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M&S Boss: Don't Trash Capitalism
Marks & Spencer boss Sir Stuart Rose (left) made some interesting comments yesterday about the future direction of the retail chain that he heads. But equally thought-provoking were comments he made on the state of capitalism in general in the aftermath of the credit crisis. Sir Stuart warned that the whole concept of 'business' has become demonised as a result of public mistrust in wealth creation. When mega-bonuses are being paid to bankers at taxpayer-owned financial institutions, these feelings of hostility are perhaps understandable. However the retail chief warned that such attitudes are extremely dangerous because capitalism has been the one proven progressive force around the world for centuries. History has shown that communism does not work, he said. We trash capitalism at our peril. – UK Telegraph
Dominant Social Theme: Greed is good?
Free-Market Analysis: Sir Stuart Rose seems to speak from the heart on this one. But here at the Bell we'd make a plea for some truth-in-labeling. Surely (one day) the Internet revolution – which has brought free-market thinking to millions – will contribute a name more evocative than "capitalism" to describe the free-market. In fact, the label that Rose is looking for is not capitalism – which puts the emphasis on money – but human action (a Misesian term) that puts the emphasis on people. Human action, unfortunately, is not yet so popular a term as capitalism. It might confuse the audience, which is one reason not to use it in a popular argument.
Yet capitalism is a dreadful tag. There we've said it! It was presented and defined by Karl Marx in "Das Kapital" and was meant to be derisive. The opposite of "bad" capitalism is "good" communism, of course. But here's our question: Why must we constantly be exposed to the spectacle of pro-free market individuals describing their sentiments using terminology invented by a determined enemy of the marketplace and the invisible hand? We don't blame Rose for using the term. We just wish there was a catchier one that was more accurate as well.
Capitalism, as we alluded to above, puts the emphasis on money when it comes to free-market, which is exactly what Marx hoped it would do. Free-markets of course are not particularly about money. They are about the ability of individuals to take individual, unfettered human action to build better lives for themselves, their families and their communities. One can do this with very little – or no – capital – or one can do it with a great deal of capital. But one can argue quite convincingly that the amount of capital makes little difference. The two "Steves" invented the modern computer in a garage. IBM had the capital, but two teenagers had the better idea.
And now to Ludwig von Mises, the seminal, modern proponent of Austrian economics. His greatest work, Human Action, is in fact one of the most profoundly generous statements about human nature ever composed. Conceptually, we would put it right up there with parts of the Sermon on the Mount. It is also a profoundly radical document, proposing (if one follows it to its logical conclusion) that the best kinds of societies in which to live are those that do the most to empower individuals to realize their destinies without state interference.
Here at the Bell, we are privileged to get all sorts of feedback including those haranguing us about the greed of unfettered capitalism (there's that word again). Formal Western religion (in the best sense) is also misunderstood and our inbox has been the receptacle for some considerable invective aimed at it. Yet the most generous gift humans can be given (by other humans) is the ability to live their lives as they see fit. This is a supreme privilege, though it is DOES NOT imply human beings ought to abandon each other, nor refuse to help each other out. This is a facile interpretation, promoted by free-market enemies.
And while the idea of putting aside all earthly things to concentrate on heaven may be a bit much for a lot of people (in practice anyway) the merciful spirituality of the Sermon on the Mount is its most radical quality. Not only that, but its sentiments actually parallel human beings' evolutionary imperatives in our view.
Whosoever shall compel you to go a mile, go with him two. ... Give to him that asks you, and from him that would borrow of you turn you not away. ... You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.
You see? It is not fashionable to note, but people, when they are not preoccupied with their own survival are often most charitable – and personally not institutionally. This is an aspect of the human condition that is all-too-often downplayed in modern life by state apologists who only emphasize human evil to raise up the meretricious mechanism of redistributionist smut. Misesian "human action" and the Sermon on the Mount (certainly the parts about love and forgiveness) are a one-two punch, as powerful as poor Mike Tyson could ever deliver.
