All my life I have lived in the United States, a country that works under a Capitalistic economic system. Because of this I have had the opportunity to see both the good and bad of Capitalism and how its effects have affected our country over the last few years. I for one am an advocate for Capitalism, but I can see the negative affects that it can have. That is why for this blog I will be focusing on the negatives of Capitalism. With a major one being the class divide and how people in these classes are worked and viewed. Starting with the lower-class, those born into this class are often doomed to stay in this class, often not due to their own fault, but the fault of the system. In Capitalism the jobs of the lower-class are often very labor intensive, repetitive, and don’t really offer ways to advance, unless your lucky. To make matter worse these jobs often pay very little, leaving people very poverty stricken and with little opportunity for advancement. However, the worst the part about being a member of the lower-class is the disrespect and crude looks members must endure on a constant basis. For the lower-class life is a constant struggle and because of this many members stop trying to advance and often lose hope. The upper-class on the other hand, are often painted as the go getters, the people we aspire to be, the ones who work hard to achieve their goals, the ones we should be afraid of. This is because, like the lower-class, most upper-class people are born into their status. Expect the upper-class can advance in their careers and have a handful of opportunities due to their status and the money that comes with it. Not only that but, their jobs are viewed has having more meaning and are often not labor intensive. These classes and capitalistic concepts can be found all throughout the novel Zone One. Where Whitehall uses a virus and its variants to poke fun of and highlight the negatives of capitalism. In Zone One we have two different virus variants, the Skels and the Stragglers. The Skels are infected people who are very violent, active, and actively seek people to bite and infect. Skels will stop at nothing to infect others and they are always full of energy. Stragglers on the other hand, are laid back, some might say they are lazy, they tend to keep to themselves and they are often stuck doing one mundane task. The major differences between these viruses are used to highlight the differences in the classes in capitalism. The Skels represent the upper-class, the upper-class are often people who are actively striving to reach their goals, they are always active, and they often have lively hood while performing their job. They also tend to have a lot of hope and ambition in their eyes, and they tend to step over people and belittle people to achieve their goals. Not only do the Skels represent the upper-class in the way that they act, but also in way they are viewed and talked about. In the novel the Skels are considered dangerous and are often seeked out and killed more than the Stragglers. This shows how the upper class are treated, the upper class are always talked about and seeked out. They are the ones we pay attention to.
On the other hand, the Stragglers represent the lower-class, they show the jobs and meaningless type of life the lower-class are subjected to. Their actions and attitude show the loss of hope and the meaningless life of the lower-class. They show and represent how the lower- class feels stuck and how every day is just doing the same task over and over with no advancement. Not only that but the stragglers show how the lower class is treated, the Stragglers are talked about less, not really considered, and are often avoided at all costs. This is how the lower-class is treated, they are cast aside and often not looked at. After taking all of this into account, it can be made clear that the novel with the virus, is trying to say that capitalism is a virus and one that spreads like a cancer. The novel is trying to say that if we aren’t carful, capitalism will become a virus and lead to our downfall. Links: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism
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