The Point of Capitalism Is What Exactly?
A brief moral case for its immediate abolition
I walked into a British grocery store last week and saw one of my favorite staff members, David, shivering, despite wearing layers of sweaters, a jacket, and a hood.
“It’s 10.6 degrees in here,” he said. “The legal minimum is 13.”
(That’s 51°F for Americans.)
The poor checkout lady, a dear woman in her sixties, beeped through our purchases with woolen gloves on her hands and half-frozen fingers.
Tesco.
A miserable experience for its customers, a miserable experience for its employees.
I thought to myself: “What is the point of capitalism, exactly?”
As I walked home from the grocery store, I thought about John Barnett.
Dude discovered Boeing was cutting corners and was causing the deaths of hundreds of people in plane crashes.
So he did the right thing.
He whistleblew.
And they killed him halfway through his testimony.
Boeing.
Deadly for customers, deadly for employees.
What is the point of capitalism, exactly?
As I unloaded my groceries, I thought about Steven Donzinger.
He’s the one who exposed Chevron for committing the Amazon Chernobyl, poisoning tens of thousands of Ecuadorians.
Chevron’s reaction?
Destroy his life.
Sued him.
Got him disbarred as a lawyer.
Denied him a jury.
Got him sent to prison.
Chevron.
Deadly for suppliers, deadly for the planet, life-destroying for the truth-tellers.
What is the point of capitalism, exactly?
The point of capitalism is dead simple:
Create profits for shareholders.
That’s it.
That’s the legal, fiduciary reason corporations exist.
Corporate executives must maximize shareholder return.
They are fired or sued if they don’t.
Corporate executives are incentivized to maximize shareholder return.
Not care for suppliers.
Not care for employees.
Not care for customers.
Not care for the planet.
Not care for democracy.
Not care for indigenous rights.
Not care for national cultures.
Not care for human rights.
Not care about human freedom from lifelong debt peonage, rent salvery, suffering, need, and monopolistic tyranny.
Quite the opposite.
Shareholder profits. That’s it.
Capitalism is the most efficient form of slavery ever invented.
Corporate executives are given a carrot and a stick… literally threatened and incentivized… to make life nothing short of misery and hell for suppliers, employees, and customers, if it maximizes shareholder returns and compounds the monopolization of assets into fewer and fewer hands.
What sort of demon invented shareholder capitalism?
(And make no mistake; it’s demonic.)
It takes a truly powerful spiritual force to foist such a system on the entire world.
Shareholder profit after all.
That’s Mammon’s highest value.
Everything else must be sacrificed on its altar.
What’s even more astounding about the three companies I mentioned — Tesco, Boeing, and Chevron — but all three are owned by Blackrock, the $10+ trillion megabeast.
The good news is that a better way is coming.
The Christian vision for commerce — of trade as loving, self-sacrificial service to others — will eventually obliterate capitalism.
It’s mathematically more efficient.
It’s morally superior.
It’s sustainable.
It’s just.
It’s right.
Slowly but surely, it will take over, whether non-contributing parasitic shareholders like it or not.
The future belongs to the giving creators, not the hoarding dragons.
Any thoughts or questions? Just hit comment/reply.
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A Year of Living Prayerfully (book on prayer) ←Download for free
Bearded Gospel Men (men’s devotional)
A God Named Josh (book about Jesus)
A Devil Named Lucifer (book about the devil)