More Than Capitalism with a Heart
The be-all and end-all of life should not be to get rich, but to enrich the world.
—B. C. Forbes
Temperatism is more than a bleeding heart version of the capitalist ideal. Its purpose is to tackle key injustices and social inequality that are symptoms of the capitalist market system. By focusing on an agenda of doing good, Temperatism seeks to reduce the level of elitism and social exclusion, that capitalism claims are inevitable, by sharing access to resources and ensuring that all individuals have the opportunity to exercise their talent potential. Furthermore, it aims to tackle despair head on through the pursuit and delivery of basic goods and make a declaration that humanity has the ability to pursue betterment for all. Lastly, through a demonstration of temperance in regard to social responsibility of enoughness, Temperatism aims to challenge prejudices based on wealth distortion. At the same time, the new way to think about business aims to highlight the societal benefit of wealth creation or profit with a purpose and counteract the damage that the enrichment of the wealthy few at the expense of the majority has on longer term sustainability. The “trickle down” effect is not efficient; it is wasteful of human potential. Allowing small percentages of individuals to be fabulously rich while others die of hunger, thirst, and easily treatable diseases is based on corrupt thinking, made worse by the acceptance that the fabulously rich are normal in trying to avoid proportionality in supporting society through taxation. For change to happen, it is necessary for the growing noise of opposition regarding the social make-up of our society to be heard but not succumbing to the destructive tendencies of the populist mob. In history there are plenty of examples of shifts in acceptance of injustice, whether in the realization that racial segregation, homophobia, or attitudes toward women are abhorrent; humanity continually demonstrates its ability to mature in its continuum of doing good. The capability of humanity to challenge normalcy and declare what was once acceptable as unacceptable is what brings hope that an alternative to capitalism is possible.
For Temperatism to become reality, a society-wide cultural shift would need to take place. The growing body of work, which has increased inexorably since the credit crunch, suggests that there are many, whether in academia or in the public media, who are questioning the profit motive that drives capitalism and are deeply mistrustful of the concept of perpetual growth, which is an imperative of the capitalist system and leads to the question as to whether a moderate or sustainable capitalism is, in fact, possible. These concerns go against the grain for economists who see no alternative to the capitalist agenda who actively disparage any attempt to question a rationality that has been developed over many decades and embedded itself into Western culture and attitudes. However, the rise in reactionary populist movements demonstrates that the time for new thinking is now, if progression rather than regression is to be our future.
Temperatism makes no apology for taking the disturbing truth about our economic system and placing it in the harsh light of reality, and on reflection it provides uncomfortable viewing. Currently, society makes excuses and creates deniability of the brutal truth; capitalism is harming our society, harming the planet, and harming humanity. We try to convince ourselves that capitalism isn’t wrong per se; it just needs adjusting, resulting in considerations of new ways of working and suggestions of sustainable, social, moderate, or responsible capitalism. “‘The idea of an all-powerful market without any rules and any political intervention is mad,’ said Nicolas Sarkozy, adding that ‘Self-regulation is finished. Laissez faire is finished.’ Henry Paulson, the U.S. Treasury Secretary agreed: ‘Raw capitalism is a dead end’” (Naim, 2008). Think-tanks have been searching for a new paradigm to replace the attitudes and behaviors that lead to the credit crunch. What was, is no longer possible or permissible, but what replaces what was, is yet to be decided. However, we don’t like to admit the truth, that we, the West, have got it wrong. Having beaten socialism and communism, becoming the hero of democracy, and developing a model others want to copy, we can’t bring ourselves to say capitalism wasn’t such a great idea either. We’re not ready or willing to eat humble pie just yet.
The issue, however, isn’t a debate about who owns the means of production, or whether the laissez-faire market model is good or bad for human society. Instead the issue at the heart of the debate is focused on the rights and wrongs of capitalism as an economic model and the resulting short-term and profit-motivated thinking in Western business, what Chris Grey has called fast capitalism. Short-term, quarterly results–focused thinking is bad for business, it is bad for people, and it is bad for society. What is clear is that it is time for change. The capitalist system isn’t working. The business cycle doesn’t protect the vulnerable, but it contributes to a system where more people are made vulnerable because of the inequality of reward and brutalization of the workplace. There is no security, even for those who do work, and for those who cannot get work there is a greater level of insecurity than before the abolition of the workhouse during the Victorian era.
