As I was doing some research on capitalism, I came across another blog that proposed a way to end the “valueless capitalism” that seems to be so evident in the American society. The woman that wrote the post said she was a CEO and was constantly told to “maximize share holder value.” Stepping back for a minute, this thought concerned me. Rather than analyzing and critically weighing the components contributing to the decision, the innate response seems to be to produce profit. This is not just by the CEO of the company, but seems to an understanding amongst the workers as well. The author tries to set things into perspective. “Money on its own is worthless. Money has worth only insofar as it is able to improve life. Too often business make money, but decrease the quality of life for so many who are involved.”
Becoming part of a modern day business, one can lose their individual thought and can be immersed into the “mob mentality” without being consciously aware of their decisions. This can be detrimental to the ways of society due to the ignorance of other’s well-being. As many have said before, money cannot buy one’s happiness. It is the life style that one conducts day to day that creates an enjoyment of life. To help solve this problem, the author purposes being an active capitalist by buying with values. She introduces companies that try to give back to the community, offer benefits to low-paid workers, and help provide jobs for the unemployed.
If people were to base their decisions to buy goods on their values, would this help build a better community as she suggest? Could it be possible to change a valueless capital system? More importantly, could the mentality that drives the economy today, be changed to a value based mind-set? Sadly, I believe it would take generations to mildly change the greed hungry American society. People may search out business that benefit others, but if it hurts their personal income I highly doubt people would continue in that direction.
The website I recieved my information : garyalloway.wordpress.com/2008/10/07/being-an-activist-capitalist/
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I have been told to never use the phrase “Since the beginning of time.” However, I think that phrase is the perfect way to start my comment . . . Since the beginning of time, people have always been greedy. It is a good instinct to have in order to survive in the untamed wild. The problem though is that today, we are living in a civilized world where nature does not dominate our lives. We dominate (and destroy) it. So, greed is not really needed in society today. However, since it has been a part of society for thousands of years, it would be impossible to eliminate it (or at least a big portion of it) from society. So, to answer your question: No, I do not think that the “mentality that drives the economy today can be changed to a value based mind-set.” It is too ingrained into society, and trying to fix it would take too much effort to reverse. I mean can anyone really get people to stop loving money?
Post a Comment