Capitalism In Singapore Essay

Capitalism is built on the existence of private firms, where in Karl Marx’s opinion, the income generated is a result of the exploitation of workers. In private firms, workers do not own factors of production and Marx believed that this would inevitably lead to the alienation of workers from their environment and themselves. Unlike in traditional societies, where workers gain satisfaction from creating products of their own chosen specialized fields, in the current context, workers see their work merely as a form of survival. Marx believed that in a capitalistic economy, the rich have power over the middle and lower income classes and that the oppression of the middle and lower classes by minimizing wages to reducing cost of production, will eventually lead to a revolution against the rich and hence resulting in the economy producing products for the needs of the general mass rather than for boosting profits. (Marx, K., & Engels, F. 1948)
Adam Smith on the other hand, believes that capitalism is the most ideal economic model that should be adopted by all nations. He argued that the division of labour where workers specialise and work in different parts of the manufacturing

On the other hand, Singapore’s economic model would further reinforce the idea of capitalism being an ideal economic model firmly in Adam Smith. Singapore is a prime example of the ability of capitalism in transforming an economic backwater to a first class nation. It has an astounding average rate of GDP growth in the late 1990s to the early 2000s and is acknowledged as one of the freest economies in the world. (Sim, S., 2001) However, Karl Marx would argue that this is only one side of the story. Over the years, problems associated with a capitalistic economy as pointed out by Marx in the Communist Manifesto, have begun to