Uncomfortable Thoughts on Capitalism

Louis O. Kelso and Mortimer J. Adler, The Capitalist Manifesto
Ashley Lo

Back when I took IB economics in high school, we learned about the distinction between equity and equality--
the former meaning fairness/justice and the latter simply same distribution for all. In economics,
equity means one must deserve what they make, while equality demands all to receive the same income. There
is always a blurred line between the two, for to give an equal reward to two people might not always be
equitable; some say one should be awarded based on how much effort they give, other say by how much they
actually contribute to society. The concept of equity is benign, yet, in my opinion, ultimately unhelpful-- how
do we evaluate how much someone “deserves” for their work?

From Kelso and Adler’s Manifesto, it occurred to me that capitalism strives for equity, as noted, “The principle
of justice, which is based on the right of every man or family to obtain a viable income by earning it, is
integrally  connected with the principle of distributive justice” (79). On the other hand, communism, which is
notorious in many parts of the world today, simply adheres to equality, or as it claims to. After reading
Manifesto, I was surprised to see that capitalism and communism are distinguished by the contrast between
equity and equality, an often confused difference, Having grown up in Taiwan, a capitalist country, I wonder
how communist societies see capitalism-- is it as evil as we believe communism is?

This might be a bit off track…. but in my post-colonial literature class, we’ve been discussing capitalism as a
huge driving force behind colonialism, as it calls for market expansion and increased labour to constitute the
working class. It’s surely disheartening that, despite Adler and Kelso’s claim that capitalism seeks to increase
goods of civilization and justice, capitalist countries do so at the expense of other peoples, in turn turning
them into the so-called “third-world” countries.

I’m excited to think more about capitalism in the coming weeks.

Comments

  1. jdoutFebruary 4, 2018 at 1:40 PM

    Very interesting and provocative, the link between capitalist giants of the developed world and the areas of the world they once tried to control by colonialism. Market expansion is a prerequisite for capitalism, either through "disrupting" existing markets (such as many FINtech corporations claim they are doing today, by insinuating their fee-based services into traditional transactions) or finding new consumers... But where are the new consumers? As you mention, they could live abroad. Or, judging from what is going on in the USA today, they could be among the very young (as in the new Facebook app for children age 6). Is all this capitalistic enterprise benign? Judge for yourself: https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/30/child-health-advocates-call-for-facebook-to-shutter-messenger-kids-app/

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