Capitalism: No longer a love story
nadim April 11th, 2010
Of Americans under the age of 30:
- 33% prefer socialism over capitalism
- 37% prefer capitalism
- 30% are undecided
These statistics, from a 2009 Rasmussen telephone survey, were cited in Michael Moore’s latest documentary “Capitalism: A Love Story“.
At a glance these figures are surprising, coming as they do from the country that has historically prided itself in being the champion of free market capitalism. They reflect just how badly the financial crises of the last 2 years has shaken young people’s confidence in the once impregnable fortresses symbolised by New York’s Wall Street and the Square Mile in London. With jobs in short supply and a startlingly high ratio of unemployed university graduates, the sense of disillusionment is palpable. And it hasn’t just been the youth. World leaders have been forced to sit up and scrutinise elements of a system that has lead to senseless exploitation of the masses, gross disparities between the rich and poor and blatantly unjust practices by individuals and corporations alike.
Just last week, President Sarkozy of France reiterated the plea in front of students at Columbia University:
The world economic regulations cannot go on as they are. We can’t accept a capitalist system without rules any more… Lack of rules will be the death of capitalism.
“Capitalism: A Love Story” begins with a sequence of flashing images, juxtaposing elements that precipitated the fall of the Ancient Roman Empire with correlating scenes from modern-day society. This impactful intro calls to mind the words of Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Baha’i Faith, who once asked rhetorically:
Are we, the privileged custodians of a priceless Faith, called upon to witness a cataclysmical change, politically as fundamental and spiritually as beneficent as that which precipitated the fall of the Roman Empire in the West?
Dr. Peter Khan, in his reflections on the 2009 Ridvan Message, examines the phrase in the message that calls on the Baha’i community to be conscious participants in “rebuilding a broken world”. Again, the metaphor of Ancient Rome is used. Civilizations don’t just come and go he reminds us — they exhibit cracks over time, often hundreds of years in the making, until eventually they crumble and collapse. Much has been written by various authors in an attempt to identify the fissures in the Roman Empire, some of which have been represented by Moore’s sequence of images…
- The disparity between rich and poor
- Too few jobs
- Games and spectacles “to keep idle citizens entertained”
- Rule by decree
- Irresponsible behaviour of public officials
Sounds like our world, right?
Not everyone agrees. Critics of Moore’s documentary-making style state that it is too black-and-white — everything is categorised as either right or wrong, focus is placed on extreme cases and subjects are often treated superficially. Some have taken issue with the subject matter directly, challenging his premise that the capitalist system is the main cause of the problems. One critic concludes with the following statement:
What he doesn’t tackle are the individual Americans who have made their own avaricious or unwise economic decisions… Perhaps what Moore should have condemned are greed and corruption. They are the human vices at the root of the issue and unfortunately, they can surface in any economic system.
Fair point. But one might then contend with this critic that, actually, many people were duped into the unwise decisions by unscrupulous bankers or mortgage lenders — that these individuals were merely naive — and the finger-pointing debate would cycle round again.
The Baha’i position accepts elements of both viewpoints. Neither should the capitalist system and the associated practices of corporations and big business be accepted as the hallmark of planetary organization — far from it — nor should the root causes of greedy and short-sighted behaviour be left unexamined. Pure capitalism, like socialism and other man-made systems preceding it, is a flawed system based on certain false assumptions about human nature and well-being (nevermind total disregard of the environment based on an antiquated assumption of inexhaustible natural resources), and is slowly unravelling before our eyes. Individuals too, while affected by the system in place, are certainly culpable for the unwise and harmful actions carried out under the pretext of personal rights and “getting ahead of the pack”. Ultimately, the relationship between society and the individual is so intertwined and mutually affective that ignoring one at the expense of the other has to be viewed as simplistic.
With all of this as the backdrop, how are Baha’is, as re-builders of a broken world, as individuals ”anxiously concerned with the needs of the age”, going about their task? How is unity of focus and effort achieved in an environment where opinions on where to begin are so varied that one could quite easily spend a life fighting cause after endless cause… and still end up worse off? Do we tackle societal problems first and then look at individual behaviours next, or vice versa? Or do we take the visionary step of replacing the damaged shell of our present civilization with the foundations of an entirely new one?
