Why does my history teacher say there is no freedom under capitalism?

C

Cal

New member
He says that there cannot be freedom under capitalism because the proletarait are wage slaves and thus must rely on the capitalist class, and, as a result are being exploited
Sorry I meant IS HE CORRECT IN HIS THEORY?
 
The so called proletariat are wage slaves when all markets are dominated by 30 venture capitalist at the dawn of the industrial revolution. Your teacher is trying to model old ideas with current day situations which is robbing you of your education. For that you should be furious. In modern times, workers wages become competitive because industrial markets have grown to obscene sizes where competition is very impersonal. Early capitalism was very monopolistic because of the few amount people able to jump on the ship.....this changed because CAPITALISM gradually drove the price of production down as the field of innovators expanded, and CAPITALISM created innovations that do not require obscene amounts of money to bank off of. Your being indoctrinated.
 
No he is incorrect, he can arrange with extreme prejudice the theory, but that is not theory in practice.
Obviously you have to have employers and owners of companies in order to have employees.
The company that opens and has not employee's will fail, the employee with no job is in failure, so in effect they are co dependent on one another. That is reality.
He's been reading to much Charles Dickens in his spare time.
 
Your teacher follows the works of Karl Marx.

Whether or not Marx is correct was the cause of several conflicts, including the Cold War.

I'd suggest that you look at the amount of freedom during the Cold War in the US versus the amount of freedom in the Soviet Union at the same time.

You'll find that in an attempt to prevent the rich from regaining power, Communist governments outlawed all forms of dissent. Dissent was punished by imprisonment or death.

However, you will also find that in the US during the post-WWII period, many people who angered someone, or who were different, or who were slightly leftist in their politics were accused of being Communists and subjected to harassment. This included everything from being fired and unable to find a new job to intensive questioning by the FBI and even imprisonment.

Who is correct regarding the communism/capitalism conflict is a matter of opinion. You will need to study the history and form an opinion of your own.
 
That is true. Capitalism is the exploitation of the many for the profit of the few. Your teacher is certainly correct about that. Capitalism is by definition oppression. It is antithetical to democracy.
 
He is correct to an extent. One of the problems is that in capitalism it is possible for a very rich individual to gain control over the media and dominate it. Consequently many people who think that they are "thinking for themselves" are actually simply mouthing the ideas of that individual.

It is indeed the case that most people have to work in capitalism to gain a livelihood. But the punishment is not being beaten (as it would have been in slavery) but starvation.

It's doubtful if socialism would be any better though. People would still have to work (for the state this time) so they would not be free.

A good alternative would be to give everyone enough to live on irrespective of work. This could be done either through a periodic grant (a version of this exists in Alaska) or through a negative income tax (whereby people earning below a certain level get it "topped up" by the state). This would combine both freedom and security. But it is unlikely to happen for a long time, because people both on the Right and the Left are afraid of freedom.
 
He sounds like a communists. They are against catitalism and so will twist things around to try and make it look bad. They can't say it causes poverty because in capitalistic societies everyone enjoys better standard of living so how are they going to slam it. You twist things around, that is why it confuses you, it doesn't make sense, but you have in some way picked up on that and are asking this question. In communism the poeple are wage slaves too, don't tell me they don't work to get money so they can buy materialistic things as well. They just can't buy nearlly as much as we can with their money. Everyone is materialistic or no one would ever buy stuff.

I guess your question should be what system does promote freedom. Then ask how the standard of living in those systems are. Either he will tell the true that people have to do without a lot of things in those societies, or he will lie and say those countries inhabitants enjoy wonderful standards of living.

He might just say well having materialistic stuff is bad for people but I bet you he sure is quick to run out and buy a dvd player and get a flat screen tv and subscribe to cable.
 
In a way he is correct. the working class have always been manipulated with the blessing of the government.

Capitalism is not written anywhere in the constitution, which are where your rights come from. That some people allow others to be taken advantage of only means a lot of people have no say into their economical well-being and largely depend on others!

Being free is something that is contained in the Bill of Rights, however our country has a long history of being discriminatory in those rights, and it isn't only capitalism.

Capitalism is like Communism. There comes a point when it no longer works as people have been asleep at the wheel of government and allowed to few to own too much, even though there are anti-trust laws and they tend to be greedy, mismanage, and some downright corrupt.

I really can't see a big difference with a few communist owning everything, or just a few wealthy. It is essentially the same for the workers. Of course the rich would have an issue with it. That doesn't mean there is a hell of a lot of difference between the 2 systems as they both don't work for the majority of the people!

Seems both don't have a clue about a Constitutional Republic as it can be bought, just like communist can!

And if anyone wants a debate, please feel free!
 
He says this because he is most definitely a socialist. Whether he is a correct or not depends on whether you feel that way about capitalism. I think he is exaggerating, but how do you feel? It sounds like he is putting his personal views on the subject, something that usually isn't a good thing when you're a teacher.
 
Your teacher is an idiot, to say the least. Tell him to go live in one of the communist countries he seems to admire so much.
 
He is a communist idiot. Look at human rights in communist and socialist countries. Do you think anyone could walk into a hospital and after that recieve care? Unlike the places this doofus espouses, one can go about having a better life in the country, The U.S.
 
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