Capitalism has limitations. For one, it fails to recognize when players collude either among themselves or, more important, with the government. What can I say, no one is perfect and neither is the trusty friend of freedom and prosperity, – capitalism. And that is when a good government gets its window of opportunity to shine and to claim its five minutes of fame, by stepping in with the rule of law, and correcting the shenanigans collusively produced by the few rotten apples on both sides of the spectrum, – the government and the private sector.
Capitalism on its own is incapable of charity, – one of the most essential functions of life sine qua non. Some may argue to the contrary by producing a long list of capitalists turned-philanthropists. One, it is common knowledge, that the list is flawed, – many of these industrious individuals were charitable for vainglory, or to seek a tax advantage, or to use charity as a pulpit for public relations (PR) propaganda or other similar selfish ends. It is my opinion that these are utter insincerities and acts unbefitting a free man. They rarely stand up to the test of time. As Shakespeare said, “Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides: Who covers faults, at last shame them derides”. So the list indeed is much, much shorter than what it seems. Two, those genuinely charitable capitalists who get on that short list, were charitable not because they were capitalists, but precisely because they were human beings. They never lost touch either with their human nature or with humanity. Capitalism was the means by which they obtained their fortunes, but it had nothing to do with spending them charitably, for charity is a most counterproductive measure.
History conclusively demonstrates that this deficiency of capitalism, which it earnestly admits, is quite easily corrected by humaneness of the mankind, and not by the government pickpocketing some citizens and gifting the plunder to others, – remember, there is no such thing as “government money”, it is always “taxpayers’ money”, which the government received by overtaxing some in order to please others, and within this redistribution of income it managed to charge huge “trustee fees” for itself. Neither the government, nor capitalism can make men good. The one offers political security, the other offers economic freedom, – both mere trifles compared to genuine goodness and charity. It is up to individual men how they use these scarce resources, – their political and economic freedoms.
Making men morally good is the claim which capitalism does not make, but supporters of all the other forms of political and economic administration do. And that is yet another reason why I am more inclined to place my trust in capitalism than in any of the alternatives. As Aristotle said, “there is no room for excellence in any of their employments, whether they are mechanics or traders or laborers.”[1] What good is freedom if it does not aim at good? Such freedom is merely a license, – tyranny of intemperance and excess at its best. And, surely, having a society or a nation, and worse yet, the entire mankind of such licentious men, no matter how industrious, could not possibly be our ultimate aim, for, to quote Thoreau, “the philosophy and poetry and religion of such a mankind are not worth the dust of a puff ball. The hog that gets his living by rooting, stirring up the soil so, would be ashamed of such company.”[2]
I have seen very little charity among men, regardless of their profession or level of affluence. But there is one good, which I more frequently observe among capitalists than among academics, scholars, lawyers, doctors, scientists, musicians, et cetera, and that is humility. I have noticed that a true capitalist keeps his head down, toils like a work horse, stays away from affairs of others, and humbles himself constantly… lest he underestimates competition, miscalculates risk, mishandles investments and ruins himself, his family, his employees, his customers and his investors. I have also noticed that this humility encourages him to look for wisdom and knowledge, and to seek the truth, just as much as he is seeking new technologies. I have also noticed that it is this humility which disposes him favorably to listening to contrary opinions, – he is not afraid to be proven wrong. Try finding this rare quality in any government, in any union, in any political party or, just as important, in an academia! He surrounds himself not with flattering demagogues, cheering propagandists, stagnant theoreticians, backbiting academics or suitable bureaucrats, but with clever individuals who are not afraid to speak the truth, even when their truth contradicts convictions of their boss. He may allow some flattery at home, among his extended family (I have seen that), but never at his work. Capitalist does not try to outtalk anyone; he is trying to outdo everyone, and that too fair and square. He cannot afford having a superiority complex, – if that happens, he is ruined. Capitalist acknowledges his deficiencies both, in business and in scholarship. I heard one of them admitting in earnest: “I know no more of grammar than one of that farmer’s calves”.[3] This capitalist owned a tannery and engaged in international trade, until he was compelled to build the most freedom-producing enterprise in American history. And then I saw what a most learned historian said about this industrious man: “but he had what is essential in all grammars, — the power to make himself understood.”[4] I have noticed that this humble attitude is ubiquitously present among the men of business and industry, but it is especially scarce in our academic and political circles. And lest I am accused of unfair bias, I must offer one more proof of this noble capitalist humility. This was written by the man of eighty six, John D. Rockefeller, at the dusk of his most illustrious capitalist life (deliberately, this poem shall reappear in our Journal more than once):
I was early taught to work as well as play,
My life has been one long, happy holiday;
Full of work and full of play –
I dropped the worry on the way –
And God was good to me everyday.[5]
It is evident that by being humble this capitalist man felt something no socialist ever felt, – his own minuteness and greatness of God. And I am strongly inclined to believe that such a man is more capable of charity than a pompous socialist ass who never held an honest job in his life, and, in the result, never discovered either his flaws or his humility, let alone the greatness of God.
