Essay on "Capitalism After 911, American Air Carriers"

Essay 3 pages (1005 words) Sources: 0 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Capitalism

After 911, American air carriers faced economic disaster because of the public's belief that the airlines had not taken the necessary steps to make their planes secure. Several of them faced bankruptcy. The federal government stepped in and loaned the airlines the money needed to keep them solvent. Was that the right thing to do?

In a land such as ours, reading Gunnar Myrdal's "Planning in the Welfare State" which is an unapologetic celebration of the power of government to socially engineer society for the better seems surprising. However, that is exactly the type of power that was deployed to restore solvency to the airlines in the wake of 9/11 and what has been used again in a bipartisan effort to prevent the nation's and the world banking and credit system from collapsing. In looking at the map of the world's "Freedom," and "Economic Freedom and Wealth" it is striking to note that most free, modern democracies, from Sweden to Great Britain embrace and accept a much more interventionist form of government than most Americans would permit. Until recently, any bit of legislation that could possibly be classified as 'socialistic' was voted down by the American public and any politician branded a socialist was voted out of office. Yet conservative administrations have bailed out car companies, airlines, and now banks.

Clearly, some government intervention is required for capitalism to function. As noted by Irving Kristol: "A Capitalist Conception of Justice" merely because capitalism is fair does not mean it is equally beneficial to all individuals in a competitive market, and capitalist freedom does not equal human freedom or social justice. Unavoidable circumstances that damage one's enterprises, from a terrorist strike to a hurricane to a credit crisis, can cause good businesses to fail. Or an individual may not be able to stay afloat in a capitalist system because of the injustices he or she has weathered in his or her life, through no fault of his or her own. Social justice and economic freedom must not be equated, and improving the economic health of society through a government-funded bailout or giving an individual some welfare assistance may be more important than pursing a pure capitalist, free market ideal.

The need to bail out airlines and banks demonstrates that the recent enthusiasm for deregulation and unchecked capitalism may have been misplaced, as might the past equation by entities such as the World Bank of private enterprise and human, personal freedom. Despite the seductiveness of the ease of mapping freedom, as done graphically by Freedom House in its "The Map of Freedom," and "Freedom in the World," there is a highly subjective element in defining freedom -- what does it mean that Russia is 'not free' -- Russia may be capitalist now, but politically repressive, while other nations may be socialistic and not economically 'free' but allow free political discourse. Democracy and capitalism may be correlated, at least according to World Bank's "Economic Freedom and Wealth and "Democracy and Rule of Law in… READ MORE

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