Capitalism's Purpose

Capitalism is a political and economic system where most of the industries are controlled by the private sector for profit. Even in this commonly known and officially accepted the definition of capitalism anyone can see that the emphasized words are private and for profit. Instead, this definition should include such words as public, people and for the common goodbecause political and economic structure should work for the people’s benefit and not for someone’s profit. However, capitalism is rather used to literally enslave people with debt and make them work and sit in the office for the rest of their lives. This is what John Kenneth Galbraith said about capitalism: “Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite.”

Matter Doestn't Matter

Henry David Thoreau had a similar view on capitalism and he tells about it in his Walden experiment. His main purpose was to demonstrate benefits of a simple life to people. Thoreau attempted to take an ownership of his life and of the world he lived in. For instance, he thought that it was really important to be free from debt in order to live life fully. Understanding of his own soul and mind and to be spiritually awoken was more important to him then acquiring materialistic things. In Economy Part 1-A, which was included in Walden, he writes: “But men labor under a mistake. The better part of the man is soon plowed into the soil, for compost. By a seeming fate, commonly called necessity, they are employed… It is a fool’s life, as they will find when they get to the end of it, if not before.” Thoreau argues here that people have enough since they were born. However, most of them do not realize it and that’s why they are being manipulated and are poor.

It can be said that Thoreau is being satiric when he describes capitalism. For instance, in the same section of Economy, he says:” Some of you, we all know, are poor, find it hard to live, are sometimes, as it were, gasping for breath. I have no doubt that some of you who read this book are unable to pay for all the dinners which you have actually eaten…” Once again, he shows in a satiric way that debt does not allow men to live to their full potential and they cannot be fully responsible for their lives because they have to depend on someone materially. He also gives many other examples that show his satiric view of capitalism. For example, in Part 1-B of Economy, he explains how people are trying to hide their inside emptiness by saying that “we don garment after garment, as if we grew like exogenous plants by addition without”.

Enlightment's Path

Henry Thoreau was one of the many wise men who became awake and aware about men’s full potential and spiritual needs. This kind of enlightenment began many thousand years ago and was passed from one civilization to another. Thoreau shares the same perspective about humans life as Lao Tzu, for example, who said: “Those who know they have enough are rich”.

Book Used: Thoreau, Henry David. Walden. New York: Time Inc., 1962. Print