Capitalism I Believe In

Nancy Folbre: Shared Capitalism – NYTimes.com:

Legend has it that Bob Montgomery, a left-leaning economist at the University of Texas at Austin in the 1950s, was once asked if he believed in private property.

“I certainly do,” he said. “I believe in it so much I think everyone in the state of Texas should have some.”

It’s such an ecumenical line that President George W. Bush used it to good effect in a 2004 speech. The basic idea begs for extension: If capitalists are so great, shouldn’t everybody be one?

The term “shared capitalism” is a catchall for a variety of arrangements that businesses can make to share profits with a large number of employees, whether through stock ownership or incentive pay based on company performance.

(Via Economix.)

That Old Time Capitalism

I began reading John C. Bogle‘s The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism tonight. So far, it’s an interesting read.

I began reading John C. Bogle‘s The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism tonight. So far, it’s an interesting read. Here is a memorable quote (so far) rich with irony in today’s world:

My vantage point is that of an American businessman (and a lifelong Republican) who has spent his entire half-century-plus career in the financial field…For better or worse, my youthful idealism–the belief that any truly sound business endeavor must be built on a strong moral foundation–still remains today, at least as strong as it was all those years ago.

By the latter years of the twentieth century, our business values had eroded to a remarkable extent. Yes, we are a nation of prodigious energy, marvelous entrepreneurship, brilliant technology, creativity beyond imagination, and, at least in some corners of the business world, the idealism to make our nation and our world a better place. But I also see far too much greed, egoism, materialism, and waste to please my critical eye. I see an economy overly focused on the “haves” and not focused enough on the “have-nots,” failing to allocate our nation’s resources where they are most needed–to solve the problems of poverty and to provide quality education for all. I see a shocking misuse of the world’s natural resources, as if they were ours to waste rather than ours to preserve as a sacred trust for future generations, and I see a political system corrupted by the staggering infusion of money that is, to be blunt about it, rarely given by disinterested citizens who expect no return on their investment.

Wow. Small wonder why he isn’t all that popular with today’s so-called conservatives.