In a capitalist society can utopia really be obtained? I really don’t think
so; because if utopia is defined as a place of ideal perfection especially in
laws, government, and social conditions, then a place where everything is
perfect for everyone is not likely. Perfection, I believe, cannot be obtained
in a capitalist society because of competition. Competition can help society in
many areas, such as improving technology, forcing individuals to work harder,
and making more money for the overall economy. But ideal perfection can’t be
realistic with competition.
Because of competition, in my opinion, perfection in laws cannot be attained.
One reason I think this is true is because of the many laws that governments of
a capitalist society has; such as monopoly be outlawed. Laws are not ideal
perfect because they are some people who would want to generate more money and
can’t because of some law that would prevent them to do so. There might also be
some ethical issues between businesses that might lead to imperfection. There
might be some common law within businesses that might be unfair for other
business that makes society imperfect. Ideal perfection means that all people
in the society are not only happy with their economic status but also have no
need to improve on that, and when we have competition playing a major part in
our society, there is no chance of improvement not happening.
Government perfection is really hard to attained because it is rare when
everyone agrees on something that the government provides. Government has to
maintain not only a good economic system, but also a stable society. In an
ideally perfect government there cannot be any differentiation in taxes, nor
can there be such a great difference between upper class and lower class. In a capitalistic
society there is differentiation in taxes and a wide gap between upper and
lower class incomes. A good, successful government in my opinion cannot be
ideally perfect. I would think that that could only happen if the government
controls the people, like a communist country, but then that in the society’s
point of view isn’t perfect either.
Can social conditions really be perfect, ideally perfect, for everyone? This is
I believe the strongest argument against attaining utopia. What is perfect social
conditions, is it everyone having a job, family, and values. Is it following
the economic system and trying to reach for the ultimate goal in a capitalist
society, which is the bottom line. Does everyone have a home under our ideally
perfect society, are all our morals and values justified in this society. I
will have to disagree because our “great” capitalist society doesn’t teach
morals or value, it teaches and promotes competition and winning. It doesn’t
care about the mean just the end. I don’t believe a society, which doesn’t show
morals and values, can’t possibly be attaining utopia. Our society isn’t
perfect, and we can’t obtain utopia until competition, mainly the winning part
of competition, is still an existence.
There may be many other reasons why utopia cannot be attained in a capitalist
society. There might be good strong cases in favor of utopia being obtained.
But, in my personal opinion, perfection is hard when you live in a society
where there has to be loser.