The Role of Capitalism. Business & Marketing Essay

Chen Zeng (176003198)
Prof. Valentin
01:355:101: QH
Paper 2 Rough Draft
9/26/2019
The Role of Capitalism
Capitalism refers to the political and economic systems that value private ownership, wealth accumulation, and the maximization of profits. Capitalists do not care about the harm they do to the environment when they are implementing strategies to optimize business operations. That is the reason why many companies today continue to participate in activities that contribute to global warming as they pretend to come up with solutions for such problems. In other terms, what matters the most to them is increasing their profit margins without minding the adverse consequences emanating from their production processes. For instance, despite numerous firms persuading countries to sign the Kyoto Protocol, only a few of them do what it takes to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. For this reason, the carbon footprint continues to rise even after many nations pretend to have taken the appropriate measures to eradicate global warming. By using Naomi Klein and Anand Giridharadas’ articles, the paper focuses on the roles of capitalism and how capitalist logic coerces people into practices that sustain their oppression.
Giridharadas and Klein portray that economic structures shape morality in which people exist. In particular, Giridharadas argues that “public intellectuals pose a genuine threat to winners; thought leaders promote the winners’ values, talking up ‘disruption, self-empowerment, and entrepreneurial ability’” (Giridharadas 92). In other terms, the author means that people who should be committed to making necessary changes to save society are significantly manipulated by capitalists. The author also asserts, “As American politics has grown more tribal, people have become more interested in hearing confirmation of their views, by whoever will offer it, than in being challenged by interesting, intellectually meandering thinkers” (Giridharadas 92). For this reason, it seems that intellects do not want to be criticized, which makes them thought leaders whose work is to confirm the ideas of capitalists who are focused in making the world a better place. Giridharadas says that thought leaders comply with requirements of plutocrats. Therefore, it has become hard to find a person criticizing the actions of capitalists since these individuals alter the ideas of intellect to meet their goals. That is the reason why many people who are capable of changing society for the better have turned to speakers in TED talks since they do not want to be rebutted. These individuals prioritize hopeful solutions, but they are afraid of systemic change. Klein argues that it is hard to transition from the focus of maximizing profits to a caring economy that improves the quality of people’s lives (Klein 205). The author argues “neoliberalism’s commitment to ‘indiscriminate economic growth’ encourages a ‘frenetic’ competitive consumption that not only degrades the environment but also unravels the social fabric” (Klein 205). Klein means that the commitment by neoliberalism toward economic growth encourages competitive consumption, w...