Capitalism Is Selfish and Immoral, Isn’t It?
By Shafer Parker
Before I try to answer the headline question, let me define a couple of terms and explain why I am writing this blog. Capitalism is an economic system where agriculture, manufacturing, and distribution systems are privately owned and operated for a profit. Communism is capitalism’s ideological opposite; it promotes common, or collective ownership of the means of production and distribution, and thereby hopes to eliminate social classes, and ultimately, even the need for money.
“I want to write in defense of capitalism because it is the most righteous system of wealth production yet to be devised by man, and yet it is under attack as never before.”
I want to write in defense of capitalism* because it is the most righteous system of wealth production yet to be devised by man, and yet is under attack as never before. I also want to defend capitalism because so few seem willing to do it. On the other hand, it is often pilloried by the mainstream press, and it seems to be hated, or at least doubted, by a large majority of educators, surprisingly even in prestigious business schools. Most of all, I want to write in favour of capitalism because a new social phenomenon has arisen in North America—anti-capitalist, anti-democratic terrorists masquerading as protesters marching in favour of social justice. The marchers, using names like Antifa and Black Lives Matter, openly state that one of their goals is to destroy capitalism in order to replace it with Communism. If they are successful the result will be disastrous, leaving little besides hunger and disease in their wake. The marchers do not care; they don’t believe in history. Instead, they believe their brand of Marxism will succeed, even if all similar efforts have failed in the past.
Now, if you’ve read this far, you already know I have great enthusiasm for capitalism. But you probably are wondering why? Moreover, it’s very likely your thinking has been so influenced by the spirit of the age that you’ve already asked yourself how I can call myself a Christian and still support such a despised philosophy. Well, to answer your question I need to take you on a trip through the Christian gospels to examine whether Jesus’ teaching has anything to say on the matter.
Why would I do that? Partly because Communists and radical socialists love to falsely claim Jesus as one of their own. For example, even as the economy of Venezuela was already headed toward its inevitable collapse, the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez dedicated his second term in office to “Jesus Christ, the greatest socialist ever.” Jesus is nothing of the sort, but that did not stop Chavez from echoing the host of Communists, liberation theologians and their fellow travelers, stretching back to Marx himself, who made similar claims, all of them as wrong as wrong could be.
“Isn’t communism more moral than capitalism because it isn’t about the individual? Aren’t we supposed to live for others?”
“But wait!” I hear you saying, “isn’t capitalism selfish? Isn’t it immoral to live for yourself? And isn’t communism about sharing? Isn’t communism more moral than capitalism because it isn’t about the individual? Aren’t we supposed to live for others?”
Actually, no, we’re supposed to live for Jesus! But let me be clear. I do not mean live for Jesus as though he were some kind of good example, or because some day he will be our judge, although that is true. I mean live for Jesus exactly the same way two lovers live for each other. I don’t know why so many fail to see this. All the love in the New Testament (I could just as easily say in the Bible) is individual love. This is because love can only flow from one person to another. To quote French economist Charles Gave, “There is no collective love. There is no love for Humanity with a capital H. There is only the love that flows from Christ to a man or a woman, from a man or a woman to Christ; or from a man or woman to another man or woman.”
As you will see when you read the gospels carefully, where his followers are concerned, Jesus is presented in a series of love stories, each time with Christ on one side and on the other, just one other person. Or, to put it another way, each time someone comes to Jesus seeking something (what they are seeking hardly matters) his response always boils down to the same thing: “Come and follow me.” He is only, and always, about one thing, developing a personal love relationship with each person. This is the pattern Jesus sets for all our relationships, to the point that it colours all the stories Jesus tells.
Consider the Good Samaritan in Luke 10. A man is robbed and left half dead. A priest passes by but cannot be bothered to stop and help. Likewise, a Levite, a man who served at the temple. But then a Samaritan comes along and “has compassion on him.” He it is who binds the man’s wounds and takes him to an inn, where he can be cared for. He is the one who spends his own money to be certain the wounded man gets the care he needs.
Why did Jesus tell this story? The immediate context shows he had just been asked, “Who is my neighbour?” in response to having just taught that each of us is to “love your neighbour as yourself.” So the lesson goes, every time we encounter someone in need, there we find our neighbour. True, but not the whole story. Jesus is also teaching that responsibility and love are personal, and that such things can only be exercised by the individual. It’s almost like Jesus is revealing a new law of nature. There is no collective love, or responsibility, or morality. It is always personal.
