Capitalism,Social Norms

Capitalism! Are you aware of capitalism? In a capitalist world, you are free to do what you want. Capitalism can be broken down into two worlds, money vs. solidarity. In the money world, everyone is worried about the “dollar”. Many people compete against others to make more money. Merriam Webster definition of capitalism is “an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market.”Capitalism can be defined as “survival of the fittest” only those who strive and work hard to do what they have to do to live are the only ones to survive in the capitalist world. As in contrast to the world of “solidarity” people are more concerned about others and work to support their families as well as live with happiness. Capitalism also affects people based off social classes. For example, in a class discussion someone brought up the idea of how people of different social classes are affected by capitalism different. It was said that someone of middle class would be scared to become working class, not wanting to be owned by the rich people, so they fear moving a step higher, which this is called middle class fear. The idea of frustration also plays a role in capitalism. Working to make someone rich is a “shitty job” and many people often suffer with this being affected in a capitalist society. Unfortunately, capitalism affects everyone at different stages in lives, children’s, teens, adults, and elders in many different ways.
Capitalism affects children, more than we can believe. I never believed a child could be affected by capitalism until I begin to learn more about capitalism. Recently, I had a conversation with a six year old, first grade girl. She helped me relate to in class discussions on how children are affected by capitalism. During the conversation, I asked her, “why do you go to school?” and “Do you like school?” She responded, “I go to school because my parents make me and to learn new things.” She also begin to talk about what she had in mind as a profession, she said “I like going to school because I want to become a teacher.” My non understanding of how children could be affected by capitalism with a conversation from a six year old was answered. This shows how parents promote capitalism which affects young children to make them believe how good it is to attend school. This influences them to feel like they are only there to learn, although they are there to build a future for themselves so that they are beyond the majority of the working class. From the movie 7 up, that we watched in class, many kids of higher, middle class and lower class were affected by capitalism. A young boy, of a lower class family was interviewed to see how he was affected by capitalism. The interviewer asked him, what would he liked to do when he get older and where would he like to go. The boy felt embarrassed and didn’t want to answer because growing up in a lower class family you were looked down upon. As compared to those children who were rich, they were happy and cheerful to speak about the future because being wealthy and having authority was all they needed to be successful. The affects of capitalism on children becomes the affects of capitalism on teens but in different ways.
As a teenager in high school, I often realize how capitalism affects me and many other teens the same way around the country. Before learning about how capitalism affected teenagers, I spoke with teenagers my age and they told me how capitalism didn’t affect them and they had no worries. Everyday of our lives we are told “go to school, get good grades, go to college, to prepare yourself for a career and get a good paying job.” This shows how teens are affected by capitalism, we are forced to go to school, not to benefit from our learning but to work to be better than the working class and get a good paying job to support ourselves. This connects to myself because I always live up to getting “what’s hot” or the latest sneakers or clothes. The fashion world is capitalism because everyone is competing to look good. This affects me because I compete against others to stay up to date with the hottest styles to look “proper.” As a continuation, of 7 up, now that all the kids at 13, they explain how capitalism affects them. One boy explained how he would go to one of the top colleges because he was brought up in a rich family so he had the rights to go where ever he wanted. This shows how he was affected by capitalism because knowing that he was wealthy he used that to prove that he could get anywhere jus because rich people were looked up to.
Social norms are highly valued in the American culture. A social norm is doing something that is “normal” to society. Social norms can be a number of things for example; teenage girls shaving their legs, babies being potty trained, walking down the street the correct way, etc. These things prove that you are apart of the American society or “way of living.” Social Norms are powerful in many ways but I also feel that they are not necessary in all cases. It’s powerful in my opinion because living in a society where everyone live up to doing what others do is drastic. Although social norms are powerful they can be broken by creating a “sub culture”, in which this means that you do what you believe is right for you which breaks the rules of social norms. From a class experience, we went outside of the School of The Future building and paraded around the block doing unusual things that people wouldn’t normally do in “social norm” based society. Some things that I noticed was that many people looked at us like we were crazy, many other people were laughing or smiling at what we were doing, and a working class man in a pizza shop begin dancing when he saw us. This showed me that although social norms affect people the same way there are other ways to get around living under that title.