Recognizing both, lack of charity and humility inherent in capitalism, the outstanding issue must be resolved, – if not through capitalism, how do we make men morally good? I do not wish to answer this question here, but instead I will discuss how not to make men morally bad, and that is by not placing false hopes of achieving moral goodness through capitalism. As David Ricardo noted, “if a commodity were in no way useful, – in other words, if it could in no way contribute to our gratification, – it would be destitute of exchangeable value, however scarce it might be, or whatever quantity of labour might be necessary to procure it.”[6] It is true that one cannot measure a man’s goodness by the size of his wallet, just like it cannot be measured by the degree of democracy, scholarship, courage, physical strength or beauty present in him or in his fellow citizens. Goodness is outside of the scope of either practice of capitalism or theories of economics, and I like it this way.
When people start to overvalue the staple products of capitalism, – freedom and prosperity, – society starts to degenerate morally and eventually it disintegrates. The King of Judea, Herod the Great, if his legacy is measured by the standards of economic success, was one of the greatest kings Hebrew nation ever had, and yet as a whole he was the worst king of that once great country. What is the totality of which I speak? – Moral, honest of God, unadorned goodness. Herod built more synagogues and public buildings, and established more useful political and economic institutions than anyone else in history of Hebrew people, but he failed morally. Writings of the two most prominent and honorable Hebrew scholars and patriots, a most learned philosopher Philo of Alexandria and a most erudite historian Josephus (known in his native tongue as Yosef ben Matityahu) conclusively demonstrate this historical and, I firmly believe, historic fact.
Furthermore, there was another man in Jewish history, named Herod, more commonly known as Agrippa, onto whom the crown was conferred by Gaius (Caligula) himself. As Josephus writes in his Antiquities, Book 19: “On the second day of the games he put on a robe woven entirely of silver, a remarkable fabric…” And then he continues: “His flatterers immediately shouted on all sides… ‘Be gracious! Until now we have revered you as a man, but henceforth we confess that you are of more than mortal nature.’ The king did not reprimand them or reject their blasphemous flattery.” Soon after, this despicable “king”, Agrippa, saw an owl[7] and met his miserable death, before which, as reported by Josephus, he admitted: “Looking to his friends he said, ‘I, your god, am now ordered to surrender my life, since fate has instantly disproved the lies you just uttered about me. He whom you called immortal is now being taken away to die.’”[8] Moral of the story is that Capitalism is no Panacea! You may honorably or dishonorably acquire a silver robe, but neither such robes, nor capitalism can ensure either goodness or longevity, and people, who place their hopes in such necessary, but nevertheless fleeting superfluities, shall find themselves miserably disappointed.
There is plenty of merit in providing sustenance for bodily existence, whether for a single individual, a family, a nation or the entire humanity, and that is precisely what capitalism does, but unless we sustain ourselves morally, that is spiritually, we shall cease to exist as human beings. As Narayana wisely put it:
“He truly lives, he does indeed,
By whose life many will be living.
