In the short story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, a dystopic future is presented; where the government controls every aspect of life, and limits the abilities of people in the guise of equality. Vonnegut shows how he sees a socialist/communist America, with everything under complete control of the government. “Harrison Bergeron” does not give a fair representation of socialism/communism, because it is very exaggerated, Vonnegut only look at the flaws, and capitalism has its flaws as well. Vonnegut could have made it fairer, but his views on socialism/communism prevents that. Vonnegut’s representation cannot be a fair one since it’s extremely exaggerated. His depiction of a socialist/communist future is so over the top, it’s impossible to be considered accurate. An example of such an exaggeration is when he writes, “And George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear. He was required by law to wear it at all times. It was tuned to a government …show more content…
In a completely capitalist economy, the government can’t make laws to protect the people from money hungry business owners. Things such as a monopoly of power: where firms can exploit their position to charge higher prices, and social benefits being ignored such as the pollution from production being ignored causing harm to the living standard. Instead of writing about people being under-handicapped, when he writes “Harrison Bergeron, age fourteen, she said in a grackle squawk, has just escaped from jail, where he was held on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the government. He is a genius and an athlete, is under-handicapped, and should be regarded as extremely dangerous.”, Vonnegut could have mentioned the corruption of big business. For Vonnegut to have been fair he should have mentioned capitalist problems as well, instead of only focusing on