How Wealth Accumulates and Men Decayby G.B. Shaw is a comment on capitalism. It shows how now workers have no control over what they produce.
Shaw in his essay has argued that capitalism has left us in a state of 'idiocy'. In pursuit of profit, human values have got eroded. In order to explain his point, Shaw has used the example of pins and woollen garments to show that the system we use has passed beyond our knowledge and control. There was a time when a pin-maker would do everything from buying the material to shaping it and even selling it. However now one worker does only one
thing and he lacks the skill to produce a pin. The workers were experts but the cost of the product was high. Pins cost so much that a woman’s dress allowance was called pin money.
In the same way in the olden times from sheep shearing to making clothes everything was done by men and women but now there is separate worker for every step of production. This according to Shaw has turned capable men into machines who are doing the work without
intelligence and are being fed with the food of the capitalist as an engine is fed with coal and oil.
Adam Smith was proponent of capitalist trend who felt that capitalist system promoted speed and cheap production. Shaw does not like Adam Smith's philosophy. He has argued that the capitalist system has failed because now machines have replaced men. However he has praised the poet Goldsmith who had complained that Wealth accumulates and Men decay. He has called Goldsmith a ' farsighted economist' . His essay centers on the theme of whether wealth is more important or skill is important. Man has become slave to machines.
Shaw was not happy with the capitalist system because he believed that it produced universal ignorance of how things were made and done whilst at the same time it caused them to be made and done on a gigantic scale. Books according to Shaw fail to convey useful knowledge
because it is written by those who do not do the work and they get information from other books. Capitalism has helped in the promotion of the cinema and other such modes of entertainment because due to this capitalist system most of us are too tired of our work when we come home.
We do not want to read. We need cinema to take our minds off it and feed our imagination. Shaw has argued that 'savage' communities are most intelligent because they have to make everything for themselves. The proliferation of machinery has led to the decline of
intelligence and innovation in modern civilisation because no one remains an expert in making things. It has promoted ignorance and helplessness. He has concluded by saying that this capitalist system has almost left us like dangerous lunatics in this real world.
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Gaurav Seth 5 years, 4 months ago
How Wealth Accumulates and Men Decayby G.B. Shaw is a comment on capitalism. It shows how now workers have no control over what they produce.
Shaw in his essay has argued that capitalism has left us in a state of 'idiocy'. In pursuit of profit, human values have got eroded. In order to explain his point, Shaw has used the example of pins and woollen garments to show that the system we use has passed beyond our knowledge and control. There was a time when a pin-maker would do everything from buying the material to shaping it and even selling it. However now one worker does only one
thing and he lacks the skill to produce a pin. The workers were experts but the cost of the product was high. Pins cost so much that a woman’s dress allowance was called pin money.
In the same way in the olden times from sheep shearing to making clothes everything was done by men and women but now there is separate worker for every step of production. This according to Shaw has turned capable men into machines who are doing the work without
intelligence and are being fed with the food of the capitalist as an engine is fed with coal and oil.
Adam Smith was proponent of capitalist trend who felt that capitalist system promoted speed and cheap production. Shaw does not like Adam Smith's philosophy. He has argued that the capitalist system has failed because now machines have replaced men. However he has praised the poet Goldsmith who had complained that Wealth accumulates and Men decay. He has called Goldsmith a ' farsighted economist' . His essay centers on the theme of whether wealth is more important or skill is important. Man has become slave to machines.
Shaw was not happy with the capitalist system because he believed that it produced universal ignorance of how things were made and done whilst at the same time it caused them to be made and done on a gigantic scale. Books according to Shaw fail to convey useful knowledge
because it is written by those who do not do the work and they get information from other books. Capitalism has helped in the promotion of the cinema and other such modes of entertainment because due to this capitalist system most of us are too tired of our work when we come home.
We do not want to read. We need cinema to take our minds off it and feed our imagination. Shaw has argued that 'savage' communities are most intelligent because they have to make everything for themselves. The proliferation of machinery has led to the decline of
intelligence and innovation in modern civilisation because no one remains an expert in making things. It has promoted ignorance and helplessness. He has concluded by saying that this capitalist system has almost left us like dangerous lunatics in this real world.
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