The social atmosphere of capitalism - Book Report/Review Example

The social atmosphere of capitalism Summary Capitalism has brought about an atmosphere of hostility to its own social order, in a manner that is striking to the extent that the Marxist theory cannot explain (Schumpeter, 143). This calls for the development of a theory that can explain how capitalism has created this air of hostility to the social order. Capitalism has destroyed the moral authority of many other institutions, and even surpassed its boundaries to touch on the private properties.

Therefore, while capitalism may thrive for a certain duration at the expense of the lower class people, it eventually ends up creating some rational hostility, since it keeps damaging the social order, to a point where the people becomes defenseless and thus develops aggression towards it (Schumpeter, 145). Capitalism creates a scenario where the profit inefficiencies dominates it, such that it turns against the whole society, pushing the poor to fix their hope on their great-grandchildren other than themselves, making the unemployed forget their personal fate and the politicians down their ambition (Schumpeter, 147).

This end up creating a long run scenario where the upper class of the society remains the only important thing, and thus everybody else has to look upon that class. Thus, to overcome the social order disruptions created by capitalism, active hostility has to be nurtured to eventually turn into consistent attitudes and actions that will overcome capitalism (Schumpeter, 152). Author’s main argument The author’s main argument is that capitalism is a social concept that begins with rational thinking of the society (Schumpeter, 145).

However, the interests and impulses of capitalism eventually overrides those of rational thinking, pushing every other aspect of the society aside, and only concentrating on the generation of profits. While working towards generating profits, many inefficiencies occurs that damages the social order, since the capitalists no longer care for anything else, other than advancing their interests. This ends up frustrating the hopes of the poor, the unemployed and the politicians, who stops focusing on their welfare and starts looking upon the upper class of the society that has created immense wealth though capitalism (Schumpeter, 151).

The loss of hope by the society and the creation of a single relevant social class breeds hostility and aggression towards capitalism, which must be led by certain groups that keeps the aggression active and consistent. The aggression against capitalism is led by the intellectuals, and eventually becomes very hard to be overcome by the capitalists (Schumpeter, 148). Eventually, the Capitalist evolution produces a labor movement that consistently works to counter its dominance and motivates public policy to grow more and more against capitalism, eventually impend its functionality (Schumpeter, 151).

Finally, this new atmosphere influences political policy formulations, legislations and administrative practices that creates a firm checks and balances on capitalism (154). Author’s interesting ideas The most interesting idea raised by the author is the reason behind the development of policies, legislation and administrative practices that attempts to impend the continuity of capitalism. The reasoning is interesting in that, the foundation of such policies, legislations and practices is the atmosphere of social disorder that is created by capitalism, which in turn breeds aggression against it.

The emphasis on the role of intellectuals in subverting the dominance of capitalism is yet another interesting concept of the argument by the author. The author argues that it is the intellectuals who play a leading role in creating and actively sustaining aggression against capitalism. Works Cited Schumpeter, Joseph. Selection from Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy. Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003. 143-154. Internet Source.