Essay, Research Paper: Capitalism World System

For the past six hundred years a culture and a society, dedicated for the most part to development
and trade as the ultimate source of well being, began to expand all over the world. In a great
number of ways this development, capitalism, became the most successful culture and society
the world has ever seen.
Capitalism ascended as a successful social means. It was successful as it provided a
more effective means of creating a surplus. This was an important feature for mankind. It
proved to be an easier and more cost effective means of creating a surplus. Capitalism also
allowed for the world system to function with their own states. This system of functioning
encouraged the international market economy, which in turn established the success of
capitalism. Such a market bestowed incentives which increased productivity all over the globe.
Simultaneously a world separation of work made it easy for costs and benefits to be unequally
distributed.
The effects of such a division of labour were profound. It created a multilayered
economic hierarchy. The hierarchies were divided into many sections, with each sector owning
it’s own defining feature, and all were linked to one common feature. This was the exploitation
of social classes. The wealthy employed labourers and often underpaid their labourers so that
they might be able to reap maximum profits. Such racist inequalities and exploitation were used
to justify the hindered commission of the proletariat.
The world system continues to undergo a cycle of expansion. This trend has gained the
support it requires from the notion that all societies, in order to be successful, need to conform to
a western way of life.
Capitalism continues to be increasingly effective. This is largely due to the belief the
workers hold that the harder they work the more the stand to gain. Such workers also affirm
that it is hard work that will grant them such wealth, often this leads tofrustration, once the
worker comes realize they may never reach the status of the elite. Often times myths are used as
a method of erasing such beliefs, as they do not address the real problems at hand. No matter
what is done it seems there will always be a gap between the rich, or the employers, and the
poor, or the employees.



Bibliography


Bodley, John. Cultural Anthropology. Mayfield Publishing, Toronto, 2000


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