Critical Review of Online Discussion - BSP Module Assessment

This report presents a critical review of an online discussion concerning the impact of capitalism. The introduction outlines the debate's purpose: to examine whether capitalism benefits everyone. The summary synthesizes arguments, noting that the discussion explored how capitalism's effects vary based on factors like a country's economy and the wealth gap. The critical review analyzes the arguments presented, including the differing opinions on capitalism's benefits for rich and poor, and the importance of government policies. The author agrees that capitalism can disproportionately benefit the rich, and that it can negatively affect the poor. The author also points out the importance of government policies and the system in making or breaking the situation for poor people. The conclusion emphasizes that capitalism may not be universally beneficial, particularly when wealth disparities are significant, and that it may benefit the rich more than the poor. The author uses examples from the discussion to support their arguments, ultimately highlighting the complexities of capitalism's impact.

Critical Review of Online Discussion 0
Title: Critical Review of Online Discussion
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Critical Review of Online Discussion 1
Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Summary..........................................................................................................................................2
Critical Review................................................................................................................................2
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................4
References........................................................................................................................................5

Critical Review of Online Discussion 2
Introduction
Capitalism can be described as a social, political, and economic system in which the
industry, business, and property are corporately owned. Thus, the main purpose of the online
discussion is to examine the opinion that “does capitalism benefits everybody”. The main
argument of the online discussion is the different impact of capitalism on rich and poor people.
Also, with the online discussion, I perceive that capitalism is more effective for rich people than
the poor, which highly depends on a country’s economic status.
Summary
According to the online group discussion, this can be formulated that capitalism and its
impact, depends on various different factors, which includes a country’s economy, the taxes, the
type of market, and various different aspects. The online discussion exhibits the fact that though
capitalism benefits everyone it largely depends on all the above-mentioned factors. In addition to
this, the discussion further presented different opinion that highlighted that through capitalism
the poor people can get negatively affected for a certain amount of time. This is due to the wealth
gap that will develop between the rich and poor people, especially in developing countries
(Butler, 2018). But with time, this wealth gap will shrinking offering benefits for all the people.
Thus, the main bottom line of this discussion is that capitalism benefits everybody, as it creates
opportunities for everyone, which helps them to fulfill their dreams and desires. But, the level of
benefits will differ according to the state of a country, that is, developed or developing.
Critical Review
In the online discussion, Nada Awad stated that capitalism benefits everyone as it creates
better opportunities for everyone. I agree with her opinion that capitalism can benefit people in a

Critical Review of Online Discussion 3
disproportional manner that is the rich will benefit more than the poor people. Though, I feel that
her example of North Korea and South Korea are a bit vague, as it clearly does not explain
capitalism. Though, the main reason behind the difference between North Korea and South
Korea is their approaches for its economy. For instance, North Korea functions with a single
approach of command economy. On the other hand, South Korea has a mixed economy, which is
governed by free market principles. But the other aspect that has risen the economy of South
Korea is its government central planning approach. So, capitalism is part of South Korea, but it is
the functioning of its government as a whole that has benefited the nation (Evans and Kelley,
2016).
On the other hand, Philip Scahill exhibited his opinion that capitalism helps in reducing
poverty. Though this is a known fact that capitalism has the potential to raise the lowest
economy, but during this tenure of emerging, which is extremely long, the people below the
poverty line face extreme adverse effect. In addition to this, the impact can be more humongous
due to the wrong functioning of a nation (Chulu, 2015).
The different opinion exhibited in the online discussion highlights the positive impact of
capitalism, but the biggest and the main aspect that is completely ignored is that capitalism does
not solely function (Jahan and Mahmud, 2015). In a nation like Australia, capitalism will have a
severe negative impact on everyone except the mega-rich people. It is due to the humongous
wealth gap that is between the mega-rich and the remaining people, which has increased by 30
years. The twenty percent of the rich people own country’s 61% wealth, which 20 percent of the
poor people own only 1% of country’s wealth. This exhibits a huge gap, which will affect the
poor people immensely with a capitalist approach, creating a situation of a national crisis too
(Shahrier, Kotani and Kakinaka, 2016).

Critical Review of Online Discussion 4
Therefore, this can be determined that capitalism can help in reducing the wealth gap
between poor and rich in a nation, but with the application of this approach, the poor people will
face massive negative repercussions affecting them enormously (Shiller, 2013). In addition to
this, government policies and the system can make or break the situation for poor people with
different policies, rules, and regulations.
Conclusion
Therefore, with the online discussion and also, the different supporting information and
knowledge this can be concluded that capitalism might not be beneficial for everyone, especially
if the wealth gap is huge between the poor and the rich. If in case, the gap shrinks down then
also, it will benefit the rich people more than the poor people, therefore creating an unequal
situation in a nation.

Critical Review of Online Discussion 5
References
Butler, S. (2018). The Impact of Advanced Capitalism on Well-being: an Evidence-Informed
Model. Human Arenas, 2(2), pp.200-227.
Chulu, J. (2015). How Profit Maximization of the Capitalists and Rich Nations Has Affected the
Poor in the Developing Countries: Is It Compromise of the Right to Development?. SSRN
Electronic Journal, 1(1), pp.1-5.
Evans, M. and Kelley, J. (2016). Communism, Capitalism, and Images of Class: Effects of
Reference Groups, Reality, and Regime in 43 Nations and 110,000 Individuals, 1987-
2009. Cross-Cultural Research, 51(4), pp.315-359.
Jahan, S. and Mahmud, A. (2015). What Is Capitalism?. International Monetary Fund, 52(2),
pp.1-6.
Shahrier, S., Kotani, K. and Kakinaka, M. (2016). Social Value Orientation and Capitalism in
Societies. PLOS ONE, 11(10), p.e0165067.
Shiller, R. (2013). Capitalism and Financial Innovation. Financial Analysts Journal, 69(1),
pp.21-25.