How can capitalism be reformed?
Over the last few months, I’ve been asking myself if I’ve been turning into a Communist, as certain aspects of capitalism have had me seeing red.
So many parts of the capitalist system feel broken, especially when companies lay off thousands of workers, only to then perform stock buybacks with tens or hundreds of millions of dollars that could have paid the salaries of those terminated workers for at least a couple extra decades. And when companies perform buybacks, they’re not investing in their employees or improving the infrastructure of the company. They’re simply prioritizing shareholders, which is a quick way to kill morale. Perhaps this situation wouldn’t be such a big deal if companies would admit that labor is little more than a transactional relationship and would so encourage employees to act in the same way. Instead, employees are expected to give their all, while they can be cut loose for the good of the Company.
But after Lina Khan and the FTC banned noncompete agreements (at least for now), I realized I haven’t turned anti-capitalist. In fact, I’m quite pro-capitalist. I merely want a system more nearly representing the merits of capitalism I’ve been sold as a red-blooded American. To bring that system into reality, we need to ensure that the rules of capitalism apply to corporations as well as individuals. To some degree, the same rules should apply for all parties involved.
Corporations can’t help being selfish and sociopathic. Some may argue that corporations are people, but how can they be when they have no flesh and blood, when they can live on into eternity as long as they make enough money to stay afloat? That’s why we need competition and regulars to keep corporations on the right path. But we’ve let corporations down over the last few decades. We gave them too much freedom and they’ve shown they can’t handle it. Now we’re stuck with troublesome monopolies that are too big to care and that are active in an enshittification campaign that hurts customers in a number of ways. With capital costs now being higher than they’ve been in decades, we can’t rely on a wave of startups to right the markets.
Unlike humans who have a limited lifespan, corporations can exist indefinitely. So we must always be ready to steer them in the right direction. Like any parents, we must do certain things not because we’re big, bad poopyhead meanies, but because we have to do what’s ultimately best for all the group as a whole.
Capitalism might be in a bit of a crisis. It’s getting harder not to take seriously the claims we’ve hit late stage capitalism. Especially now as the tech sector, which has dominated the stock market in the 21st century, appears to have run out of good ideas aside from yelling, ‘AI! Get your AI here!’ at every street corner. Even the once might Apple now has little to offer beyond a thinner iPad.
Before we can reform capitalism, we must first ask if it’s worth saving. I think it is. And so must the swaths of immigrants who enter America, whether by means legal or illegal, every year. If those people were merely running away from something, they’d have plenty of other options. So is it wrong to imagine they’re running toward something when they choose America? Might that thing be an economic model they believe gives them the chance at a better life? And if you argue that such a system doesn’t actually exist here, isn’t that all the more reason to reform capitalism to more nearly match it?
I’m not convinced the base game of capitalism is broken. I like the idea of being able to change my lot with a combination of opportunity, work and skills, and luck. While Hollywood won’t be releasing my biopic anytime soon, I consider myself a homegrown American success story. Raised in a trailer house in the Louisiana Delta, I’m now building a middle-class life in the Lone Star State. Those born in poverty should have the opportunity to rise above and beyond the class they’re born into. This possibility may be a dream, but in an age where we collectively have fewer dreams and heroes, we must protect the fewer we have left.
But the dream of capitalism must be real, especially as the global economy shifts in the coming decades thanks to deglobalization and aging populations. I can’t help feeling a sense of dread at the possibility of a small handful of corporations owning bigger slices of the pie as the economy contracts. It seems to me that we need a more dynamic version of capitalism. One in which innovations wins and one that challenges the behemoth corporations to remain relevant rather than survive as protected incumbents.
How exactly do we bring about this ideal form of capitalism? I don’t have the answer. (But if you do, I’d love to hear from you
But going forward, I expect this topic to bounce around every corner of my mind. It might become one of my prolonged obsessions. And that’s all right, because I think is a question worth obsessing over.
Jake LaCaze sometimes forgets to add his mini-bio to his blog posts. But not today!