Their own selves even crows can feed,
From beak to belly morsels giving.”[9]
I end this section with the words of this nation’s wise ancestor, Henry David Thoreau, who reminds us that we must strive beyond money-making not just somewhere in a distant future or at our deathbed, but right here and right now in our daily life: “When we want culture more than potatoes, and illumination more than sugar-plums, then the great resources of a world are taxed and drawn out, and the result, or staple production, is, not slaves, nor operatives, but men, — those rare fruits called heroes, saints, poets, philosophers, and redeemers.”[10]
General foible of mankind is the pursuit of wealth to no end. Greed is brutish and therefore evil, and it vastly differs from FREEDOM and INDUSTRY, which are human and therefore humane. And capitalism, being a human enterprise, cannot regulate brutal, artificial, unnatural element of unchecked, immoral, criminal avarice, which is not human in its indigenous form, – men were corrupted with it, but it did not originate in men. No invisible hand of a market has an ability to straighten out crooked designs of a madman, – a farsighted crook and a methodical criminal, – a human brute obsessed with avarice. Such crookedness must be straightened out by the universal invisible hand and by men of universal goodness. Now, the universal invisible hand (by no means the same as either Adam Smith’s invisible hand of the market, or the unnatural invisible hand of a demonic government) shall always do its share, and help the mankind. But the election of the men of universal goodness is something we have to do on our own. And unless we elect such men into government offices, we shall always have imperfect markets, as well as livelihoods. We shall all degenerate:
I recall reading one of the most ancient manuscripts, called Avesta. It is the main book of Zoroastrianism. And just like all PSEUDO-religions, – designed by men of unchecked greed and avarice, by methodical criminals and neurotic masterminds, for the sole purpose of manipulating and scamming the masses, – it too advocated material wealth over everything else, including goodness and freedom. I recall that according to this most ungodly book, the punishment for a man who breaks the first Mithra, i.e. a verbal contract, would be 600 lashes: “Creator! He who breaks a Mithra (contract) in words; What is the punishment for it? Then answered Ahura-Mazda: Let them strike three hundred blows with the horse goad, three hundred with the Craosho-charana.” And as soundness of business contracts increases from verbal to written form, and their scope rises from a negligible loss to a loss of land, the punishment goes all the way up to 2,000 lashes: “Creator! He who breaks a Mithra of the value of a tract of land; What is the punishment for it? Then answered Ahura-Mazda: Let them strike a thousand strokes with the horse-goad, a thousand with the Craosho-charana.” Now, the fact that a man who breaks his contractual obligation is punished harshly, is not necessarily a bad thing. What troubles me is the fact that such a man would be punish much more severely than a man who physically assaults and even kills another human being. Here is what Avesta law states on the most minor offense in that line of crime: “He who prepares to strike a man that is to him Agerepta; …Creator! He who commits the Agerepta on a man; What is the punishment for it? Then answered Ahura-Mazda: Strike five strokes with the horse-goad, and five with the Craosho-charana.” And here is what it has to say about a premeditated attempted murder: “Creator! He who wounds a man so that the blood flows; What is the punishment for it? Then answered Ahura-Mazda: Let them strike fifty strokes with the horse-goad, fifty with the Craosho-charana.” By the time we read through the Fargard IV (Book IV), it becomes evident that penalties for breaking the contract law range from 600 to 2,000 lashes, while physically harming a human being (including a premeditated murder) entails significantly lesser punishments, ranging from 10 to only 100 lashes.[11] That’s not capitalism, that’s unchecked greed and sheer lunacy.
Greed is neurosis and excess. True, capitalism is no moral yardstick. It does not promote Socrates’ teachings on the concept of Sophrosyne: “Nothing in excess”, and “Know thyself”.[12] But, nevertheless, it inadvertently makes men considerably better, as through constant competition, through hard work, and through due diligence required for success… it saves men from pride, sloth and unchecked greed. As complete opposite of these, greed compels men to plunder. When plunderers organize, they form an empire. With such an organized plunder, their booty increases. They engage in overindulgence. In the result, they eventually degenerate completely and plunderers become the plundered. History is full of examples when empires were taken over and trampled underfoot by other empires; their languages vanished or were mutilated to the point that the new has nothing in common with the old (take Greek, Latin or Persian, for example), and neither do the new people (anthropologically, as well as metaphysically speaking) with their ancient ancestors, – so great was the extent of their degeneration. Show me an empire, whether demised or extant, and I will show you the sure path of its progressive degeneration and inevitable destruction: Persians were taken over by the Turks, Russians were taken over by Tatars and Turko-Mongols (this process is still in progress) of Khwarezm (Central Asia), Rome was taken over by Italians and Gauls, Egypt was taken over by Arabs, Greeks were taken over by the Osman Turks, Mongols were taken over by Russians, and the list goes on… Had creators of such empires engaged in capitalism, instead of plunder, they would have had a chance to achieve lasting greatness: hard work required for success would have kept them busy, preventing them from becoming morally depraved and industrially inapt; and competition would have kept them sharp and alert.
