When one looks at the American economic system, he will see that on the outside it is running smoothly, with no problems, and everyone is happy. But if he looks deeper, past all shell of the working capitalist economy, he will find many problems; problems that are too important to ignore. He will find money hungry CEOs, large corporations putting small companies out of business, an unstable economy, and even sweatshops. He will look for an alternative and find that communism was a tried and died alternative. So in the end, socialism is the middle alternative. The dog-eat-dog system of capitalism must be replaced by a socialist system in order to rid the economy of many of its problems.

I will start with the structure of capitalism and socialism to give the reader a better idea of what each one is. The proper definition of capitalism is an economic system in which private individuals and business firms carry on the production and exchange of goods and services through a complex network of prices and markets (Peterson, par. 1). This basically means that individuals are left to run their own business. Socialism, on the other hand, requires that the means of production are owned by the workers rather than by a rich minority or capitalists (Blackmore, par. 23). In a capitalist economy, the laborers do most of the work, and the boss determines their pay. The bosses also pay for all the capital the business uses. They get paid off what is left over, the more they pay employees and for capital, the less they get, and vice-versa. This is why many workers today are underpaid, the bosses want more money for themselves, so they lower wages. In a socialist economy, the workers would get to make their own salary since they are the owners of the business. They would have to cooperate to make the business run smoothly, yet get paid enough for most of their work, without having a manager get paid for doing less work (Blackmore).

Besides the unfair pay in capitalism, it also has problems when it comes to the general economy. When more goods are produced than consumers are buying, a recession starts. Sales drop and store shelves start to fill up. Profits have not completely disappeared, they have simply been lowered. But since the money hungry owners can not have this, instead of investing in the business and workers, they invest their money elsewhere like in stocks and speculation. To earn more money, unemployment soars and wages are cut during the recession. After the recession ends, a boom begins. This is when the ruling class can make high profits by investing in production again instead of speculating on the stock market. This is the unstable cycle that happens in capitalism. Another problem with capitalism is that since government has less control and individuals more, large corporations can put small businesses out of business. It is basically survival of the fittest, or dog-eat-dog (Blackmore). In a socialist system, government would have more control over businesses, resulting in less monopolies by big corporations. The government would also be free to help out the small businesses. So in a socialist system the government has more control, but in a capitalist system the government has less control.

The issues I have discussed thus far mostly have to do with the economy. But there are also moral issues at hand here. Like I said before, capitalism is basically a survival of the fittest system. The CEOs are free to do whatever they want with their business in order to make more money for themselves. This includes closing down factories, lowering wages, and moving business overseas for cheaper labor. Not only does this have negative effects at home with the unemployment, but sometimes the cheaper labor means worse conditions. These overseas factories sometimes turn out to be sweatshops, where people earn less than one dollar per hour to support themselves. They have to work in sweltering heat for long hours, in dangerous conditions (Blackmore). Socialism, on the whole, has shown a sincere and true concern for man, his dignity, his worth, and his rights. That is the whole point to socialism, instead of only the strong survive, socialism tries to make equality the central theme. The unfortunate inequalities or injustices are all results of corrupt institutions (Ader 36).

Capitalism, from the outside, does appear to be running smoothly. But it also has many problems. The problems can not be fixed by a total change, which would be communism. Socialist doctrine does not demand the total socialization of the economy, as the communist does. Government ownership and operation need only extend to certain segments of the economy. Socialists also believe that the best way to change from capitalism is through gradualism, evolution rather than revolution. (Ader 51-54). Whatever the process though, a change needs to happen, and the injustices need to stop!