What Is A Capitalist



capitalist is one who owns capital. From an economics perspective

capital is not money or finance. Capital is what is used to produce

goods or services: machinery, tools, equipment, etc. It used to be

said that the distinctive feature of a capitalist is that he can wait,

in distinction from a worker who cannot wait because

what he acquires from his work is what he needs to live from week-to-

week or month-to-month.

Labout And Capital

To be a capitalist, therefore, one must have the means to wait. Mainly this

is because goods and services all come into being only through some

process of production. And such processes inevitably involve time and

therefore waiting. This is the initial source of the capitalists market power,

and the inherent cause of labour's market weakness. One sees this power

struggle in every industrial dispute, especially when it engages the ultimate

strategy of the strike, when called by labour, or the lockout, when called

by capitalists.

Capitalists And Markets

There is another aspect attached to waiting which is central to the

question we are discussing. How do capitalists behave within a competitive

market environment?

Behaviour is considerably determined by the market. His basic objective

is to survive. What does his survival depend on? Profits. Without profits

he will not continue into the long run.

On what do profits depend? There are many parts to this answer, but the

principle components are efficiency and establishing a market advantage.

The latter, in turn, depends on out-thinking and out-performing competitors.

That means producing at a high quality level or, what amounts to the same

thing, a lower real price level.

This takes us to the real nub of the question we are addressing. Where

markets are highly competitive, out-performing competitors is difficult.

So long term survival is difficult because every organisation will be

pressured into using the same most, efficient technology and prices will

be competed to levels which produce relatively low levels of profit.

No-one likes this kind of situation because it is constantly threatening to

the long term objective of survival. Yet, conditions of uncertainty are the

norm. And market capitalists do not like uncertainty. They have always

and will always attempt to reduce uncertainty. They do that by, one way

or another, getting rid of the competition. It is a remarkable paradox that

the greatest argument in favour of a market system, its competitiveness,

is the one thing which market participants spend their time trying to get rid of.

Eliminating Christianity In The Market

Eliminating competitors unavoidably means eliminating Christianity from

the market environment. Competitors are got rid of by driving them out

of business before one's own organisation is driven out. And that is the

major principle involved in long term survival. Historically it has frequently

involved illegal means, but in any case it involves taking every advantage

and using every possible means to outreach and eliminate competitors.

In The Wealth Of Nation published in 1776 at a very early stage

in the development of market capitalism, Adam Smith, (the first economist)

who coined the phrase about the iron hand of the market, pointed to the essential

characteristic of any market: that it works on the principle of selfishness.

Markets deliver the goods only when participants operate in their

own self interest.

So the basic principle of market capitalism is diametrically opposed to

the fundamental teachings of Jesus. He taught a number of principles

which are damming to the market system. One could quote many scriptures

from the New Testament, but a major one comes in Luke 6. 27 - 36.

To quote only verse 31: Do to other people what you would have

them do to you. Space will not permit further quotations. This whole

question at length is discussed at length in my book The Path To

Freedom. But this passage is sufficient and is supported by many

other teachings of Jesus.

And we do not have to be capital-owning entrepreneurs to be a

culpable part of this system..Even those of us at work are in a market:

a labour or jobs market, in which we all participate. And we get on

primarily at the expense of others. We often do to others what we would

certainly not want them to do to us.

The Consequences?

Anyone who reflects on the extensive non-Christian aspects of markets

must reach the conclusion that it is a system incompatible with the basic

principles of Christianity. It even grabs Christian feast days for

itself. Just consider the commercialisation of Christmas and Easter. In many

respects, one would have to conclude that its principles are satanic - but

we have all be bought by the system!

Markets do deliver the goods. More goods and vastly greater standard

of living than ordinary people could ever have expected or dreamed of. But there

has been a price. A spiritually horrendous price. It is expressed primarily in the

way we treat others.

So what are the personal consequences and implications for the Christian?