. There are 5 factors that can help a poor person escape poverty: "globalization, free trade, property right, the rule of law and entrepreneurship". Globalization is the ever-increasing ability to move goods, people, and ideas from one distant location to another. Free trade is the open access to markets and people from all over the world. Property rights that what belongs to you can't be taken away. The rule of law safeguards contracts assuring they will be respected and lived up to. Entrepreneurship is the creativity of free people to dream up new products (Williams). Capitalism is moral because it gives a chance to people to become really successful if they are willing to work for it.