Why did Eugene Debs reject capitalism?
Eugen Debs was a union organizer for railroad workers in the late 1800’s who was arrested and imprisoned after the infamous Pullman Strike. While in prison he read the works of Karl Marx and this led to Debs rise, upon his release, as the best known socialist in America. In effect, Debs rejected capitalism because Karl Marx told him to. Debs was not an economist nor a businessman and much like Marx knew little to noting about supply and demand and the flexibility of wages, prices and currency. He was a mesmerizing orator who made several failed bids for the presidency under his socialist political party and if he were elected as President he could do no more for the economy than any President who does know a thing or two about economics. Presidents can not stimulate market places only producers and consumers can do that and no amount of government intrusion, no amount of union shenanigans can change that. Debs was a union organizer because for the railroads because he believed that the
