The Capitalist Culture
Culture is the most active element that charges the human civilization to further branched out and cut across all the aspect of life such as technology. In the capitalist world, there is a great desire towards the novel and original. This continuous search for novelty and change surpasses the extent of proportions of actual change that has occurred in the society. Further, this cultural desire is already being legitimized, such that the society accepts the role to see the culture as a norm and a moral tradition where the emerging new culture could be sized up and be critically evaluated. It is also in this passive manner of accepting change that allowed markets to thrive and impatiently gorges the idea of novelty because of the same belief that such culture is more superior to the older forms of culture. Therefore, culture can be seen as a legit and infinite search of new taste (Bell).
Change is the most dominant entity that pushes the economy and technology towards innovation. However, such change in both economy and technology are limited by the availability of resources and financial charges. Similarly, in politics, the changes in policy are affected by the existing systemic structures and the present culture that prevails in the incumbent power. Fashion, taste, and social graces associated to human behavior are primarily established by a small community of bourgeoisie that inculcate which new culture has value per se, and also presents little or no resistance. The goal capitalism is for this novel culture to easily find its way to quickly diffuse into the consciousness of a huge populace wherein the thinking and actions of the people are eventually transformed (Bell).
The changes accompanied by the search for new aesthetic experience and lifestyle have become visible in the past decades. The differences in the behavior of individuals or collective groups were associated to the social class such that the differences in the positions within the social structure shows the differences in interests, attitudes and behavior as defined by their gender, occupation, religion, and other demographic features. These differenes predetermines the buying habits and capacity of individuals, and how they cultivate the values of their children (Bell).
The industrial revolution created a world in which very few industrialists have amassed huge wealth. However, the rise of labor unions and the transformation of labor laws permitted some parts of these amassed wealth to be distributed to the masses through the minimum wage. The rise of the bourgeoisie embodied a huge market for consumer products that opened doors to the proliferation of large corporations. Technology is one of the key elements in building industries. As what has been seen in the past years, the innovations in technology provided a wide extent of different products that are available in the market for consumption (Piety).
In this industrialized world where violence and crime are prevalent, capitalism is often blamed for altering the human behavior into being irrational and self-destructive. However, there are other capitalist societies that do not share the same suffering that other societies experience. The construction of time as a culture resulted to the expansion of online stock trading and even 24-hour news and other services related to finance. As a result, such phenomenon compresses the time of people in pursuit of a short-term financial gain. Such preoccupation of people in money-making leads to the corrosion of individual character. This preoccupation according to Piety is the same short-sightedness that Hobbes relates to the modification of human behavior as again, irrational and self-destructive. The high degree of volatility in the demands of consumers made other corporations to revert in the short-term practice of capitalism. Take the case of IBM. The corporation used to practice paternalistic capitalism that promotes wide range of benefits to its employees such as health care, child care, education and pension, and promotions. However, as the stocks collapsed, the company returned to its profit-driven nature and focused on the short-term quick return of investment. It is difficult for the market to survive with the intermittent changes in market conditions. The inability to respond to these day-to-day changes could cause the detriment of the entire company (Piety).
Piety argued that it is not capitalism per se but the American culture that is interwoven with capitalism that is supposed to take the blame. Bell also pointed out that American capitalism already lost its traditional culture that is founded on the moral system of reward that are deeply rooted from the Protestant ethics. What substituted this reward-based culture are the material goods and luxuries that abandon the history and culture of the people who have been transformed. The problem becomes more widespread as illustrated by the way the industrial society operates. The industrial society displays its true nature as an anti-cognitive and anti-intellectual instead of a society that are geared towards targeting the lowest price, optimizing and maximizing products, and determining the functionality of a product. This conflicting culture in capitalism indeed presents a huge challenge to the society. It was also pointed out that “greed” plays a central role in the inhumane nature of American capitalism. Aside from greed, fear is also another factor that gravely affects the situation of the labor force. Some corporations tend to apply downsizing because of the fear that the market would crash and that the corporation per se will not stay afloat. In a culture where competition is very tight, people are afraid to lose what they already have and are also afraid to return to that same struggle of survival.
Capitalist Expansion
Market is not the only most important aspect of capitalism. However, it is also equally important to take notes on the foundation of the market, and the process of the extension and development. Institutions are essential in the process of social investment. These institutions allow the establishment of social relations that serve as foundation for market transactions. By transactions, it means the exchange of goods for other goods. However, the main goal transaction is to strengthen social relations and not necessarily focused on the exchange of goods. The institutional development in capitalism requires more transactions. The geographic expansion of market requires the monopoly of capital to homogenize the labor and product. Race, sex and age are demographic profiles that should not obstruct the process of adoption and utilization through the market (Francis).
Market rationality in the institutions replaces patterns of behavior that are traditionally linked to economic activity and social life. However, while there is the idea of a free market, it is still noteworthy to mention that the evolution of a market is determined by property relations that help capitalist in the appropriation of surplus.
Works Cited
Bell, D. “The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism.” Journal of Aesthetic Education, 6.1/2(1972): 11-38.
Francis, G. E. "Capitalist Expansion." Journal of Economic Issues, (pre-1986) 11.000003 (1977): 667.
Piety, M. G. "The Long Term: Capitalism and Culture in the New Millennium." Journal of Business Ethics, 51.2 (2004): 103-18.