Focusing on the Human Element
Rather than blame the weaknesses in the system, the blame for homelessness or domestic financial problems is that the individual who is poor is in that situation because they have not worked or are not working hard enough. In the capitalist system it is the individual who lacks the aspiration and motivation and makes poor lifestyle choices, usually in the form of drinking alcohol or smoking, which means that they cannot afford to keep a roof over their head or food on the table. “Why should we,” the utilitarian economist will ask, “pay to help others who refuse to help themselves?” In this framing, the poor are not deserving of help, because the capitalist system supposes that it provides the means by which each individual is able to help themselves, and if society were to provide for those who can’t provide for themselves, the result is the creation of a system that encourages people to continue to be lazy and feckless. But this attitude is based on false assumptions. A report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in 2015 shows that 6.8 million people who are in a working family in the UK are living in poverty and that in-work poverty now outstrips out-of-work poverty. This isn’t feckless, work shy, individuals, but people who are working hard and still struggling to have their basic needs met. As the pay gap between those at the top and those at the bottom widen, you have to ask the question whether those selling their labor are getting a proportional share of the value created by organizations. It is this lack of heart that is most disturbing in the capitalist system. The ability to lay blame and assume guilt on the guiltless is both disturbing and unhelpful in providing the means to solve issues such as poverty and social deprivation.
The enterprise culture forgets that human capital has a human element to it and people feel powerless to try and change anything, so 60 percent of us are in a job we hate. What a waste! A fundamental belief at the center of Temperatism is that we are all of equal worth, we all have value to add and potential to release, and we are equally important in regard to having our basic goods provided for. We all deserve security, health, friendship, etc. for no other reason than we are human. For those who are struggling, it is their circumstances that define their ability to change. Being born with the proverbial silver spoon in your mouth is as much an accident of birth as being born into poverty. Temperatism isn’t about blame, but a willingness to accept that wealth is not necessarily a result of discretionary effort and those who have good luck should take responsibility to defend those who find themselves victims of bad luck. In the UK there is a fondness for the NHS because we believe that it is the defining feature of the society we wish to be part of, where access to good healthcare is an inalienable human right. We are willing to support such measures through taxation because we believe in its inherent goodness. But fear of exploitation in areas such as poverty alleviation are more complicated, because we have been led to believe that poverty is the due dessert for failing to work hard. For many, circumstances beyond their control can lead them to be victims, unable to fulfill their potential or promise because something has got in their way. It may be illness, change, or loss that causes someone to be a victim rather than a conqueror. In the right environment we all have the ability to flourish and do well. We all have the capacity to be creative and innovative. But sometimes life throws us a curve ball that we aren’t expecting and that can damage our ability to look after ourselves. It is for these circumstances that Temperatism proposes we must develop a heart that says society is here to catch you. For some circumstances it might be a national disaster, caused by natural phenomenon such as earthquakes, hurricanes, flooding, or droughts; for individuals, circumstances such as illness, loss, or change can deliver a blow to their ability to reach their potential.
It is the interpretation of fault that centers Temperatism. Though some decisions made by individuals within poverty are incomprehensible because they make the situation worse rather than better, the assumption must be that these bad decisions are an exception rather than a rule. To paint everyone with a brush, which says that if you are poor, it is your fault for not taking the opportunities available to you, fails to understand the inequalities and deep-rooted unfairness in society, which keeps the poor, poor and lays blame at the door of the wrong people.
Short-Term Growth Versus the Human Heart
The focus of organizations and the economic system in which they participate has become so short term that the long-term measures that benefit both people and the sustainability of organizations are lost. Investing in skills and developing people’s potential is ignored because people become little more than a variable cost on the balance sheet. Temperatism advocates that the value that a person can bring is so much more than something that comes out of a box. But to understand anything of true value requires an environment that gives space for people to unlock their potential. One writer, Kenneth Rogoff (2006), argues that
none of capitalism’s problems is insurmountable and economists have offered a variety of market-based solutions. A high global price for carbon would induce firms and individuals to internalize the cost of their polluting activities. Tax systems can be designed to provide a measure of redistribution of income without necessarily involving crippling distortions, by minimizing non-transparent tax expenditures and keeping marginal rates low. Effective pricing of health care, including the pricing of waiting times, could encourage a better balance between equality and efficiency. Financial systems could be better regulated, with stricter attention to excessive accumulations of debt. (Rogoff, 2006)
Even if it were possible that all these things could happen, and the likelihood of that is slim, fundamentally the profit agenda, which is the primary objective, prevents capitalism from being an economic system that has humanity at its heart. The economic and social problems we are experiencing is because capitalism doesn’t work, even in a mixed market economy. Without government intervention social good will always be at the mercy of self-interest and capitalism will do whatever it can to avoid or reduce regulation.
Ironically, the events of 2008 meant that the capitalist economic system was on the verge of collapse and the only thing that saved it was government intervention. The market was bailed out by the state and European governments are struggling with the consequences of what should have been capitalism’s last big bust. Though the market would like the public to believe that it is back to business as usual, the truth is that nations are still pumping money into the system to try to get the market engine running properly. The world remains out of balance, the market has not been restored, merely propped up and yet the pursuit of a profit agenda and growth continues as if nothing had changed. In many ways, part of the problem is that we can’t quite believe that capitalism is broken. Our self-delusion leaves us searching in the rubble for an economic answer that has already self-combusted. Capitalism has wormed its way into our psyche and we are not quite ready to let it go.