Peter Khan neatly breaks down the immediate requirements…
How do you make a civilization?
A civilization involves a foundation of behavioral change through spiritual transformation. We can agree on that. A civilization depends upon certain moral and ethical, spiritual characteristics, but what else? What is the framework of the new civilization we are conceptualizing in this hypothetical example of given a blank sheet of paper and asked “please, set out a framework for a civilization”?
We would want to have certain things:
- We’d want an institutionalized practice of individual and community worship, for a variety of reasons
- We would want individuals comprising that civilization to engage in an exploration and application of divine teachings to daily life, so that we can build up a civilization in a reasonable and productive manner
- We would want civilized society to be imbued with a sense of altruism to the service of humanity. We don’t want selfish greedy people, but people who are altruistic, who think of the larger good.
- And essentially we would want them to transmit civilized values to the new generation of children and youth.
If you were to agree that those are the elements of the framework of a civilization then I must tell you, you have fallen into my trap, because what I have described are the elements of the core activities of the Five Year Plan. What I have referred to are things such as the devotional meetings, the institute process, study of the Ruhi Books, the focus on service to humanity, children’s classes, youth classes, the junior youth activities.
The point I make is that we are engaged, obviously in the spread of the Faith, in pursuit of the endeavors of the Five Year Plan and beyond, but far more than that we are establishing the roots of new civilization in our day-to-day activities of the present plan. This doesn’t mean that civilization will magically spring into being like the goddess Athena, rather it will come gradually, slowly, generation upon generation, decade upon decade, and century upon century, to realize its fruit in the Golden Age, but its roots are to be found in the activities of the present day at this time in history.
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- Comments(9)
Nice to read this post. Just a few comments…
- I hope Baha’is see the distinction between “capitalism” and “unregulated capitalism” (or “unbridled capitalism”, in the words of Shoghi Effendi). “Capitalism” is a term which can include features like a progressive income tax, a social safety net, bank regulation, etc. and is not, in and of itself, at odds with Bahai teachings, in my opinion.
- Capitalism is not by definition amoral, neither does it advocate aggression and lack of care for others. Adam Smith was not a banker nor even an economist, but a Scottish Englightenment philosopher and a believer in God and of the teachings of the Bible. In his Wealth of Nations he made many exceptions for market failures, and did not see markets as perfect and without the need for any interference.
- While lack of regulation and perhaps moral laxity has contributed to some poor outcomes, markets are what largely allow countries to grow and to eradicate poverty. There are few historic examples of reductions in poverty when markets were usurped, and dozens when they were liberalized. It doesn’t mean that all market liberalization is good, but it means that it’s foolish to abandon free markets as a way to improve human welfare.
As Baha’is, we can’t lazily latch on to the common alternatives to capitalism — socialism, anarchism, anti-globalism — in response to the shortcomings of capitalism. Rather, we should seek to use the broad guidance of the Bahai Writings to think of something else. A good start is a market system made up of better pieces, meaning that the individuals doing the trading/saving/investing actually care for one another and try their best to keep in mind goodness and fairness, not just self interest. That by the way is also what Adam Smith would have wanted.
Thanks for the post and comment addressing economic issues of the day. My bias, if you will, would be more forceful opposition to what is largely main-stream media propaganda on these issues, designed to divert attention from the fundamentals.
For example, captialism, socialism, etc — the youth polled have no idea what they are talking about, anyway. This is the “keep them talking about isms while we rip them off” approach.
One more example, now of a fundamental: government interference in people’s freedom leads to poverty and ruin (see writers such as Fekete and the Austrian school).
A favorite summary of this fundamental comes from Jim Sinclair in how any country whatsoever can become super-prosperous in short order. Just two laws (1) can’t hurt or take other peoples’ stuff and (2) you keep what you earn (the government won’t take it). Real-world example: the Hong Kong miracle. Notice that not even a single peep about capitalism or other ism is needed; people will just do what comes naturally with just two laws on the books. Smiles, Jim
Thank you both for your contributions on what is undeniably a broad topic. Always a challenging one to discuss because out of 10 people in a room there will be 10 partly valid ways of examining the economy!
