Money, Greed, and God: Why Capitalism Is the Solution and Not the Problem

267 Pages·2009·1.31 MB·English

by  Jay W. Richards

Money,
Greed,
and
God
Why Capitalism Is the Solution
and Not the Problem
Jay W. Richards
To Gillian and Ellie
Contents
List of Figures and Tables v
Introduction: Can a Chris tian Be a Capitalist? 1
1 Can’t We Build a Just Society? 9
Myth no. 1: The Nirvana Myth (contrasting
capitalism with an unrealizable ideal rather than
with its live alternatives)
2 What Would Jesus Do? 33
Myth no. 2: The Piety Myth (focusing on our
good intentions rather than on the unintended
consequences of our actions)
3 Doesn’t Capitalism Foster Unfair Competition? 59
Myth no. 3: The Zero-Sum Game Myth (believing
that trade requires a winner and a loser)
4 If I Become Rich, Won’t Someone Else
Become Poor? 83
Myth no. 4: The Materialist Myth (believing that
wealth isn’t created, it’s simply transferred)
5 Isn’t Capitalism Based on Greed? 111
Myth no. 5: The Greed Myth (believing that the
essence of capitalism is greed)
6 Hasn’t Chris tiani ty Always Opposed Capitalism? 135
Myth no. 6: The Usury Myth (believing that
working with money is inherently immoral or that
charging interest on money is always exploitive)
IV Contents
7 Doesn’t Capitalism Lead to an Ugly
Consumerist Culture? 157
Myth no. 7: The Artsy Myth (confusing aesthetic
judgments with economic arguments)
8 Are We Going to Use Up All the Resources? 183
Myth no. 8: The Freeze-Frame Myth (believing
that things always stay the same—for example,
assuming that population trends will continue
indefi nitely, or treating a current “natural
resource” as if it will always be needed)
Conclusion: Working All Things Together for Good 209
Appendix: Is the “Spontaneous Order” of
the Market Evidence of a Universe
Without Purpose? 217
Acknowledgments 225
Notes 227
About the Author
Credits
Cover
Copyright
About the Publisher
Figures and Tables
Figures
1. Federal Spending, 1789–2007 52
2. Correlation of Legal Property Protection and
GDP per Capita 96
3. U.S. Patents Granted 102
4. Moore’s Law: The Fifth Paradigm 103
Tables
1. Deaths by Communist Regimes in the
Twentieth Century: A Rough Tally 21
2. Expenditures for Food, 2004:
Comparisons by Country 174
3. Countries with the Highest
per Capita Wealth, 2000 212
4. Countries with the Lowest
per Capita Wealth, 2000 213

Introduction
Can a Chris tian Be
a Capitalist?
In the great twentieth-century battle between communism and
capitalism, capitalism won. But many of us still have serious
problems with capitalism. Just turn on the TV and you’ll see
capitalism blamed for almost every social problem. Executives at
giant corporations like Enron, WorldCom, and Tyco lie, cheat,
and steal billions of dollars from workers and shareholders. A
few lucky p eople get fabulously wealthy while grinding poverty
persists, not just in third-world countries, but in the middle of
great American cities. Oil companies despoil the environment,
use up limited natural resources, and resist efforts to fi nd alter-
native sources of energy. As one anonymous critic put it: “The
history of capitalism is a history of slavery, child labor, war, and
environmental pollution.”
But even if we write all of this off as media bias and bad
philosophy, there is still our everyday experience: Pressure from
bosses and stockholders to increase profi ts at any cost. The fran-
tic race to keep up with the Joneses that never seems to stop.
Factories that close and leave entire towns high and dry. Ugly
billboards that spoil cityscapes and landscapes. Advertising com-
panies that fi nd ever more sophisticated ways of luring us to the
mall and the Internet to buy kitschy plastic stuff we don’t need,
that nobody needs. Landfi lls piled high with computer monitors
and keyboards that still work. You don’t have to be a snooty left-
ist to fi nd all of this distasteful.
2 MONEY, GREED, AND GOD
Add to the bad press and our everyday experience the views
of some champions of capitalism, who defend the system wholly
on the grounds of self-interest. Over two hundred years ago, the
founder of modern economics, Adam Smith, said, “It is not from
the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we
expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.”
That’s not a repugnant comment, but it’s not morally uplifting,
either. More recently, the atheist Ayn Rand, revered by millions
as the greatest defender of capitalism, seemed to take Smith’s
reasoning to the extreme. She claimed that greed—which she
called a virtue—is the basis for a free economy. Christ ian altru-
ism, in contrast, is capitalism’s bitter enemy.
Rand’s philosophy reached a high-water mark in 1986, when
investor Ivan Boesky told graduates at the University of Califor-
nia at Berkeley in a commencement speech: “Greed is all right,
by the way . . . I think greed is healthy. You can be greedy and
still feel good about yourself.” If Rand and her disciples like
Boesky are right, this creates a big problem for Christ ians in
capitalist societies.
Yet, as a practical matter, we take capitalism for granted. We
live and breathe it every day. We own cars and furniture. We work
for and own businesses. We try to get the best salary we can. We
take out mortgages to fi nance our houses and pay interest on
the loan every month. We use Visa, MasterCard, and American
Express. On eBay, we sell to the highest bidder, and we seek
the best deal when we’re bidding on a home gym or that latest
Hummel fi gurine we simply must have. We may even own Exxon-
Mobil stock and Vanguard mutual funds. It’s hard to imagine an
alternative. The few remaining communists are cloistered mostly
in places like Harvard and Havana.
But history’s harsh verdict on communism has not led to a
warm Chris tian embrace of capitalism. On the contrary, we’re
told that capitalism destroys our natural and moral environ-
ment. We hear this on TV and in newsprint, of course; but we
also hear it in churches and Bible studies. Churchgoing business-
people endure sermons that show little understanding of busi-