Capitalism Is Dead: Long Live Capitalism

Many countries around the world are struggling as economies experience slow or no growth and people’s basic incomes remain under pressure. Markets are unstable as governments reduce spending and cut jobs in many areas. In order to improve the situation and revitalise the economy, a new and different approach is needed.

In recent decades, the advocates of capitalism, free markets and profit have influenced economic policy and the economy to the detriment of fairness, equality and inclusion.

The dominance of such aggressive and self-centred capitalism culminated in the spectacular financial crash of 2008 from which economies, businesses, communities, families and people are still recovering.

Globalisation and the interconnectedness of financial and other markets played a large part in creating the economic destruction that emerged, as governments succumbed to the voices calling for light touch regulation.

The financial crash was the culmination of decades of flawed decisions, which, ironically, provides hope as a post-crash switch to more thoughtful decision-making can produce better solutions and more inclusive and equitable results for greater numbers of people.

In the future, a different form of capitalism guided by appropriate and proportionate regulation that minimises the excesses of a greed-based ethos is required.

In essence, a new model of capitalism needs to:

  • build a strong economy around a sense of enterprise, community, fairness and equality
  • reward those who create genuine wealth while penalising those who exploit the system to take advantage of short-term gain
  • support entrepreneurs and businesses that create long-term well-paid and sustainable jobs
  • ensure that government, politicians and policy makers understand the changing nature of the economy and its effect on youth employment
  • support the promotion of a living wage and personal pension plans that enable future generations to retire without undue financial worries
  • measure performance in terms that include economic growth, fairness, and equality of opportunity for people of all ages and abilities
  • understand the vital importance of skills and support the need to reskill people working in traditional jobs and industries
  • ensure enterprise, innovation and technology are embraced at all levels of society and within the public and private sectors
  • support business owners and managers to build the organisational capabilities needed to export and compete internationally

Capitalism driven by short-term profit is neither desirable nor sustainable, as evidenced by the hardship of recent years and the suffering felt by millions of people in different countries.

Capitalism driven by fairness and equality is both desirable and sustainable, as it creates the wealth needed for companies to grow and the jobs needed for communities to thrive.

SO, capitalism is dead, long live capitalism but in a new form that captures the energy of enterprise and the ethos of a fair and equal society.