Rise of Capitalism and Max Weber

I wanted to do this blog on Max Weber and his view on capitalism and how it would come about in our society. I think it's a very interesting topic and reasoning that he identifies would be the cause of capitalism. Weber believed that capitalism would come from Protestants. He thought this would be the case because Protestants work ethic promotes capitalism because they are inner worldly. Being inner worldly means focusing on the here and now. On the other hand outer worldly means that individuals are focused on their afterlife more than the here and now. Weber thought that Protestants were more inner worldly and Catholics were more outer worldly. An example of being inner worldly means putting an emphasis on material goods. This is why he believed Protestants would promote capitalism. Things in society would become more competitive and it would be all about getting more and more to have more than other people in society. Weber talked about Protestants believing that if you're wealthy you have been chosen to go to heaven. Because of the work ethic, predestination beliefs and simply wanting to have more he believed that Protestants would bring the rise of capitalism.
I really liked the group discussions we had last class about the Starks articles and critics he had especially on Weber. Although he was very critical I think that his arguments against Weber were very valid. I personally think Weber's biggest problem was trying to be so exact and to the point with everything. He linked the rise of capitalism strictly to Protestants which we discussed in class that is very untrue. capitalism was in place long before the Protestant religion even came about. I personally do not think that capitalism happened for any reason other than the greed of individuals wanting to rise above others. Personal gain and competition are highly valued in our society now and I would like to believe that that is also why the rise of capitalism came about so many years ago even before the protestant religion was found. Starks argument mainly showed me that Webers belief that there was causality between the Protestant religion and capitalism is completely not true and irrelevant. He had the time order of the two wrong and I also do not believe that even now just the Protestant religion keeps driving capitalism. I believe almost all individuals in our society want to have more, weather its money or material goods, we just want more. I'm Catholic and I believe I value competition and being successful just as much as anyone of a different religion. I strongly disagree that capitalism just stems from Protestant people so I completely disagree with Webers view on how capitalism arose as well as why capitalism is still in our society.
One other thing I found very interesting was the worksheet we did in class about the different countries and their values based on their religious belief. It seemed like a lot of the groups in our class had mainly Protestant strong countries, yet it was hard to completely back up Webers ideas about the protestant religion being linked to capitalism. The Protestant countries all highly valued competition, but they did not believe that we should want more at the cost of others. By the answers the countries gave there was simply no way to back up Weber that even now Protestant strong countries completely favor all the areas that make up capitalism.I honestly just think that capitalism is something that all people need to deal with and value or they will be left behind in their society. Protestant or not,capitalism is relevant to everyone in a capitalist society, therefore we are all responsible and contribute to the capitalist society.

 I believe that this chart completely backs up my belief that religion does not really affect views on capitalism. I think it's more about individual factors. The chart shows that more Democrats believe that Capitalism is at odds with christian values and that Republicans believe that capitalism is consistent with Christian values. This shows me that religion doesn't affect how much capitalism is valued because all of the individuals who were surveyed in this chart are Christian, its rather personal traits and lives that are more of a factor of weather capitalism is favored or not. I strongly believe that religion and capitalism really do not have any correlation.