Conclusion: It is sad (from our point of view) that we still seem to lack the short-hand vocabulary necessary to describe the richness and generosity inherent in free-market thinking. "Capitalism" just doesn't work, as we've tried to show. Yet statements full of gibberish such as "ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country" have an undeniable grandeur. One day, perhaps, a vocabulary will arise that will, in abbreviated form, purvey the consolidated wisdom of Misesian human action and the spiritual generosity of the Sermon on the Mount. Writers wanted?
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Posted by Byafi on 03/06/10 11:56 PM
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Posted by Lyn on 03/06/10 09:13 PM
My grandmother, though a simple person and certainly not as eloquent in words as the Daily Bell nor some on the site obviously are, nevertheless had that rarest of commodities today - common sense.
Fifty years later I still remember her admonishment: YOU make your own bed, YOU lay in it. No one to her was "too big to fail", nor any to small. She was the consumate individualist in word and deed, asking nothing of no one much less the State, other than to be left alone to live her life as she saw fit. I suppose if I am anything at all, I am she.
Reply from The Daily Bell
Sounds as if you should be proud.
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Posted by TMoore on 03/05/10 11:17 PM
Human Action, a work of seminal wisdom, animates the fundamental underpinnings of behavioral motivation. All Bell readers would do well to read it or read it again...Meantime, the Servile State has turned the Sermon on the Mount on its head in ways that formerly would have been considered blasphemy. Going the extra mile matters only if the State compels it.
Misesian human action of voluntary exchange flows from Natural Rights that were first expounded in the Pentateuch, later in the New Testament and again in writings such as The Declaration. It could not be clearer.
Further, in some ways it could not be simpler. The general acknowledgement that Rights, which are negative by their nature, inhere in individuals circumscribes the authority of the state, delimits its legitimate functions and proscribes actions which abrogate, impede, hinder or harm said Click to view link has been said that Charity should be a manly and reasoned undertaking which connects in an intimate way the donor and recipient.
Only then will it have the intended effect of alleviating miseries while breeding none itself. Statutory charity can but have all the consequences which oppose its intended effect by diminishing self-reliance, self-control and a virtuous self-respect. The charity which obtains from the regulatory democracy has no rival in its perniciousness to enervate a people reducing them to abject servitude.
"So when you give alms, do not have it trumpeted before you; this is what the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win man's admiration. I tell you solemnly, they have their reward. But when you give alms, your left hand must not know what your right hand is doing; your alms giving must be in secret, and your Father who sees all in secret will reward you."
Reply from The Daily Bell
Wonderful.
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Posted by Liberty Belle on 03/05/10 09:08 PM
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Posted by Bill on 03/05/10 06:40 PM
When corporations place profit above the general welfare of the people, which they regularly do, all in the name of profit for their shareholders, the result is: THE GREAT RECESSION, high unemployment,excessive health care costs driven by lies told by the Corporate food producers that keep the population getting sicker and Corporate drugs that are subsidized by tax dollars and sold for astronomical prices and which only treat symptoms.
Corporate predatory practices that rob third world countries of their natural resources and leave its peoples in poverty and despair are THE PROBLEM. One last thing, Steve Jobs is a great leader-Steve Wozniak is the true genius behind the PC.
Reply from The Daily Bell
Yes, Wozniak is truly brilliant and seems like a fairly nice fellow to boot.
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Posted by Chris Coles on 03/05/10 04:16 PM
"Laissez-faire capitalism is the only temporal system ever conceived of man capable of teaching men to fish and produce for themselves. It is the only system capable of producing personal worth and dignity."
Sadly that statement and description does not carry the sense of the one word missing; Responsibility! Laissez-faire capitalism as a concept; is used by many to deny there is any inbuilt responsibility for anyone else.
Being free, (Laissez-faire), oneself, does not give the right to decline that freedom to another. Instead, such freedom carries a greater responsibility to ensure that others around you are also set free.
But often we see that as soon as another gains a foothold on their own freedom; they feel it is their right to deny the same to others around them.
So I will qualify Laissez-faire with the word responsible.
