Once a Marine...

Once a Marine...
Every year or so, I get together with my Marine Officer buddies. We're not as lean, not as mean, but we're still Marines. That's me, with the long hair.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Thoughts on Capitalism


Before starting, let me clarify: I am, indeed, a capitalist. Capitalism inspires men to achieve great things, as they are rewarded for their efforts. I am a capitalist. A capitalist, I am.

I have, however, been thinking about the capitalism we are practicing in this country in 2006, and I think we have some problems. And I’m not sure we can fix them.

You see, I believe capitalism can only work long-term if it is held in check by a deeply-held moral code. Why? Because when morality begins to slip, so slip the weak towards the base human lust for money and power.

This concept isn’t new, of course. Back around the turn of the century, our nation was virtually held hostage by the greed of the Robber Barons like Gould, Vanderbilt, Carnegie, Rockefeller, and J.P. Morgan.

These guys were, in case you don’t know, thieves and liars of the highest order. It was a time when the nation was expanding westward, politicians and cops were on the take, and cheap immigrant labor was pouring into the country. The Robber Barons simply figured out the playing field, burned their morals at the alter of the almighty dollar, and went to work. As history now tells us, their system of kickbacks, bribes, extortion, and outright murder had them richer than Bill Gates will ever dream of being.

The Robber Barons reign of terror in the United States was so bad, it could have led to a revolt by the masses, and the nation may have collapsed into communism… the dictatorial Soviet Union kind.

Fortunately, one man with a moral code, President Teddy Roosevelt, came along and broke up the trusts and monopolies, and sent the Robber Barons to bed with a spanking and no caviar. The moral code of one man saved our nation.

Today, our corporations are operating in much the same way as the Robber Barons. Enron, Global Crossings, Tyco, the list is long. Too long. Employees look the other way, bigwigs cook the books, Wall Street rewards the process, and lawyers protect the whole lot of them.

Even in cases where no one is actively committing a felony, the corporations often act without morality… consider all the people in last five years that have seen their pensions go poof, while company executives received multi-million dollar bonuses for structuring the deal that made the pension go poof. Of course, it’s not just Wall Street that eggs on this behavior: It’s a well established fact that Wal-Mart doesn’t make most of their money selling to you… they make it by getting their suppliers to mortgage everything to meet their expansive orders, after which Wal-Mart “re-negotiates” the price down to where the supplier is working for no profit, and struggling to stay afloat.

Wal-Mart: Meet our price, or we’ll stop ordering.

Small Supplier: Stop ordering? I built a new plant specifically to fill your orders!

Wal-Mart: Really?

Small Supplier: You knew that… you helped me refine the manufacturing specs.

Wal-Mart: Oh, in that case, let us rephrase the demand: Meet our price, or die.

This is not capitalism. This is business anarchy.

Even many small businesses are infected by the attitude. Have you noticed how many small businesspeople are no longer satisfied if you, the other business, make any money whatsoever? It’s fine for them to score big with their idea or land development or service… but who are you, trying to make profits from your work? It seems that every deal these days must have a winner and a loser… win-win has become an unacceptable outcome.

Could all of this be because we, as a nation, aren’t going to church anymore?

Consider Europe, which is practically socialist now. Friend, the Europeans invented the modern capitalism we practice… they are the ones that exported it to the New World. So what happened? Perhaps they had a big meeting in Switzerland and declared, “Enough of this being rewarded for the fruits of our labors and ideas. Let’s all reinvent ourselves as second-world, McSocialist nations, where we stop being significant.”

Do you think? Me neither.

So what happened? Hard to say, but one thing’s for sure: Christianity has pretty much died off on “the Continent.” Could that be part of it? That with so few Christians around, the morality holding capitalism in check died out, too? And left to their own human devices, things got ugly? That little guys had the motivation beat out of them by the amoral big guys? And big guys got so lazy and arrogant that they quit even trying to hide their greed and corruption? And 1+1 equaled a decline into McSocialism?

Yes, I’m sure an economist would poke holes in all my ideas, and would claim the market always corrects itself, and the shareholder must get paid, and I’m just griping because I didn’t invent the Pet Rock.

But here’s a fact: We’re the most successful capitalist country in the world. And we’re arguably the longest, most established example of truly successful modern capitalism. But we’re only 225 years old.

Every empire in history has imploded.

Every single one. Most recently, the collection of nations we call Europe.

Why? Why does this happen every time?

I believe it’s because every empire reaches the point where its moral code falls apart, and the empire self-destructs.

But Alexander, and the Greeks, and the Romans, and the Moors, and all the other ancient empires at least had an excuse: They didn’t have God come down and give them the New Testament. They didn’t have God’s Holy Spirit available for counsel. They didn’t have Jesus Christ, and the ability to say, “What would Jesus do?”

I’ll bet you dollars to donuts that not one single person directly involved in any of corporate America’s recent scandals asked themselves, “What would Jesus do?”

Can you imagine all the pain that could have been avoided if they had? Imagine how much better we’d off we’d be if all of us would ask ourselves that question during our daily work: “Okay, this single mother of two has cancer, but the treatment will be expensive… and technically I can deny the claim because her employers failed to file their 2005 SRD forms by the deadline. Hmmm… improve the corporate profits, or pay to treat her cancer?

Gee… I wonder what Jesus would do?”

Of course, the amoral capitalist always has a comeback: “It’s business.” “Law of the Jungle.” “Kill or be killed.”

Please. As if it takes a Colt .45 Peacemaker and a steely nerve to lie on a spreadsheet, or screw an unsuspecting person in a business deal.

Here’s a newsflash for the “Law of the Jungle” types… if you think you’re a real gunslingin’ businessman, go do business with some L.A. street gangs. Get them to commit to a deal, then short them on their percentage. They’ll be real impressed when tell them who your law firm is.

It has been said that democracy can never survive as a permanent form of government, as eventually the people will come to understand that they can vote themselves benefits out of the public coffers. I’m beginning to think unregulated capitalism cannot survive as a permanent economic engine, as those without morals will eventually realize that those “bound” by morals are unprepared to deal with well-planned, methodical treachery.

What’s the alternative? I don’t have one.

Maybe Jesus does. What would Jesus do in this situation?

Ah, yes! He’d probably invite us all to one of His weekly business seminars… He holds them every week at His house.

No comments:

Post a Comment