We are told time and again by those in charge of our economies that we need to grow but the end game of growth might not be the outcome that we are looking for.
Certainly growth of a certain kind would increase well-being in large parts of the planet—increased access to healthy food, clean water, effective waste disposal, health care, education and to employment. But do we have any good reason that capitalist growth will provide these things? Certainly the historical record suggests the contrary . . . Indeed, capitalism’s desperate drive to grow is deeply implicated in the persistence of global poverty. (Schweickart, 2009)
Temperatism would argue that make do and mend is not the way to a brighter future and restoring something that is so toxic to our wellbeing would result in future generations experiencing greater extremes of boom and bust and either the system is destroyed or we are.
At its center Temperatism seeks to get to the heart of humanity. Capitalism doesn’t care, and it doesn’t care that it doesn’t care. But as human beings we should care. We should care about the fact that we are currently subjected to the whims of an economic system that has no heart, has no meaning beyond profit, and diminishes humanity to numbers and statistics. We should value human life. But we have become immune to the charity advertisements on television that plead with us to part with a small contribution every month to help provide clean water, education, healthcare, and food to those in need. We can look at the problems in our society and feel helpless to be able to know where to start to solve them. We can, as the capitalists do, make excuses that there will always be poor, unemployed, homeless, and the disenfranchised. We can ignore the difficulties in the contrast between the haves and have-nots and close our door at night. Or we can make a different decision. We can allow ourselves to feel again, to let our hearts break for the broken, but more importantly, we can look in the mirror, search our hearts, and realize that we are just the man or woman to do something about it. If enough of us, Malcolm Gladwell suggests 150 people, decide that something has to be different, that we must listen to the call of our heart and stop ignoring the pain that we see, then maybe Temperatism can become a new way to think about business and doing good.
By reducing us to self-interested individuals, capitalism denies our humanity and our ability to wield a social power and community spirit that can move mountains (sometimes quite literally) and produce powerful results. Together humans are greater than the sum of our parts. Temperatism is about building up and empowering the separated and weakened individualism of the capitalist system to join individuals together to be a united force for change and doing good. Humanity is not just a species that dominates planet Earth; it is more than that; humanity is a type of moral character that we all have in common. To pretend that businesses are amoral, that organizational leaders don’t have to decide between good and bad, that it is possible to run organizations unaffected by the consequences of our actions upon others, is to deny that organizations are by their very nature human, with a heart and spirited nature. We can’t stop being human. We can’t stop having a heart.
Adopting a Human Agenda
Temperatism isn’t thinking small, nor am I naïve as to what it would take to make the change: thousands of people and a majority of business leaders deciding to think differently. Whole systems would need to change, albeit changing something that is broken is easier than changing something that is working. Moreover, asking individuals to be more of what they are, rather than continuing to be what they are not, is an easier agenda than the reverse. Moving an organization and government from a capitalist profit agenda to a Temperatist agenda would require a move from a ‘greed is good’ mentality and embracing a moderate and self-restrained platform based on a long-term commitment to the common good, abstinence from overindulgence, community-based programs, and the use of human creativity and innovation to produce economically viable ways of bettering all. Such an agenda, so easily written on the pages of a book, requires a shift from self-interest to social interest and that requires humans to get back in touch with their humanity, to accept responsibility and hold each other accountable. Not exactly an agenda that would get the voters to vote for someone during an election. Or is it?
But there are plenty of reasons why individuals might choose to change their habits and be part of a Temperatist culture. In his book Why Capitalism? Allan Meltzer begins by declaring that capitalism as a system is successful because of its “foundation of a rule of law, which protects individual rights to property and, in the first instance, aligns rewards to values produced. Working hand in hand with the rule of law, capitalism gives its participants incentives to act as society desires, typically rewarding hard work, intelligence, persistence and innovation” (Meltzer, 2012). This view of capitalism rewarding effort is in line with the traditional view of the American Dream, the opportunity for anyone to make good if they work hard enough. However, it is the realization that hard work doesn’t get rewarded that is driving the current swell of populism. Although capitalism has delivered some improvements in regard to efficiency and the innovations and inventiveness of man has been spurred by the opportunity for personal gain and the possibility of wealth, capitalism creates a conflict between the pursuit for the efficient use of resources and the effectiveness of those resources being used to create an equitable reward for individual effort. Furthermore, the financial reward incentive clashes with the desire of individuals for greater meaning to our lives and the in-built fairness node that needs an intrinsic value to human life. The focus on efficiency places an emphasis on doing things right even if the things that are being done are rational but wrong, or more specifically immoral. The uncomfortable feeling that occurs when business decisions are made, that sit uneasy on the shoulders of those burdened with the implementation of a business plan, is what is at the center of who we are as humans. Temperatism pursues effectiveness first, pursuing a course of action that ensures that government, organizations, and society are focused on doing the right things, doing good first and foremost.