Chapter I

Economic Philosophies

Throughout history capitalism has always been wrongly blamed for exploiting labor and creating lower standards of living as an accepted way of doing business. It was and is Imperialism. None the less it was through these hardships arose two other social philosophies. One was socialism and the other was communism. During WW II and as a result of the fear of the spread of communism and socialism in the world, a large number of capitalists (Imperialists) ended up in the USA.

To put the immigration of imperialists into the USA into context we need to remember what life was like in the USA from the late 1800s to the 1940s. Women did not have the right to vote until 1920, nor did African Americans until 1870.Discrimination of African Americans persisted (Jim Crow Laws 1876 - 1965), and child labor was common until the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. Yet during this time from late 1800s to the 1940s there was progress and rights granted through government intervention. However, it took many years later – generations later – for society to have a changing attitude. These conditions were similar around the world. So depending on the age of the capitalist business owner and family that immigrated to the USA as a result of the fear of socialism and communism taking their assets, either the business owner or the first generation are still alive today in 2007. This means that the mentality of the "old school capitalist" or imperialist has passed on to their children who now have the same philosophy that the ill treatment of people for the purpose of financial gain is OK.

For many years following WW II the USA had many regional conflicts around the world to prevent the spread of “socialism” or “communism”. These would be conflicts like the Korean War, the Vietnam War, or providing of funds and arms to other countries. There was also a nuclear arms race with the U.S.S.S.R. (the Cold War) that culminated in the fall of the Berlin wall.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall large US corporations began to open up business offices in other parts of the world. In the USA there was a short period of time were there was public debate of protest to their leaving. We later grew to know and accept the well known term – multinational corporations. As we fast forward to the present day current events we now have corporations like Ford paying $80 per week to plant assembly workers in Mexico and Kimberly Corporation paying $40 per week to their workers in Mexico. Currently we are beginning to hear more and more protests from leftist governments. In large part these protests are due to the poor wages for workers by these multinational corporations and the remembrance of history that capitalism has exploited labor all through history.