Page 381 - Essencials of Sociology

354 Chapter 11 politics and the economy

telephones, television stations, and airlines. Remaining in private hands are the retail
stores, farms, factories, and most service industries.
Ideologies of Capitalism and Socialism
Watch on MySocLab
Video: The Big Picture: Economy Not only do capitalism and socialism have different approaches to producing and dis-
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tributing goods, but they also represent opposing belief systems. Capitalists believe that
market forces should determine both products and prices. They also believe that profits
are good for humanity. The potential to make money stimulates people to produce and
distribute goods, as well as to develop new products. Society benefits, as the result is a
more abundant supply of goods at cheaper prices.
Socialists take an opposite view of profits. They consider profits to be immoral. An
item’s value is based on the work that goes into it, said Karl Marx. The only way there
can be profit, he stressed, is by paying workers less than the value of their labor. Profit,
he said, is the excess value that has been withheld from workers. Socialists believe that the
government should protect workers from this exploitation. To do so, the government
should own the means of production, using them not to generate profit but to produce
items that match people’s needs, not their ability to pay.
Capitalists and socialists paint each other in such stark colors that each perceives the
other system as one of exploitation. Capitalists believe that socialists violate people’s basic
right to make their own decisions and to pursue opportunity. Socialists believe that
capitalists violate people’s basic right to be free from poverty. With each side claiming
moral superiority while viewing the other as a threat to its very existence, the last cen-
tury witnessed the world split into two main blocs. In what was known as the Cold War,
the West armed itself to defend and promote capitalism, the East to defend and promote
socialism.

Criticisms of Capitalism and Socialism
In India, an up-and-coming capitalist giant, the construction of a 27-story building is al-
most complete (Yardley 2010). It comes with a grand ballroom, nine elevators, a fifty-seat
theater, a six-story garage, and three helipads on the roof.

Propaganda to
influence public opinion
surrounds us, but most
propaganda is covert,
difficult to recognize.
During economic-
political conflicts, much
propaganda moves
into the open The anti-
German poster on the left
is from Russia. It reads:
“Father, kill the Germans”
(who have just killed my
mother). The anti-Russian
poster on the right is
from Germany. It reads:
“Bolshevism means the
world will drown in blood.”
To arouse their people,
each accuses the other of
the same acts.