Love is also free, or it isn’t love. Freedom is another quality that Jesus valued highly, as you can see when you read the Sermon on the Mount. Why did Jesus talk about going the second mile? Because in those days a Roman government official could legally conscript an ordinary person to carry his burden for him for a mile or more. He could just grab a passerby and force him to put his own agenda on hold while he hauled the other man’s baggage. Now, as long as the person was forced to obey orders, he was no more than a slave. But the moment he volunteered of his own free will to go that second mile, he became a free man exercising his freedom to show love and do good to a person who at best was only a stranger, but who very well could have been a well-known local official who enjoyed tormenting his neighbours.
But Jesus doesn’t just give a single example to illustrate how his followers are to free themselves from enslavement. He piles on with more examples. If someone sues you in court for your shirt, he says, give him your coat as well. It’s the same principle as carrying a burden the extra mile, even if it is a little more difficult to see. If the court rules you owe the other man your shirt, then parting with the shirt is no more than an obligation discharged. But if you give your opponent your coat as well, that is a free act done freely. And free acts of love are what raise us from enslavement to “the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Rom. 8:21). This principle of freely acting beyond what is demanded also explains Jesus’ perplexing command to turn the other cheek. He is not literally demanding that every slap deserves a second opportunity to inflict pain. Rather, he is teaching that receiving that first slap is meaningless (you didn’t see it coming, and you have no idea what the slapper was thinking). But when you pause, and pray, and then deliberately offer your other cheek, only then are you freely loving your enemy, a truly divine act.
Do you see now that the essence of a true relationship with God through Jesus is freedom? God loves his children freely, with no taint of compulsion. In response, we love God freely, and the proof we love him comes when we extend His love to others, freely. Each of us, then, must be looking for opportunities to display the freedom behind our love. And that means the role of Christians in society is first and foremost to maintain the maximum amount of freedom for the maximum number of people. In doing so we make it possible for others to freely seek, and express, salvation through faith in Christ.
“There will be no collective on Judgement day. There will only be individuals who freely acted for Jesus’ sake, or who did not.”
Which raises the final question. Is there an economic system that promotes individual freedom? Because if there is, it alone is consistent with the freedom that best reflects how people relate to God and to one another. To me the answer is obvious, only capitalism provides individuals with the freedom necessary to freely work and save so as to have something that, from his or her own free will, he or she can then give to others. This is exactly what the Bible teaches. “Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labour, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need” (Eph. 4:28).
“But what about social justice?” someone cries. And the only proper response is, Jesus didn’t give a fig about social justice! You want proof? What does Jesus say his approach will be on Judgement Day? Check it out for yourself in Matthew 25:31-46. All the nations will be there, but they won’t be separated between capitalists and communists. Rather, the people will be separated, “one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.” In other words, on Judgement Day nations cease to exist. Only individuals are eternal. Then (talk about teaching the test ahead of the exam) Jesus says he will pass judgment based upon whether each person saw the divine image in his fellow man and treated his brothers and sisters as though they were Christ Himself. “I was hungry,” Jesus says, “and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink, I was a stranger, I was naked, I was sick, I was in prison, and you ministered to me because as much as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”
Do you get it? There will be no collective on Judgement day. There will only be individuals who freely acted for Jesus’ sake, or who did not. This is the fundamental reason Christians must stand against the collective in all its forms. Not because it always perpetrates poverty and violence—although it always does—but because socialism does not teach the individual to give. It teaches the individual to expect everything from others, and then to take it by force if it isn’t freely given. Moreover, socialism makes it impossible for the individual to give. How? Because in that system the individual has nothing he can give.
When a man dies in a capitalist country people love to talk about his personal generosity. “He’d give you the shirt off his back,” they say. But no such thing can be said in a communist country. No one has a shirt to call his own.
*Please understand that in defending capitalism in principle, the author does not intend to defend capitalism in all its expressions. Nor is he unaware of its capacity to be abused by evil people. But no human system is invulnerable to abuse, and at least with capitalism checks and balances are inherent, even if they remain imperfect.
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