Bethany Allred

Foundations of Business
12-7-2014
Essay on What Kind of an Animal is This Here Capitalism?

What Kind of an Animal is This Here Capitalism highlights the changes in America since
it was founded and how it is viewed as a capitalist society but that label is not broad enough to
define what the society really is. There are many mechanisms that make society work and while
capitalism may be one of the ideals followed by America, other ideals that set them apart. The
text was written by David M. Potter who was a well-known historian and a Professor at Yale and
Harvard University. He wrote books that were for students studying history with well researched
arguments designed to stimulate interest in the subject. He was President of the Organization of
American Historians which is one of the largest societies devoted to the history of America. His
passion for American society is evident in the details and specific scenarios he lays out for the
reader.
While America is a capitalist society, there are many forms of capitalism and they cant
be categorized into one and the same thing. While much of what America values, working for
pay and keeping that pay, it differs from capitalism. Capitalism values efficiency and savings.
Private enterprise is valued more so people may get the riches they want undisturbed by
restrictions. Reward is viewed as being better when the person working harder than the other
gets the reward, however if there is no reward for people working hard than it is condemned as
immoral and change is wanted.
There are two essential goals to Capitalism in the U.S. One is that there should be
maximum opportunity for the strong belief in the dignity of man. The other goal is a high and
steadily improving standard of living. This started with the founding of the nation, by way of all
men are created equal and that citizens control the government. Throughout time big business
and the wealthy rise to the top and start to take over government but eventually they get overrun.
An example is when Thomas Jefferson came into office with the backing of small farmers then
kicking out the rich and well born. Another example is when big business wanted to keep
slavery legal, the people elected President Abraham Lincoln who fought against it and created
the Emancipation Proclamation.
Many goals of the economy have been set more by democratic philosophy than by
capitalistic ideals. Due to a drive for regulation on business, social security, redistributing
wealth with taxes and other policies that have become American ideals this has not lead into the
Marxist views on capitalism. Another way that Americans have swayed from ideal capitalism is
use of products, especially relating to environmental and agricultural systems. Instead of being
as efficient and restrained as possible, there is excessive waste with the main goal being to have
access to everything the wealthy do. Government interaction has also been prevalent is in the
way land has been provided cheaply and was free during the Homestead Act to encourage land
development and peoples right to own land. Government help has often been used to build
streets, canals and other means of transporting goods from farmers to other sources for higher
income. During The Great Depression in the thirties, government stepped in to try to help people

who had lost jobs. As the country was starting to form and grow in wealth some of the forms of
capitalism were embraced. Productivity, completion and reward for risk were the ideal in setting
the stage for growth. These show how America has had different interactions with government
then is set forth by capitalist ideals.
By going back to the two essential goals in the U.S. we can see where dignity and
opportunity have been used time and again to create growth. Henry Ford took risk when he
made a cheaper car and provided higher wages to his employees, but it worked to his benefit
because more people could buy his product increasing wages and providing similar means for
others that may have once only been for the wealthy. One of the biggest areas there has been
change is our ability to obtain main goals and see leisure. Machines have had a very large part in
this, as they have been able to cover more work it has allowed for a short work week and less
labor. We now are more based on supervising machines instead of doing the manual work which
allows for more leisure time and can lead to higher wages due to need for less jobs within the
same company. Within a 20 year range from the 1930s to 1950s the poverty gap went from
30% to 10%. Wealth can be seen in more than the poverty gap, things are no longer bought just
for need; they are bought for wants, convenience, comfort and much more. Advertising plays an
essential role in this by creating ads that make people think their needs have not been met even
though they have been for a long time. The way America has been able to change and adapt to
promote growth has been unprecedented. It has made a change in the way capitalism was once
seen and calls for a wider scope on the way it is viewed.
This essay has some very detailed and well thought out points on how the American
economy differs from capitalist ideas of extreme poverty vs. wealth and labor exploitation. It
does show how there are still some of the fundamentals of a capitalist society. People have tried
to come up with new terms to describe the market we are in but nothing has caught yet. Some
capitalist ideologies are not fully attainable due to government regulation, taxation and other
factors. The mains goal in America seems to be material abundance democratically shared.
This must be looked at outside the normal boundaries of what dictates capitalism and see a
broader scope of what the American economy is really like.
This text is very relevant to modern business; because need to understand how different
structures of society have changed the way businesses run. While some businesses may try to
run based on pure capitalist ideals it wont always work. Businesses need to follow and stay
involved in current government rules and regulations. In a capitalist market businesses and
individuals have more power and encouragement to grow; this is very important for anyone
looking to start a company. But America is not 100% capitalist, right now the government has
changed some regulations on healthcare and mandated that large companies provide healthcare
to full time employees. This has made large changes to businesses and they have to adjust how
things are run to accommodate this change. Another large regulation has recently been more
empowered by creating more limits on who businesses may hire, E-verify is a system set up by
the Department of Homeland Security and is required in many states to verify an employees
legal status. Businesses are not able to do whatever they want to gain profits and need to follow
government regulations which does differentiate America from the main terms of a capitalist
society. There are going to be more regulations put into place for businesses so being aware of
how they will impact a company is very important. While the government and society as a
whole have made changes to better the individual, there seems to be more changes of late that are
made for big business.

There are differences in a capitalist environment and the way America has been founded
and changed, these ideals seem to be changing back to a more capitalist run society. The
wealthy are obtaining more and more of the nations wealth, right now the top 1% earners of the
country make around 35% of the nations wealth. This gap seems to be getting wider and wider.
Politians are making choices only for their personal gain from big business bribes, instead of
doing what may be better for people all around. Politicians are more concerned about being reelected and their wallets growing instead of making choices that are better for society. During
this reading there is a comparison to 1890 and how big business was starting to gain much of
wealth and it seems like things are going back to that instead of a society that encourages
individual growth and prosperity for all classes. Its a very fine line to balance between business,
government, and personal growth. If one slightly tips of scale then the other ones get much more
off balance. This text seemed to be written in a more ideal time in the 1960s when the gap
between the wealthy wasnt as large. By encouraging personal growth on a large scale and
allowing government intervention when necessary it was more possible to see positive outcomes.
Things have now started to change to benefit big business where politicians dont listen to the
people that elected them. While America still has its own type of capitalism if big businesses
keep winning then it may not be long before the everyday American has lost their voice and
ability to prosper. The chance to have a small business or finding jobs in a market people want is
decreasing. More and more people are obligated to take jobs for wages much smaller than their
education would have otherwise provided in a more diverse market. Jobs are being sent to other
countries and companies are spending less money on people to keep higher returns for
stockholders. If kept on this track, it wont matter how America is classified now because it will
need to be reclassified very soon.