Is Capitalism a Driving Force of Consumerism Globally Essay

Is Capitalism a Driving Force of Consumerism Globally - Essay Example As the discussion outlines mostly related to the free market economy, it encourages the profit motive and investment by the private sector. This allows those with the necessary capital to gain profits and does not allow a high degree of government interference. The investors in the business sector are known as capitalists as they are the ones who own the means of production. Therefore, in the capitalist system it is the forces of demand and profit motive that dictate the use of the resources. The government has little or no say in the allocation or rationing of resources. The closest we can see to the purely capitalist system is in United States of America. From this paper it is clear that sudies have indicated that mercantilism seems the most primitive appearances of capitalism that existed in the city of Rome and various Middle Eastern regions. In such a system, distribution of goods was the major mode for the realization of profit. Goods were bought at one site for a certain price, moved to another site, and sold at a higher price. As the Romans looked to expand their empires, the mercantilism expanded, and these ideas set in the history of humankind. Similar developments can be compared with the expansion of the Islamic empire spreading their influence in Africa, Asia and even in Europe. Experts believe that Muslims were the inspiration of medieval Europeans who were able to acquire the skills of mercantilism from them. One of the major reasons of such a hypothesis is due to a number of terms in European languages, such as tariff, traffic, etc indicate the touch of Arabic language. Thus, how is capitalism and mercantilism related? I n this regard, analysis has indicated that mercantilism went through a process of evolution in the European region that resulted in its evolution in the form of economic activities, which now exist as Capitalism. The sources of production in modern times: land, materials, tools etc are all capital for the people and its owners are called capitalists.