Is Capitalism Corrupt?
The very idea doesn’t seem to be one often contemplated and as OWS enters into a rather unseasonable November, I think it is worth noting how capitalism creates and accepts corruption. As Merriam-Webster defines corruption as the inducement to wrong by improper or unlawful means, the definition shows, there is a stimulation toward the action of corruption. In a society that abides by the belief that financial gain is a goal in itself. The black market is like any other market except for the question of its legality. Often when we think of corruption, we think of the black market, but perhaps it is worth noting that with the growth of the Occupy Movement, we are no longer looking at the black market as a corrupt system but at the legal economic system as corrupt.
Beyond the call for a fair economic system, we are looking at the space that divides the idea of profit that leads to company growth and innovation and looking at the idea of profit that is coveted above other financial/corporate practices. Does this show that capitalism is a corrupt system? Or perhaps the better question is, is capitalism corrupting? Why do we live in a system in which the infamous Ponzi Scheme can not only occur in 1910 but again a century later? So while some see corruption as alien from capitalism, it seems more that capitalism and corruption are simply delineated by the idea of what is legal. Some may look at the world and say, “We have capitalism, which works. We have democracy which works. All we have left is to end poverty, disease, and international conflict.” But wouldn’t (and shouldn’t) the response in turn be, “But we’ve always had these systems in place, what if poverty works because their is capitalism. After all, yes we can all hypothetically make wealth but by definition we cannot all become wealthy.”
