Capitalistic Society

Modern industrialized capitalism depends upon exploitation of raw materials for manufacturing consumer goods that are sold to accumulate profit. Capitalistic Society research papers show profits, therefore depend ultimately upon the environment, the source of materials for production. While it may seem reasonable for a capitalist society to guard its natural resources out of self-interest, the capitalist society is in fact grossly insensitive to the ecosystem, as will be discussed here. Paper Masters can compose a custom written research paper on Capitalistic Society that follows your guidelines.

Capitalistic Society and Resources

The vast natural resources of the United States historically encouraged their unlimited exploitation, without regard for environmental consequences. Capitalists could denude a forest and move on to a new one, or mine an area and leave tailings on what was essentially unoccupied land, until recently. The capitalist aim to maximize profits still drives the use of efficient, rather than ecologically conservative, methods of resource harvest and values cheap and rapidly obtained raw materials more than the ecosystem, in order to more quickly increase the production of consumer goods. The waste, pollution, and ecological destruction that is left as a by-product of production has not been addressed until the past few decades, when laws were made that challenged the view of the ecosystem as the private property of a few corporations and the powerful, wealthy elite who exploit it. Since capitalist society inherently views land as private property, the ecosystem has not been regarded as communal property that may be protected, or as a diminishing resource that requires protection, until recently.

Capitalist Patterns

Although capitalist patterns of resource extraction have changed superficially, it is only since resources have become more scarce. For example, the paper and timber industries, which were permitted to indiscriminately log the entire United States under the laws of private enterprise and private property, have recently undertaken tree planting programs, not out of sensitivity to the ecosystem, but in order to appease an increasingly critical sector of the public and to engineer a cheaper, faster-growing supply of materials now that the old forest materials have been exhausted. The new pine stands they plant can never replace interdependent, complex old forest ecosystems, but a capitalist view of nature as a source of raw materials does not value the intricacies of the ecosystem as much as it values the supply of wanted materials.