ECO 1326 Final Exam
People make mistakes from time to time. Fortunately, the consequences of these mistakes range from trivial to nonexistent. Missteps might make people displeased and embarrassed. However, life goes on, and the world neither cares nor notices that people messed up. There are times when missteps, even the little ones, can cause significant ramifications. They alter the course of history or modify the world. There are some mistakes that we have studied that have shaped the course of history.
Nevertheless, not all of such mistakes were catastrophic. Some even turned to be blessings in disguise, generating beneficial impacts that made the world a better place for people to live. On the contrary, some other mistakes caused a disaster, vast destruction, and harm, and in their wake, they left a lot of misery and suffering.
One mistake that we have studied in history is capitalism. Capitalism is an economic system grounded on limited intervention by the government and trade on free markets. The mistake with capitalism is that people made ideas from the politics of their time. Proponents of capitalism consider it to be the most efficient system of economy. Nevertheless, it was a huge mistake in history. Regardless of its ambiguity, economists have been criticizing capitalism and pointing out its various problems and flaws. Mainly, capitalism has caused damages to the environment, market failure, excess materialism, inequality, and bust and boom of economic cycles.
Another mistake is the creation of cheap things. The world is made through various cheap items, which include energy, lives, foods, work, money, care, and nature. Cheap things are always complicated. When these things go wrongly, the tiny mistake may cost millions of dollars, and sometimes human lives.
The last mistake is socialism. The primary issue with socialism is that one eventually runs out of the money of other people. During the 20th century, socialist experiments were inspired by genuine interests in enhancing the lives of people. However, the outcomes were untold misery and suffering from political tyranny and economic deprivation. The democratic values that motivated these experiments are still possessing great moral and intellectual appeal. The major economic issue with socialism is the efficient performance of the activity for which the planning apparatus occurs. A country can’t have a planned economy.
For people to mitigate the occurrence of such mistakes in the future, they should begin by studying history. History helps people in understanding who they are in society and the role of other aspects and parties in the economy. Also, economic strategies have to be based on the evolution of technology. Unlike ancient times when most operations were done manually, the introduction of technology has led to the development of industrialization, where automated machines have replaced manual labor. As a result, the trade and business policies that were enacted before technology was invented are a hindrance to economic development. The mistake of cheap things can be avoided if business organizations are given the opportunity of engaging in competitive practices. Allowing trade between different countries is also an efficient way of getting rid of cheap things in the market. Last but not least, to avoid socialism in the future, companies should make market arrangements where managers would have the freedom to conduct their activities based on the forces of demand and supply.