Crisis of Capitalism (Essay Sample)

The Crisis of Capitalism in the United States and Europe
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The Crisis of Capitalism in the United States and Europe
In the current economic status, Karl Marx’s dual perspective concerning capitalism is interwoven. To begin with, just within the framework of the capitalist institutions, the progressiveness and the expansion of the economy is procreative and reproduces the socio-institutional basis for alienation, exploitation, and cyclical crisis. In the very process of producing commodities, capitalism reproduces the capitalist itself. Consequently, the expansion of capitalism increases the systems negative as well as the positive capabilities. The reverse of Karl Marx is also true. The very contradictory properties of capitalism are themselves instrumental in capitalist development. This essay will elaborate the current economic crisis occasioned by capitalism and its impact on the United States and the European Union. Additionally, the possibility of the US and the European Union extricating themselves from the crisis is also examined beside the scrutiny of the "free capitalism" as supported by Republicans and Keynesian policies backed by the Democrats.
The global economic crisis and specifically the economic downturn in Europe is threatening the strength of the European Union. It has strained the ties that bind together the members of the Union and thus possess a significant challenge to the common ideals and interest of the Union. Similarly, the United States has also experienced the global economic crisis at both the domestic and commercial levels. The economic crisis has seen the US become engulfed in a severe economic crisis and calamity, only compared to the great depression. This financial trouble is attributed to a failed political and economic liberal capitalist system that originated from the neoliberal capitalism in the 1980s (Navarro, 2012).
Since the onset of the crisis, the United States of America has come up with various economic policies such as the appropriation of funds to recapitalize financial institutions and the adoption of several economic stimulus packages. These policies have proved ineffective in dealing with the economic crisis. Thus, I believe that it will take a considerable amount of time for the current world financial crisis to end. In that case, the US will have to adopt two egalitarian models that will transform the economy and reverse the crisis. These models are social democracy and democratic socialism. However, the process of building social democracy is a transitional one and may take quite a while to be fully achieved. Social democracy will provide a humane safety net and social welfare when a nation is not in a financial crisis as opposed to capitalism.
Free capitalism in itself cannot deal with the economic crisis and thus I do not endorse it. For free capitalism to eliminate the current economic crisis, privatization of government production of goods, deregulation, and unemployment have to be dealt with. This will be associated with a substantial financial burden on the citizen as the market forces are left in control of the crisis. On the other hand, the Keynesian policies supported by the Democrats can prove effective as it will shift the economic burden from the citizens to the Federal government. Through government intervention, the business cycles can be foreseen and minimized, the inequalities in income distribution eliminated and prog...