Contrary to the views of Marxist activists such as Joti Brar, Capitalism is changing for the good. The ugly, greedy version of this system is giving way to a new, communitarian capitalism argues Paul Collier.
Over the past 40 years, capitalism has derailed, degenerating into greed. Fortunately, the ideas that drove that derailment are at last being discredited. We are living at the turning of the tide - a moment of intellectual inflection as the mantras of individualism are being displaced.
They are being replaced by a recognition of the value of community. The Tyranny of Merit, (2020), by Michael Sandel, the world’s foremost moral philosopher, introduces the concept of ‘contributive justice’ – linking fairness to the mutuality of obligations. The Upswing (2020), by Robert Putnam, the world’s foremost sociologist, links the rise of communitarian thinking during the first have of the 20th Century to increasing mass prosperity and greater social harmony. He traces the rise of greed to the individualistic cultural revolution of the late 1960s. Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire, (2020), by Rebecca Henderson, the top professor at Harvard Business School, is a clarion call for a capitalism based on purposes that contribute to society, not profits at the expense of society. These profoundly important works are complemented by the advances in evolutionary biology pioneered by researchers such as Joe Henrich at Harvard and Nicolas Christakis at Yale.
Accelerated by COVID, aggressive demands for ‘my rights’ are beginning to give way to acceptance of ‘our obligations to each other.’ Ideas take time to filter through into a changed reality, but as Keynes said, ‘the world is ruled by little else’. As the ideas that underpinned greed wither, capitalism will be reformed: we are currently living through Peak Greed. This is what John Kay and I mean in our new and hopeful book Greed is Dead.
We are living at the turning of the tide - a moment of intellectual inflection as the mantras of individualism are being displaced.
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