Eamon, some compelling points around definitions of capitalism and contributions of the free-market system to human welfare. My reservation is that the word “free” has been taken to the extreme. Movies/advertising/video games etc. have already pushed beyond the bounds of acceptability… so-called shock value determines marketability and no one dare utter a word against freedom of expression for fear of being stigmatised. In the same way, we would all agree that market freedom will ultimately cause more harm than good if left unchecked by regulation and not built on the spiritual foundations spoken of in the Writings. Regardless of the isms we apply in building a more ideal system, of which certainly capitalism has principles to offer and socialism others, the most pressing need is to dedicate energy towards building the new framework delineated by the Universal House of Justice. I am in awe at how everything in this Plan is connected, nothing is random or isolated, and it all sets the stage for something far bigger than the sum of its parts.
Jim, some good suggested reading, thanks! Would be hesitant to reduce prosperity to two laws, but will leave that thought hanging for others to comment on…
This blog never ceases to amaze me. What an awesome post. I’m inclined to agree with Eamon (not just because I know him personally!).
One big problem with capitalism (and socialism, too) is that the political systems underlying them are rotten. You either have a rigged deck in which goverment controlled or well connected entities compete unfairly, or political environments in which the rule of law is not well established. Capitalism best thrives when the competition is truly fair, and the “little guy” is rewarded for hard work and innovation. I think North America does better than most of the world, but there is room for a lot of improvement.
Great discussion.. I hope it makes it out of this blog and into homes
One additional point.
Although I do not wish to dismiss capitalism entirely, I would hesitate to give Adam Smith the benefit of the doubt. I don’t think the problem is that capitalism is not applied ‘correctly’. It is the principle that ‘profits replace morals’ that we should cause us to question even the fundamentals of capitalism. Further capitalism often claims to be ahistorical and apolitical in its execution (that all people can react to a ‘free’ market in the same way), but we know that nothing is ahistorical and apolitical. It simply ignores power relations.
Further, Marx’s concepts of social mobilization and community led transformation are fundamentally lacking in capitalist frameworks. In highly capitalized countries such as the U.S. ‘community’ is replace by the ‘individual’. This is not only a function of American culture, but also fundamental to the concept of capitalism. Socialist movements although have notably lacked vision. Although power is recognized as questioned, there is little personal transformation that takes place. Therefore, people are still greedy, deceptive and exploitative even in these systems.
I would argue that it is not a ‘fixing’ of capitalism that need nor a re-vamp of socialism, but rather a motivation that goes beyond both. The concept of unity should be out guiding light. If we are using this as a measuring stick, both capitalism and socialism fall short. Although aspects of both can be used to achieve unity, we must criticize the flaws of both.
Finally, I don’t think the youth of today are just caught up in -isms. There a a shift in thinking happening, that is motivated by the excessive materialism and consumerism of our culture. At this critical time is important to assert the principles of the Bahai faith so that others can see this greater vision of the world — one that is guided by the word of God.
Thanks for everyone’s points!
Love,
Ramya
Really enjoyed reading through your comments Ramya, thank you!
One way of getting these discussions out of the blog and into homes is through sharing on Facebook, so please disseminate to your heart’s content
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What Baha’is sometimes forget, in a country like Australia, is that various Christian and other organizations – religious and secular are working together to promote the very justice and social equality of a dignified life free of real poverty, and have succeeded very well in this country. The work has principally been achieved by these social reformers, not by direct reference to Baha’i Faith, but by applying their own (eg. Christian) principles. Perhaps Baha’is should pay a little more respect for the effort of these heroic and courageous social reformers, instead of spending so much time on proselytizing. More praise for others and less preaching, self-praise and religious self-congratulation, would be a good idea ?
We’ve barely explored free market capitalism. Most of our problems are created by corporate statism. The housing bubble, bailouts, crashes on Wall Street etc. were not created by capitalism, they were created by corruption.