Shay is in her mid-twenties and she just graduated with a bachelor’s in art. She currently has a part-time job at a coffee shop and is pursuing starting her own business.
Do you think that capitalism is beneficial to your life?
I feel inclined to say yes, I don’t really know s*** about other economic systems. But like, I want to start my own shop and I think that that is a positive for capitalism because I can do that. There is a freedom that comes with capitalism for us regular people.
How do you think that capitalism impacts the economy?
As long as everyone participates in the economy I’d say it helps keep money moving. I don’t have any specifics because capitalism and the economy are the same thing for me.
How do you think that capitalism interacts with the media?
One of capitalism’s biggest resources is the media. People put so much money and thought into advertisement that it’s no wonder that it became a whole job field, but the media is, I’d say essential now for businesses to thrive. So you have the whole field of people working in advertisement that is a part of the economy, but then there’s the effect of good advertisement which increases sales which keeps capitalism moving.
What are positive/negative aspects of capitalism?
The biggest positive is the amount of freedom it allows for people to pave their own way in the world. I can’t say if the changes in prices are positive or negative, because like capitalism helps with the economy balancing on its own (ish.) But also the fact that everything in the economy is connected and influence each other, I could see one wrong move really taking the economy down, and I don’t want to deal with a Depression.
What do you think of other economic systems other than capitalism?
Like I said I don’t know much about other economic systems. The only one I have some knowledge on is socialism, and the only thing I can really remember I think is that the government would be in charge of the economy, and I don’t trust the government (or even one single group) to be in charge of the entire f****** economy. (She also added in later “I don’t like monopolies, they feel rude”)
Analysis
Overall, Shay seems to have semi-solid beliefs from what she knows about capitalism, but was not afraid to show her uncertainty in her knowledge during the interview. It was also just really interesting to interview Shay partially because she is a good friend who I don’t have many serious conversations with, but because after she answered almost all of the questions she would say “hang on” and google something about capitalism to try and see if it would change what she thought or in her words “google is more reliable than my brain.”
