The economic system known as capitalism emphasizes private ownership and the free market and is used as a determinant in resource allocation, and dictates prices grounded on supply and demand. It has significantly impacted urban communities and has been the dominant economic system in the United States for centuries. Economic inequality is one significant effect of capitalism on urban communities. This essay explores the social impacts of capitalism concerning urban communities in the United States by examining how capitalism can cause a change in the United States based on sociological factors that affect urban communities.
People who own property and have money to invest are rewarded in capitalism, leaving those who do not often behind. In urban areas, poverty, a lack of affordable housing, and unemployment are all manifestations of this economic inequality. In the past, wealthy capitalists have invested in suburban areas, which has led to urban decay and a lack of investment in urban communities. Due to this economic inequality, the wealthy have access to better healthcare, education, and other services, while the poor struggle to meet their basic needs. The free enterprise additionally affects the arrangement of public administrations in metropolitan networks. In capitalist societies, the government or private businesses frequently provide public services like education, healthcare, and public transportation. According to Walker (2018), these services are typically provided by private businesses in the United States, which indicates that they are subject to the market’s demands and are meant to bring in money. In urban areas, where there may be less demand for these services or where residents may need help to afford them, this can lead to an inadequate supply of public services (McCreary & Milligan, 2021). Finally, in urban communities, capitalism can significantly impact the environment. Environmental injustices, environmental degradation, and pollution are frequently the outcomes of capitalism’s emphasis on profit and economic expansion over environmental concerns (Miller & Liu, 2021). For instance, businesses may decide to locate factories and other polluting industries in urban areas, where residents are less likely to resist and land is less expensive; this can bring about expanded contamination and ecological debasement in metropolitan networks, affecting occupants.
Capitalism has had several effects on the sociological factors that affect urban communities. Gentrification is one way that urban communities have been impacted by capitalism (McCreary & Milligan, 2021). Improvement alludes to the method involved with revamping or overhauling a region, frequently described by the deluge of center and high society inhabitants, while dislodging the first lower-pay occupants. Gentrification is when a neighborhood’s property values rise due to increased demand, usually from constructing new commercial or residential buildings. The original residents are forced to leave their homes as developers gravitate toward locations where they can make the most money. As a result of this process, lower-income residents of urban communities have been forced to relocate to other areas with fewer resources and opportunities. Another way free enterprise has affected metropolitan networks is by improving lodging strategies that advance homeownership. Homeownership is frequently promoted to acquire wealth and stability (Dantzler, 2021). However, the obstacles to homeownership are significant for many families and individuals with lower incomes. These obstacles include a lack of financial education, bad credit, and affordable housing. Consequently, homeownership policies have primarily benefited middle- and upper-class individuals, increasing wealth and income inequality.
The growth of the gig economy has also affected urban communities. Short-term contracts or freelance work are characteristic of the gig economy, which is frequently facilitated by online platforms. While the gig economy has opened doors for certain people to acquire additional pay, it has likewise prompted the precarization of work, with fewer advantages and assurances for laborers. Dantzler (2021) reiterates that this affects metropolitan networks, where an absence of stable work has added to neediness and financial uncertainty. Lastly, the rise of consumer culture is evidence of capitalism’s influence on urban communities. The development of worldwide companies has prompted the normalization of items and administrations, bringing about the homogenization of culture. As a result, some of the distinctive cultural identities of urban communities have been replaced by a consumer-driven culture that encourages materialism and instant gratification.
The private enterprise also adversely affects social points of view since it restrains infrastructure power. If you set forth some parcel of energy, your business can pay off for you. Nonetheless, private enterprises can also achieve an imbalance that encourages shamefulness. For example, an organization could acquire restraining infrastructure power (Enright et al., 2018). From that point onward, it might charge misleadingly exorbitant costs to clients to prevent new clients from joining. Organizations with monopsony power can endure paying laborers compensation fundamentally lower than the specialist’s efficiency (Walker, 2018). Laborers are constrained to work without pay. Appropriately, industrialists who approach private property can “exploit” their impressive plan of action capacity to make generally more unmistakable advantages than the rest of society.
Additionally, it achieves heritage, allowing the confidential property to be gone down through ages; thus, individuals who acquire capital can bring in a ton of cash without buckling down. They can secure the best private schooling and occupations. Therefore, potential open doors and results should be more evenly appropriated. These differences truly intend that there is certainly not a level battleground in that frame of mind; there isn’t correspondence of possibility, and a couple of populace value preposterous advantages. It is challenging to contend that free enterprise will undeniably cause imbalance (Walker, 2018). The private enterprise depends on the rule that pays and wages ought to be disseminated by the unregulated economy. Wage correspondence must be guaranteed by government intercession. A few defenders of an “entrepreneur framework” may contend that the public authority should, in any case, address a portion of the imbalance that exists in industrialist social orders (Enright et al., 2018). Direct syndication power and giving free schooling, for example, to ensure that everybody has equivalent admittance to open doors and instruction, which may be burdening legacy riches.In conclusion, based on sociological factors that have an impact on urban communities, capitalism has the potential to alter the United States significantly. These changes include increased social stratification, inadequate public service provision, declining community and cultural heritage, and adverse environmental effects. To resolve these issues, policymakers should consider rearranging abundance and assets, giving reasonable lodging and public administrations, advancing local area and social legacy, and advancing supportable improvement in metropolitan regions.
References
Dantzler, P. A. (2021). The Urban Process under Racial Capitalism: Race, Anti-Blackness, And Capital Accumulation. Journal of Race,Ethnicity and The City, 2(2), 113-134. Https://Doi.Org/10.1080/26884674.2021.1934201
Enright, T., Björkman, L., Mcguirk, P., Peck, J., Purcell, M., Scott, A. J., & Rossi, U. (2018). Cities In Global Capitalism. The AAG Review of Books, 6(1), 59-75. Https://Doi.Org/10.1080/2325548X.2018.1402288
Mccreary, T., & Milligan, R. (2021). The Limits of Liberal Recognition: Racial Capitalism, Settler Colonialism, and Environmental Governance In Vancouver And Atlanta. Antipode, 53(3), 724-744. Https://Doi.Org/10.1111/Anti.12465
Miller, R., & Liu, K. (2021). After The Virus: Disaster Capitalism, Digital Inequity, and Transformative Education For The Future Of Schooling. Education and Urban Society, 00131245211065419. Https://Doi.Org/10.1177/00131245211065419
Walker, R. A. (2018). A Theory of Suburbanization: Capitalism and The Construction Of Urban Space In The United States. In Urbanization and Urban Planning In Capitalist Society (Pp. 383-429). Routledge.
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