Isn capitalism like Social Darwinism?
No. This question can be answered by recognizing a fundamental economic fact: Wealth is not a static quantity, it is created. Many people falsely believe that a capitalist society is much like the animal kingdom. It is believed that humans compete through the marketplace for a static quantity of wealth in which the economic gain of one person is necessarily to the economic detriment of another. This view leads one to logically conclude that those who are wealthy became so simply by depriving others who are not as wealthy. Yet this “analogy” with the animal kingdom is not only false, but it is actually the precise opposite manner in which a capitalist society operates. Under a division of labor capitalist society, wealth is created. By rearranging the physical world in such a way so as values which did not previously exist now do, wealth is created. For example, if I put two potatoes in the ground and cultivate five, three new potatoes have been created not only not at the expense of an
