Capitalism allows for the flourishment of individuals as entrepreneurs and for the country as a whole because other opportunities are opened through employment, business owners to put money back into their establishment as there is room for further growth. There is room for individuality. Socialism is essentially collective ownership or control for example Halloween. If there is a house that only gives out one specific type of candy and the amount doesn’t change from child to child, this would be an example of socialism. We as a class were instructed to listen to presentation over the book “Socialism Sucks” written and presented by Dr. Ben Powell. Through the presentation he depicts the different variations of socialism and capitalism he encountered through his travels, ranging from new capitalism, capitalism, socialism, dark socialism, and fake socialism.
China according to Dr. Powell would be in his words “fake socialism”. Originally the country heavily displayed socialistic tendencies but as time has gone on, we’re beginning to see that they are leaning towards capitalism. Dark socialism would be seen in South Korea where there is a very strong grip on what their population can and can’t do. When looking from a satellite image at night South Korea has a lot of activity, specifically lights while North Korea is the exact opposite. Dark in the night as if no one inhabits the country. When explaining his time in this part of the world searching for information on what life was like for people and while it was difficult for him to speak to Korean refugees for fear of deportation, he observed something else that was unique, Dr. Powell explained that while on the Yalu River which runs between North Korea and China there was a large difference between the two. China was highly developed with tall skyscrapers that glittered in the light. The buildings on the other side were dilapidated and underdeveloped.
When Venezuela originally declared they would begin their journey as a socialistic country they specifically were profiled under democratic socialism. The country first began to flourish as oil production had been high and brought in vast amounts of money, although as time went on the government stopped maintaining their machinery, prices of oil dropped, and the economy failed. Later when Dr. Powell visited Venezuela it had been noted that the country was unable to feed itself as people had begun to lose weight. He spoke about how women would leave the country to sell their hair for extensions to gain money for food to feed their families.
The next country that was discussed was Cuba. This was when Dr. Powell had really spoken about his personal experience, he first touched base on the hotel that his party were staying in. It was owned by the government and clearly hadn’t been taken care of as there had been broken glass all over the balcony and improperly cleaned from the previous tenants. When Dr. Powell spoke of the conditions of the hotels, he then segued to how a way some Cubans make money is to essentially rent their home out like an Airbnb. The living conditions of these rooms were much different compared to the hotel; Dr. Powell had stated that when the owners were making an income are more likely to invest money back into the home. The same could be said for the restaurants owned by the government compared to the privately owned establishments as the food was completely different. Dr. Powell had said that the privately owned restaurant had food that was good although the issue was there was not much variety after what you’ve already had.
Finally, Dr. Powell came to the point in his presentation where capitalism was the topic of conversation. The United States and Gorgia is what I will specifically focus on from Dr. Powell’s presentation. The United States is one that runs on capitalism, while there are issues socially that the country has that needs to be addressed a person can move to anywhere on the economic hierarchy given enough time, patients, and hard work. Gorgia as a country though is very interesting because at one point it was under socialist rule and was eventually liberated to a free country. Even after having been free for a number of years, they hadn’t specifically stated that they were a capitalist country.
Dr. Powell’s presentation definitely made me think about socialism versus capitalism as it was never a topic that I had been interested in. After listening, personally I would say that I believe capitalism is the best course of action when it comes to the best interest of the people who live there, it allows for economic growth and individuality of the population. We must also look at the past decisions countries made in order to not make those same mistakes.