A “Revolutionary” take on capitalism 
February 1, 2010 by Andrew Murphy
Has capitalism brought us the good we thought it would?
Illustration by Tiarra Wantz.
A destined romance. A fate-filled courtship. A timeless love story.
Those were the outcomes of Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio’s last meeting in the box-office-smashing Oscar triumph “Titanic.”
In “Revolutionary Road” (2008), however, the lovers take a different course, this time portraying a dysfunctional, post-honeymoon couple in a stale New York suburb.
While the film presents an abrupt shift from their previous tryst, it proved guiltily thrilling to watch the two Academy-award winners taunt, scowl and yell in the complete love-lost exasperation of the movie.
The atrophying couple engages in extramarital affairs, broken promises and a horrific tragedy at movie’s end (I’ll save for your own viewing).
Notwithstanding its cinematic brilliance, Revolutionary Road offers viewers a telling depiction of burgeoning 1950s capitalism.
The wedded’s deceit and dissatisfaction was the product of the movie’s chief conflict: Leo’s desire for social mobility.
Overtime hours and misleading corporate promises lead to only heightened failures, directly causing the severing of the previously envied Wheelers of Revolutionary Road.
Albeit not the director’s intention, I believe that this movie presents a poignant picture of post-modern American capitalism appropriate for today’s world. Resisting any Michael Moore-ish, Marxian hatred of capitalism, I do ponder whether American capitalism has fulfilled its own promises.
In the early nineteenth century, Americans were sold on a dream of fiscal longevity, halting warfare and individual happiness. While the first goal has been accomplished, that may not be the case with the latter two.
Capitalism, in the form of increased production, oversaw the close of World War II, but the Daniel Guérin war-industry capitalistic motif, the military-industrial complex, may have in fact started wars instead of ending them (Persian Gulf and Iraq).
At the least, a plutocratic desire for advanced weaponry, and subsequent global economic domination, has led to the destruction of sites like the Marshall Islands.
An even more apposite picture of false capitalistic promises can be seen in current rates of happiness. Rita Simon and Andrew Bennett wrote an article last year in “Gender Issues,” comparing countries’ “subjective well-being.”
According to the study, the U.S. ranked twenty-third among major industrialized countries in reported rates of happiness – well behind the African nation Seychelles, which ranked one hundred sixty-fifth in gross domestic product according to the International Monetary Fund.
If we as a society have reached a fiscal apex, then why are we so darn miserable?
From my vantage, I see Americans chalking hours of sporting events, celebrity gossip, reality television, alcohol consumption and mindless sex to fill thought-avoiding gaps of a seemingly elusive quality: happiness.
Dare I question the invisible hand of the demigod, capitalism?
Surely I have no presentable alternative for continuing unparalleled American fiscal prowess and I do not advocate for incentive-less communism.
But I do find tremendous value in hitting the pause button to ask, objectively, whether we truly have received what we assayed. Has capitalism brought the happiness we originally sought?
The Wheelers of “Revolutionary Road” were fooled by a desire to compete in a hamster-wheel microcosm, burning their energy and churning their love until all that stood were questions about themselves. If we as a nation stop to ask the hard questions from capitalism’s genesis instead of reveling at its pecuniary ends, then perhaps we can avoid a similar result.
Our economy, like any, is a tough beast to control. When controlled well (i.e. regulated efficiently) it produces more wealth than any other type of economic system ever created. When controlled poorly, it caused lots of damage with little to no safety net depending on the type of capitalism.
I personally think capitalism is still the best way for our country to move forward and to grow the economy. To do that we need to simplify and enforce regulations. Complying with government mandates cost millions if not billions of dollars annually that could be greatly lessened if we could simply the process. Poor regulation also forces companies to act stupidly or else no longer do business in the US. Those types of regulation should be stopped as they hurt business which in turn hurts our economy and everyone attached to it.
Socialism and Communism (the other two largest types of economic systems) seem to favor a wealthy elite more than the average person even more than capitalism does. In my opinion, socialism and communism is more about maintaining wealth for certain groups than allowing the general populous to increase their wealth. In socialist and communist countries, people gain in wealth more by who they know that what they know. In the US, who you know is important but you could know no one important and still greatly increase you wealth.
In the end, my opinion is that capitalism is wonderful system when controlled well and we should be grateful that our country has it or we would probably still be a third world lackey of England.