Capitalism is just swell. But people suck.

This is a post that I have been wanting to write for almost a year now. Those of you at UCC and Crossroads, as well as other churches in the area, should remember the Consumed series that our small groups went through. Overall, I enjoyed the series. Materialism is perhaps the biggest pitfall of the modern Western Church. But there was just one tiny thing that bothered me. No, this isn't me taking an isolated statement and using it to pass judgement on an entire series. Like I said, I enjoyed it. I just found this one quote interesting and felt like writing my thoughts on it, and seeing what you thought.

I don't have the quote in front of me, but it was talking about capitalism. It said how capitalism has been the most successful form of economics that the world has ever seen. And that's probably true. But here's what got to me. The gentleman went on to say that we, as Christians, must be aware of this: "capitalism requires greed."

My short response to that statement is this: no, it does not.

That really is quite a statement to make. Especially since he seems to think that it is an important truth for us to accept as good Christians. One of the first things that struck me, other than the patent absurdity of the statement, was the list of credentials listed after his name. It had things like pastor and author, but nothing related to economist or financial expert or anything like that. So immediately I have to question if he really knows what he's talking about. Also, it's dangerous because lots of people are going to take his word as authoritative, even though we don't have any clear reason to do so.

I figured that I should look up capitalism in the dictionary to get an accurate definition to start with. I found several, and none mentioned greed as one of the things necessary for it to function. If anything, I find that capitalism requires the lack of things to function, ie government control. It's all about free market and less restriction. It basically lets people and companies run their businesses how they want, within the law, based on things like supply and demand.

Now, does capitalism allow for greed, and can greedy people do well in a capitalist society? Absolutely. But there is a huge difference between something being required and something being allowed for. It allows for a whole range of human behaviour.

Take this example. You have a guy who really likes fixing cars. So, he opens up an auto-repair shop in his town. He runs his business well, provides great service, and only wants his shop to be successful enough for him to support his family, keep everything running, and pay his employees well. Capitalism is at work, and no greed is required. It happens all the time.

It's just all about letting the people go and have the freedom from government telling them how to run their businesses. If greed exists, it's a human problem, not an economic problem.

Too often, I have people wanting me to blame capitalism for greed. But that's like blaming a cliff for people falling off of it. The cliff didn't push them off, but it didn't do anything to prevent it. It just exists and lets people do as they wish on it.

The problem with this way of thinking (other than it just being factually wrong) is that people could place blame on the wrong things. And if we don't identify the correct source of a problem, we won't fix it.