Responsible Laissez-faire Capitalism to support Free Enterprise; so that anyone may succeed on their own terms and in their own right, is surely the answer?
Reply from The Daily Bell
Human beings are programmed by God, evolution or both, to take care of one another. You don't need to qualify the term in our opinion.
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Posted by Klaus Kaufmann, D.Sc. on 03/05/10 02:42 PM
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Posted by Lance E. Schultz on 03/05/10 01:47 PM
Genesis 30:41 "And it came to pass, whenever the stronger livestock conceived, that Jacob placed the rods before the eyes of the livestock in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods. But when the flocks were feeble, he did not put them in; so the feebler were Laban's and the stronger Jacob's. Thus the man became exceedingly prosperous and had large flocks, female and male servants, camels and donkeys. And did Jacob not place the rods before the eyes of the livestock in the gutters so that he may grow exceedingly prosperous and his flocks grow stronger than his brother Laban?"
Fundamental to the Capitalist [philosophy] is a foundational belief in human liberty. The belief man is the slave of no other man nor of the state. That his consciousness is free as ordained by God. This is the same philosophy of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America and is heralded in our founding documents. Why do some men fear liberty? Where has freedom ever destroyed man by force? The foundation for Christian fundamentalism is the belief that Jesus Christ is the one true savior of mankind and that man's rights are inalienable imbued him by his creator.
What has man to fear from such fundamentalism? Marx introduces the anti-concept of free-floating constitutional revisionism and antichrist atheism which can only be derived from a collectivists-statists-fascists-dictatorial-totalitarian axiom [worldview]. Libertarian's and Christian's both share the originalists [constitutionalists] worldview that the only proper role of government rests singularly with its duty to provide a defense (if you want to call that militarism) and provide for the protection of individual property rights through the justice system.
They view our representative republic as a government of the people (owned), by the people (represented) and for the people (to protect their individual rights) is the only temporal moral government necessary to man. They rightly consider taxation without representation an abomination and equally detest representation without constitutionally apportioned (equal and just) taxation.
They view taxes as limited to that required to provide for a national defense and to secure the protection of individual private property rights as proper to a limited decentralized government. They declare emphatically that no man has the right to feast on the flesh of another man. However, such relationship in no wise nullifies the commandment that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves.
Quite the contrary; freedom allows man to fulfill his natural relationship and duty to his fellow man by removing the role and benevolence of charity from the state and returning it to its rightful owner.
Make no mistake. Independence is a direct function of wealth. The Creation of wealth is a direct function of freedom. Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think and freedom provides his greatest capacity. Laissez-faire Capitalism (the government's hands-off) is the only temporal moral system consonant with man's rational nature, that it protects man's survival qua man and that its ruling principle is: justice.
Marx further asserts that one of the core tenets of Christianity is the wholesale rejection of science yet I cannot locate one quintilla of empirical evidence to ever suggest man even can let alone has materially impacted HIS environment. It is the ruthless audacity and arrogance of man to ever suggest he could possess the power even intentionally to materially impact the environment.
Such an individual must surely be convinced they are wiser than God. Read Isaiah 24. I'll give you a clue. The fate of the world is already decided.
To answer the question...what is the ideological thread that runs through each of us and ties us all together? Well that my friend is the easiest one of all. The answer to this question is Freedom. The better question and the question we can never seem to answer is why are so many so afraid of it? It is the autonomous individual [free individual] that threatens the undoing of the global power elite. That is to undue a cannibals need to feast on the flesh of another man because he is incapable of providing for himself.
Yes, the freedom of man denies the rights of cannibals. It lets each man keep his own two eyes, his own two feet and his own two hands. For it does not pretend or support the notion that any other man may stake a claim against them. Yes, a free man will surely be the undoing of the unrighteous sloths known today as the global ruling elite.
The thread which binds all men together is found in the teachings and parables of Jesus Christ. You can give a man a fish and what has he been given? A meal for a day. You can teach a man to fish and what has he been given? A meal for life. In order for something in this temporal world to have "value" it must have a cost.
