French sociologist Emile Durkheim defined collective conscience as a belief system of ideas held in common by average members of society. This dominant belief system provides basis of social order in any society. A purely economic component such as capitalism can function in very different ways depending on the collective conscience of a society. On the same note, something universally accepted as evil such as racism could also have a different meaning depending on the society’s collective conscience. The United States and Western Europe, both of which are high-income capitalist societies are stark examples of this. The social theories of Karl Marx and Durkheim mold the parameters of contemporary social policy and the welfare state in Europe. Pure, unregulated laissez-faire capitalism is generally accepted to be harmful to social welfare. This is because, “The primary goal of capitalist production is to produce commodities that are exchangeable at a profit”,which reads catastrophe. The major flaw of this system is that if society needs something useful which cannot be produced at a profit, it will not be produced under pure laissez-faire conditions. According to Marx, “They [people] create it [the market], yet claim it to be an independent force controlling their life”. He relates the market to God, both of which Marx claims to be manmade, yet often overpowering man himself. The United States on the other hand fetishizes capitalism. This is party because it is the only economic system that gives the government leeway to openly disenfranchise any group of people they want to exclude through coercion and consent. This seemingly “neutral” and Godlike market also works as an justification to the masses as to why African Americans are unable to succeed in a democratic society. The results produced by the European social democratic model magnifies the fact that the United States being a racial state intentionally chooses to stay away from egalitarianism.

Social policies are not modern concepts and have existed since the hunter-gather ages where the capable men would go out and gather essential goods which were distributed to all members of the society according to their need. European capitalism is the result of a long struggle between feudal traditionalism and the growing informal market system. While capitalism won the test of time, it was forced to incorporate many cultural influences of Catholicism which exercised a strong cultural influence in the economic system. In Europe, modern social insurance was introduced as early as 1883 by Bismarck to protect workers against sickness, old age and injury. Bismarck himself, a keen conservative created this program as conscious effort to counter the rising socialist movement at that time. The United States on the other hand has neither traditional feudal past nor challenges by