“As you sow, so will you reap.” Capitalism is Actually the fairest (Revised)

“Capital is dead labor, which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more labor it sucks.” The German economist Karl Marx has defined Capitalism as an unfair system for people to live in. The worry of Karl Marx is that if our society were divided into two classes; the middle class who owned capital, factory and hired wage laborers; and workers, who were ordinary, people that owned nothing at all. The fear of this system is that if it continues to circulate the middle class will eventually gain more money while the wage workers still working for them.

However, the original purpose of Capitalism is to get the hard working people to gain what they desired. The concept of “As you sow, so will you reap.” Without doubt having people rewarded according to their effort is definitely better than distribute the rewards equally.

Many people questioned the existence of Capitalism. Criticisms have long stigmatized it to corruption, bribery and the method to oppress the poor. The truth, however, is that without Capitalism there will be no competition at all. The word competition may seem cruel for some people, because it is associated to winner and loser. The winner gets qualified and the loser gets knocked out. The way it functions is what most critics had bombarded at. However, the nature defect of human beings is that they tend to get idle easily when they are out of pressure. Think this way, if everyone is distributed with same reward because we need to take care of everyone. Do you think everyone will work to their utmost? As a result, there is no motive for people to strive hard because no matter you are hard working or lazy you will eventually be the same. Take this idea into consideration if everyone has a job then we do not have the burden of taking care of the poor and everyone could be able to feed themselves. Therefore, we can conclude that Capitalism itself is originally with proper purpose, but it is moral corruption that brought it to failure.

There are many kinds of moral corruption in our daily lives. These include temptation; laziness and power pursue which will destroy a country’s economy structure if it is involved. How to avoid this catastrophe then is essential. Take Singapore for example, the country had successfully transformed itself from a British colonial port city into one of the world’s financial center. According to Dr Harold Siow Song Teng, a Research Fellow and Administrative Manager at the Centre on Asia, he argues in his book Government Policy and Critical Success Factors of Small Businesses in Singapore that “one of the main economic players responsible for Singapore’s economic success is its small and medium-sized enterprises or SMEs. Their overall success has helped propel the country and its people forward. From economic policies to politics, Singapore is a planned and regulated economy. Singapore’s economic success story is actually the result of a form of capitalism carefully calibrated and controlled by the government.” Now think for a minute if it not because a person wants to gain more money and not because a person is benefited with the amount of work he devoted, how could Singapore be called the head of the four Asian dragons. 

Moreover, he continues to claim that “An important element or aspect of good critical success factors (CSFs) emerges from the role being played by the government. The existence of good government or public policies that are pro-business is vital for the success of firms”. Singapore enforced strict laws that punishes whoever deviate the right path toward righteous. For example, if there happened to be any forms of bribery or moral corruption severe punishments such as life imprisonment would be enforced. The Singaporean government would shall no mercy toward those people who crossed the line to avoid corruption.   

In the end, the statistics had proved Singapore to be the world’s financial center. It is simply due to the severe laws that supervised the government’s performance. Moral corruption is a dangerous thing that leads to destructions. However, if we found ways to overcome it the result will be beneficial. 

References:

Harold Siow Song Teng “Government Policy and Critical Success Factors of Small Businesses in Singapore” Nov 2011      http://www.c-s-p.org/flyers/Government-Policy-and-Critical-Success-Factors-of-Small-Businesses-in-Singapore1-4438-3352-5.htm