Archive for June 9th, 2008

Getting a Grip on “Supercapitalism.” Part six.

admin June 9th, 2008

When Frances Moore Lappé has a question about something she does her research, reaches out, and asks away.

Recently she did just that, writing directly to Robert B. Reich, in response to her read of his 2007 book, Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life. Reich wrote back at length, clearly glad to engage in the back-and-forth. Below is the sixth installment of their correspondence. Keep checking back for future installments and please: share your thoughts by leaving a comment!

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6. FML: You state that “the purpose of capitalism is to get great deals for consumers and investors.” (224) Why do you exclude from the purpose of our economic system the interests of earners and producers and the maintenance of the “natural capital” on which the entire economy depends? Surely, an economic system must be judged, minimally, on how it serves humanity in all these roles as well as how it protects the source of much of our wealth—the natural resources used in production. Your limiting the purpose of capitalism to only two goals contributes to the limited thinking at the root of our planetary crisis.

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RR: I limit the purpose of capitalism to getting great deals for consumers and investors in order to give appropriate place to the purpose of democracy. Capitalism alone cannot and will not serve our broader needs.

If we want to protect our atmosphere from global warming, for example, we have to look to democracy; if we want decent health care, we need to legislate it; if we want human rights, we must demand it through law.

Capitalism does not and will not deliver these unless our democracy forces it to, through rules of the game that prohibit or encourage certain types of economic activities. When we demand “corporate social responsibility,” for example, we distract ourselves from the harder and more important job of changing politics so that corporations must respond to our civic values. They will not be, and cannot be, socially responsible. They are not even people.