10-400-13 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: The Yes Album, Materiel
Before: East Germany: dictatorship: run by Communist / West Germany: democracy run by Capitalist
Communism has fallen to the capitalist economic system
Britain: first capitalist country
Capitalism is an economic system in which employers hire workers to produce goods and services
that will be marketed with the intention of making a profit, brought with it advances in scientific and
other kinds of knowledge, developments in technology, rising standards of consumption, health and
education, abolition of slavery, radical changes in ideals and beliefs
Capitalism’s development occurred at different times in different places, quickly in some places,
slowly in others
The innovations of the technical change made possible the remarkable advances, the new era
brought new ideas, discoveries, methods, machines, transport, construction of canals
Improvement in health care and agricultural productivity -> population explosion and urbanization
Communications revolution -> process of globalization
The technological changes have been accompanied by increases in people’s consumption There’s a
huge rise of productivity in Europe (output per person)
3 groups:
- Western world: The U.S, Canada, Australia, New Zealand (responsible for most of the growth
in the world’s output)
- All of Asia, including China, India, Japan (outputs falling: the amount of output being
produced in the West was growing much faster than the amounts being produced in other
regions)
- All the nations in Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe, including Russia (decline is mostly a
result of the huge fall in output associated with the difficult transition from central planning
to capitalism)
The materiel abundance that has come with capitalism is not equally distributed. It had led to global
inequalities. The gap between rich and poor became vast (many people in the world still do not have
clean drinking water while the wealthiest individuals possess their own jet planes)
There has been a global population explosion (elimination of indigenous people, slavery, migrations
when their traditional homelands were destroyed by changes)
As people left farming, there is the growth of cities, urbanization. Before the emergence of
capitalism, most people lived in the countryside. Urbanization happens wherever industrialization
takes place. It’s an example of how free market can foster fundamental changes in society based on
individual decisions.
The way people earn their life has changed. Before, they consumed what they themselves produced
or what they could obtain by selling their own products. Now, they become dependent on
employment. At the same time, they have become subject to the dangers of unemployment.
Before, people could be confident that the skills learned in the father’s shop would be a secure
source of life. Now, a worker may spend years learning specific skills, but new production processes
can make them useless overnight.
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Document Summary
Before: east germany: dictatorship: run by communist / west germany: democracy run by capitalist. Communism has fallen to the capitalist economic system. Capitalism"s development occurred at different times in different places, quickly in some places, slowly in others. The innovations of the technical change made possible the remarkable advances, the new era brought new ideas, discoveries, methods, machines, transport, construction of canals. Improvement in health care and agricultural productivity -> population explosion and urbanization. The technological changes have been accompanied by increases in people"s consumption there"s a huge rise of productivity in europe (output per person) Western world: the u. s, canada, australia, new zealand (responsible for most of the growth in the world"s output) All of asia, including china, india, japan (outputs falling: the amount of output being produced in the west was growing much faster than the amounts being produced in other regions)
