Warning: Use of undefined constant referer - assumed 'referer' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 102

Warning: Use of undefined constant host - assumed 'host' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 105

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays:102) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 106

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays:102) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 109
Capitalism In America - School Essays

Capitalism In America

"Work hard, save your money, and you can become wealthy - or, at least, "independent!" This is the motto of old-fashioned, "free enterprise." It expresses the idea that everybody in a capitalist society can participate and compete on the same terms with similar chances of success. It implies that the working class is just a collection of individuals who have not yet established their independence (worked their way up) through "individual initiative," rather than a being permanent class.
In the early 19th Century, most Americans (including Abraham Lincoln, for instance) believed this. They thought opportunities under capitalism would keep expanding forever. But what is the reality behind ...

Want to read the rest of this paper?
Join Essayworld today to view this entire essay
and over 50,000 other term papers

2) your country was "free"; and, 3) there was no slave labor to take your livelihood, you could "make something of yourself," and become a capitalist or, at least, an independent producer, professional or artist. Americans in the North at that time were influenced by this capitalist "work-ethic" to under-estimate the energy of the South. They thought (as the capitalist "work-ethic" would lead them to believe) that the poverty and economic decline of the South were probably due to laziness and that this indicated that the North should be able to easily defeat the South. But the Civil War proved that Southerners were not "lazy;" it was the slave system (lacking science and industry) that caused many of the economic problems there. The capitalist "work-ethic" also caused Northerners to overlook the only chance for real progress in the South during the "Reconstruction" -- taking of the lands of former slave-owners, and their distribution to Blacks and poor Whites. They assumed, as did ...

Get instant access to over 50,000 essays.
Write better papers. Get better grades.

Already a member? Login

CITE THIS PAGE:

APA
MLA
Chicago
Turabian

Capitalism In America. (2007, January 22). Retrieved April 19, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Capitalism-In-America/59151

"Capitalism In America." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 22 Jan. 2007. Web. 19 Apr. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Capitalism-In-America/59151>

"Capitalism In America." Essayworld.com. January 22, 2007. Accessed April 19, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Capitalism-In-America/59151.

JOIN NOW

Join today and get instant access to this and 50,000+ other essays

PAPER DETAILS

Added: 1/22/2007 10:56:30 PM
Category: Economics
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 786
Pages: 3

Save |

Report

SHARE THIS PAPER

SAVED ESSAYS

Save and find your favorite essays easier