Capitalism assumes that all people are self-interested. Furthermore, it asserts that people should act on that self-interest in order to achieve the greater good. A simple example of how this works goes like this:
Farmer John harvests his field of corn and stores enough for himself and his family. The rest he sells to the grocer in exchange for money that he uses to buy other foods/supplies from the grocer.
A free market exchange of goods has taken place where each individual acted out of his/her own self-interest. The farmer did not sell his corn to the grocer because they were friends, but because he needed the money. The grocer did not by the corn out of pity, but because it was good business and he knew he could sell it for more to his customers. Both acted self-interestedly and both benefitted and probably thanked one another as they left. Thus, out of self-interest, both parties end up helping one another and the greater good is served. So why is this a problem?
First of all, it's void of personal morality. It expects people to act selfishly with no concern for the wellbeing of others. This is contrary to the yes you can concept which expects people to care for one another, to lift up and edify, and encourage greatness. It expects service and virtue while capitalism works on a foundation of selfishness. It gets away with this by claiming that such behavior is actually better for everyone in the long run. While it may work to the benefit of many, it is clearly not beneficial to all in every case. One clear example of this is the way businesses get involved in politics in order to influence policy in a way that creates a market advantage for that business. This is clearly unfair and usually ends up wasting public funds for private purposes. Yet this is exactly how we should expect a pure capitalist to behave. It is in the self-interest of that business and all its shareholders to ignore the greater good of the rest of society and to use public funds and the democratic system to secure their own fortunes.
Many other criticisms of capitalism such as income inequality, commercialism/materialism, exploitation, etc. all have some validity. I believe the root cause of these faults is selfishness. Capitalism is built on the foundation of self-interest. One may argue that not all capitalists are wholly selfish as is shown by large charitable donations and other altruistic acts. However, in such cases, the alleged capitalist is not adhering wholly to the capitalist philosophy. Some other philosophy is in play there. One that expects altruism, morals, and concern for one's neighbor. One that is much more in line with the yes you can concept than a capitalist one.
2 comments:
If you don't take care of yourself to some extent, then you can't take care of others to the fullest of your potential. Thus in our world, which you correctly stated is not ideal, there needs to be a sense of selfishness so you can thenhavethemeansto help others with your yes you can mentality. Even the yes you can mentakity can be deemed selfish because you are trying to get another to rise up and better themselves, which I guess is a little selfish for that person to want to better himself.
I like the quote by Zig Ziglar that says something yo the effect of you can have what ever you want in this life if you just help enough other people get what they want.
With this all parties involved benefit and it is done for the good of all. Call this selfish if you like but I don't believe in this scenario that the definition of selfish should be lusted with a negative connotation because it isdone in a manner that benefits all parties involved.
Heath, I agree largely with your comment. However, a true capitalist should not be interested in helping others unless it directly benefits themselves. Generally in a monetary form, not a "I get warm fuzzies for helping somebody form." Why can't warm fuzzies be the self-interested goal that a capitalist seeks? It's because the Yes You Can warm fuzzies and the selfish warm fuzzies are not the same.
That's not a sufficient explanation and was probably confusing. I'll explain in more detail in a full blog post.
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