Day 8Self Reliance/Survival of the

Fittest

Revisit the Political Spectrum:-Which side of the spectrum usually favors change in a new direction?

-Which side believes the government should play a limited

role in the lives of citizens, especially when dealing with

economic matters.

Market Economy

• Also known as pure capitalism or free market• All basic economic questions are determined by

the marketplace• All means of production are privately owned• Profit is allowed• Laissez-faire• Government democratically elected• “invisible hand”• Characterized by competition

– Example- USA at turn of the century

Command Economy• All basic economic questions are determined by the

government– dictatorship

• No competition• Government grants monopolies• 2 Types of Command Economies• Fascism

– Allows private ownership and profit• Example- Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan

• Communism– Government owns all means of production and no profit

allowed• Example- USSR, China (until recently)• Socialism is a command economy in which government is

democratically elected

Mixed Economy

• Has elements of both market and command

• What most nations follow

• Really no pure market of command economies

Economic Spectrum

Command Mixed Market Mixed Command

Communism/Socialism

Pure Capitalism Fascism

Dictatorship DemocracyDictatorship

On the sheet provided, write which economic system and which type of governmentFall under each system. Note Left wing and Right wing extremes.

Today you will be able to:

• Define Laissez-faire

• Identify William Graham Sumner and his philosophy Social Darwinism

• Identify Andrew Carnegie and his philosophy of the Gospel of Wealth

• Develop your political view on the role of government in economics

Laissez-Faire Economic Policy• Derived from Enlightenment• “let it (nature) be”• Government should stay out of economy• Where would this ideology fall on the

economic spectrum?

Read page 1 of handout

William Graham Sumner/Social Darwinism

• Definition: belief that people in society compete for survival and that superior individuals, groups, etc. become powerful and rich

• Natural selection– fittest succeed – unfit sink into poverty and become extinct

• Sumner-– American sociologist who popularized S.D.– Attempts to justify why the rich are so rich…they’re

better

                                     

Carnegie Presentation

Read Gospel of Wealth

Andrew Carnegie/Gospel of Wealth

• ‘Natural aristocracy’ should control economy – Beneficial to all because weak links are eliminated,

best rise to the top

• Politicians, not subject to natural selection, are not as trustworthy as ‘natural aristocracy’

• Government should follow a laissez-faire economic policy

• Poverty is unfortunate but inevitable• Wealthy have obligation to aid the less

fortunatehttp://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5766/

Judge Carnegie So Far:

Do you view him positively or negatively?