If I "give" a man a meal he holds it as little value. If I "give" a man an education he regards it not. If a man is "given" his healthcare, can he still "value" his health? Laissez-faire capitalism is the only temporal system ever conceived of man capable of teaching men to fish and produce for themselves. It is the only system capable of producing personal worth and dignity.
Imagine the shame man feels when he is forced to beg in the streets or at the hand of the state for his very survival and that of his family against the glory and the joy of providing for their every need in the spirit of mutual exchange trading value for value honestly and morally under the blanket of laissez-faire capitalism.
Only brute force bound despotic criminals and animals would fear such an arrangement. But rather today's "capitalism" can only function in a "mixed-economy" as we have now where true free-markets and free-enterprise have been bastardized and contaminated by relentless government interventions resulting in governmental controls of the factors of production (fascism).
Marx purports... "An individual cannot bear to make himself the centre of meaning without qualification. Inevitably he must seek support from something greater and more inclusive than himself...."
Don't be fooled into such a statist-collectivists trap. There is only one qualification. One sanctification greater than man. This Triumvirate is not collective but rather exists within man. He requires no earthly or worldly man of any kind at anytime. We are brought here to make a choice. One choice above all others. We make this choice of our own freewill.
This life is but a shadow and a whisper. Ours is a transitory state. But our one true centre of existence and the Source of all our meaning may be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. And if we humble ourselves before him and believe on him and profess his name then we may have everlasting life and all our meaning and all our glory may finally be revealed.
Reply from The Daily Bell
Thank you for such an eloquent statement.
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Posted by Mark Y on 03/05/10 01:36 PM
If He had not given us the ability to choose of our own free will we would not have been the fellow beings capable of relating to God as individuals that God desired. This realization of God's gift of freedom explains all the evil, pain and suffering in the world that so many are angry at God for allowing!
Clearly free market economics is in line with the Sermon on the Mount because people using their free will to make their own decisions creates a spirit of honesty and freedom that allows the good nature inhabiting us to flow out and be the controlling influence in our society. When powerful governments squash people's free will, people naturally retreat into a defensive mentality and their natural positive natures are pushed aside.
Thanks for daily ringing the bell of truth since we all know what the truth does -- it sets us FREE!! PS -- great choice for interview on Sunday. Watching Payne on Fox it seems at times that he wants to come out as a true free market proponent and he seems visibly pained (sorry pun unavoidable) at what he is saying.
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Stay tuned ...
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Posted by MetaCynic on 03/05/10 01:32 PM
Reply from The Daily Bell
Good idea. In the meantime, we welcome your suggestions.
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Posted by Bill on 03/05/10 10:16 AM
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Posted by Darryl on 03/05/10 08:18 AM
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Posted by Bernardpalmer on 03/05/10 07:07 AM
Anyway it doesn't really matter because after the Crunch arrives there will be only gold and silver and everyone will see how wonderful an unadulterated gold standard will make their lives. A real golden age.
Here's how I explained it to my teenage children.
Capitalism uses gold as money.
Socialism uses paper as money
Fascism uses nylons as money*
Communism uses food as money
Totalitarianism has no money*
The nylons came from Sophia Lorens Italian WW2 film 'Two Women' because her daughter's first customer paid her with nylons.
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Posted by Chris Coles on 03/05/10 06:22 AM
Ownership is an inalienable freedom; the right to own your own life, work, home, thoughts, et al. In which case, freedom also applies to the inventive and industrious, as the right to own the product of their industrious intellect. No different to an artist or writer; owning the right to their work.Thus free enterprise is an inalienable freedom; the right to own the business they have created.Just as employees are free to work, or not, in any such free enterprise."From now onwards I will cease to use the word capitalism and instead will use the phrase: Free Enterprise.
Reply from The Daily Bell
Free enterprise is a good one.
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Posted by Alvaro on 03/05/10 05:15 AM
A quotable jewel!, I'll keep it.However, I have seent that for short sighted, lost and sheepish natured people, the _obligation_ of taking the decisions and bearing responsibility is too much. They crave a shepherd to reassure them and tell them what to do.
