The Value of Capitalism

There is an interesting trend taking place in many modern books (or maybe it’s been there all along, but I just haven’t noticed) about what is really wrong with the capitalist model and it goes a little something like this: capitalism is efficient, but it isn’t very compassionate.

I’ve come to realise that I’ve started falling into a trap. I’ve let the capitalist model prove its value mainly on the basis of capitalist values. I’ve argued that capitalism is the best because it brings the greatest economic gains, causes the greatest growth in personal wealth over the entire population and leads the largest productivity gains. Other systems, in comparison, haven’t done very favourably.

What I’ve come to believe is that economic growth, personal wealth and high productivity shouldn’t be goals in themselves. It’s a bit like that age old one about some people making money just for the sake of making money, with the original reasons for making money having long since fallen by the wayside.

I’m afraid many of us have fallen into the same trap with capitalism. When we started capitalism was all about generating a way out of absolute poverty towards some imagined better state. It was thought for a very long time that as wealth would increase, so would happiness. It has become clear, however, that this isn’t actually what is happening. Beyond that most basic jump from not being able to survive without help to getting by happiness doesn’t actually increase at all.

For the last fifty years in Japan they’ve been measuring the happiness of the population, as they went from an economy that had been smashed into little bits by the war to the powerhouse that they are today and though individual (and nation wide) wealth increased dramatically, happiness didn’t shift even a millimetre on any of the scales. Further studies have shown that those communities that are the happiest in the world are actually often ones that are the poorest.

Now, I’m not sure whether it is individual wealth, individual happiness, or something else entirely that we should be pursuing, but I do feel that it might be a good idea to explore the value of capitalism more closely, to make sure that we’re on the right path. This doesn’t mean I’m rejecting capitalism, mind you, it just means I’ll be taking a closer look at the tenets that underlie it.

If I seriously question the existence of God, then I should certainly do the same with things that are further down the scale, don’t you agree?