The end result of greed radically differs from the end result of capitalism. Greed aims at short-term economic success – it is the ultimate bubble; capitalism provides an opportunity to achieve a lasting greatness – it is the ultimate triumph. Greed uses injustice as its medium for achieving its goals. Capitalism relies on free competition and its incentives to allocate rewards. The end result of greed is self-destruction, as the plunderer is bound to become the plundered. The end result of capitalism is a life full of vivacity and healthy uncertainty leading to genuine prosperity. Still not convinced? Then I must describe the process of greedy existence step by step: once the unchecked greed settles in men, which is the gravest injustice one can do against himself, they become brutes; a congregation of such monsters violates the free market and transforms capitalism into a collusion of vicious and violent criminals, – special interest groups (they appear under different guises in different countries: organized mafia, politburo, plutocrats, cartels, national or international regulatory agencies, trade and labor unions); these criminals hijack their government, and then the nation, – a perfectly just and fair enterprise, – is transformed into an empire; This empire, – a congregation of man-eating men and serfs, – starts to tax and devour its neighboring nations; more international robberies generate more income; more income translates into more depravity and more degeneration; and it is thus that eventually even the greatest empires go bust! Their end is inevitable, but alas, such avaricious men and such greedy empires trample many good men and many fine countries during their vicious stampede. I have seen entire nations eradicated by them, – the murder of an entire country, the Caucasian Albania, is one of the many, many unpunished criminal deeds of that counterfeit-humanity comprised of counterfeit countries, called empires, where justice is reduced to a piece of dingy legal paper; where quoting from the Holy Book, or any book of truth for that matter, is irrelevance at best; where talking about universal justice is ridiculed and freedom of speech is fine, as long as you talk about either prices current or common gossip, but never about goodness, truth or God. Injustice, being the root and foundation of an empire, what else can its fruit be but sheer injustice? I remember that blessed man, St. Augustine of Hippo once say: “Justice being taken away, then what are kingdoms but great robberies? For what are robberies themselves, but little kingdoms?”[13] Yes, counterfeit countries with counterfeit freedoms and genuine injustices, comprising counterfeit-humanity, more so today than yesterday. – No wonder capitalism is on the verge of extinction. And yet I believe that in the 21st century capitalism can defeat such madness, such tyranny and such imperialism, as even the greatest of plunders, in terms of money, falls short to what capitalism has to offer most peacefully and most honorably.
George Santayana’s words about true patriotism and true industry still soothingly echo in the depths of my mind: “A man’s feet should be planted in his country, but his eyes should survey the world.”[14] Alas, the state of my vision differs from the state of my hearing, as currently I only see a legion of talented men whose feet are planted in the world, and their eyes are surveying their long-suffering native country in utmost indifference. They lock themselves up in an academia and are unwilling to speak up in defense of capitalism, – what a waste of their otherwise sound intellect! Legacy of such “men” shall be only the dust of a puff ball, – and it matters not whether such indifferent “men” are Georgians, Koreans, Basques, Finns, Estonians, Ingush, Chechens, Circassians or Americans.
[1] Aristotle. (2000). Politics. Dover Publications, Inc.
[2] Thoreau, H. D., Sanborn, F. B., Lazarashvili, Z. K. (2011). American Heroes: Thoreau and Brown. Georgian International University Press.
[3] Thoreau, H. D., Sanborn, F. B., Lazarashvili, Z. K. (2011). American Heroes: Thoreau and Brown. Georgian International University Press.
[4] Thoreau, H. D., Sanborn, F. B., Lazarashvili, Z. K. (2011). American Heroes: Thoreau and Brown. Georgian International University Press. Also see: Sanborn, Franklin, Benjamin. (2010). The Life and Letters of John Brown: Liberator of Kansas, and Martyr of Virginia. Nabu Press.
[5] Chernow, Ron. (1999). Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. Vintage.
[6] Ricardo, David. (2010). On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation. Liberty Fund Inc.
[7] Agrippa had been told by a fellow prisoner on Capri that when he saw an owl, he would be released from prison, which presumably happened, but a second owl would be a herald of imminent death.
[8] Josephus. (1980). The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged. Hendrickson Publishers. Also see: Eusebius. (2007). The Church History. Kregel Academic & Professional.
[9] Narayana. (2007). Hitopadesa. Penguin Classics.
[10] Thoreau, H. D., Sanborn, F. B., Lazarashvili, Z. K. (2011). American Heroes: Thoreau and Brown. Georgian International University Press.
[11] Bleeck, Arthur, Henry. (2001). Avesta: The Religious Books of the Parsees. Adamant Media Corporation.
[12] Plato. (2005). The Collected Dialogues of Plato: Including the Letters (Bollingen Series LXXI). Princeton University Press.
[13] Dods, Marcus (translator). St. Augustine of Hippo. (2000). The City of God. Modern Library.
[14] Santayana, George. (1921). Little Essays Drawn from the Writings of George Santayana. Charles Scribner’s Sons.