Why Capitalism Is Moral—and Why It Matters
Since the collapse of the Soviet bloc and China’s rise after embracing capitalism, the superiority of the free-market economic model has been largely unquestioned. But the 2008 global economic crash shook the public’s confidence, causing many to doubt the moral case for capitalism.
Addressing that skepticism has kept Tom G. Palmer busy of late. Palmer is an executive vice president at the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, a Washington-based think tank dedicated to the global advancement of free-market principles. Palmer edited The Morality of Capitalism, an essay collection underwritten by the John Templeton Foundation, which aims to show the public that free competition does not serve selfish purposes, but rather helps to create honesty, efficiency, greater prosperity for all, and enthusiasm for public service. The book features essays by authors such as Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa and Whole Foods Market co-founder John Mackey. As Palmer writes in the book’s introduction, “Capitalism is at its core a spiritual and cultural enterprise.”
“Far from being an amoral arena for the clash of interests, as capitalism is often portrayed by those who seek to undermine or destroy it, capitalist interaction is highly structured by ethical norms and rules,” Palmer writes. “Indeed, capitalism rests on a rejection of the ethics of loot and grab, the means by which most wealth enjoyed by the wealthy has been acquired in other economic and political systems.”
With grant support from the Templeton Foundation, Atlas is seeking to distribute 100,000 copies of The Morality of Capitalism—available here in the PDF format, to college campuses. The project is also making available online several specialty videos devoted to the morality of capitalism, as well as sponsoring essay contests around the globe, and activating the Atlas Network’s worldwide community of free-market think tanks to spread the message. Additionally, Palmer has been on a speaking tour of colleges and universities, listening to student concerns about capitalism, and making the case that the free market, properly conceived, is not driven by greed, but by goodness.
Though many see dramatic income disparities as evidence against the morality of the free market, Palmer says that explaining the complex nature of inequality helps people see the issue in a new light. It’s also important, he says, to show skeptics how crony capitalism—as distinct from a legitimate free market system—both enables and institutionalizes unjust privileges. The remedy, he contends, is not more state involvement in the market (which only exacerbates the problem), but rather more pure capitalism.
Young people also worry about what Palmer calls “time lags”—that is, the fact that some people, and some nations, get rich faster under capitalism than do others. Palmer presents evidence to audiences showing how around the world, the free market has allowed hundreds of millions of people to rise from poverty—a record unmatched by any rival system.
“It takes a little time to explain that processes of change are not instantaneous,” he says. “What matters is the direction of the change, and that those who have not yet become better off were not made worse off by the free market. And, if we want them to improve their lives, we need to support the processes that make improvement possible and not cut them off because they help some people before others.”
Many older people look upon the moral idealism of the young with bemusement, failing to take students as seriously as they should. Palmer says this is a mistake.
“Old people who have influence were not always old,” he says. “At one point they were young. That is, in most cases, when they formed their views about the world. I believe strongly in the importance of moral appeals to young people and that a moral, even an idealistic and passionate, case should be made for free market capitalism.”
He’s speaking the language of the late philanthropist Sir John Templeton, who was born into a middle-class Tennessee family and who died having become one of the most successful capitalists of the 20th century. As Mario Vargas Llosa, Atlas’s Templeton Leadership Fellow, said last fall:
For Sir John Templeton, like for so many champions and theoreticians of classical liberalism, from Adam Smith to Sir Karl Popper to Hayek, the most solid foundation of the culture of liberty is moral rather than material. It rests on ethical and spiritual convictions and practices more than on political and ideological ones.
Along those lines, says Palmer, limiting the case for capitalism to a dry recitation of facts, figures, and spreadsheets is to sell the promise and the appeal of the free market short.
“It needs to be explained in terms of things people can understand—often by being made concrete—including the dignity that people can have when they add value and achieve independence from the arbitrary power of others.”
JTF Spring Grant Deadline Approaches
Interested in applying for grant support from the John Templeton Foundation? The deadline for filing an Online Funding Inquiry (OFI) in the current grants cycle is April 16. The Foundation is accepting OFIs in all its Core Funding Areas: Science and the Big Questions, Character Development, Freedom and Free Enterprise, Exceptional Cognitive Talent and Genius, and Genetics. In addition, the Foundation invites OFIs in two distinct research areas: Breaking New Ground In Science and Religion, and The Physics of Emergence.
Completing an OFI, which is done entirely online, is the first step in seeking a Templeton grant. The OFI must include a project description, an explanation of the project’s strategic promise, its capacity for success, and the amount of funding requested. JTF program staff will review all OFIs and invite full proposals from the most promising applicants by May 25. For more information, or to file an OFI for the current funding cycle, visit Our Grantmaking Process on our website.
Celebrating Faith-Friendly Filmmaking
“Courageous,” an independent drama about four police officers who struggle with the challenges of fatherhood, won the Epiphany Prize for the Most Inspiring Movie of 2011 at the annual Movieguide Faith & Values Awards Gala. A Lionsgate documentary on the King James Bible, “KJB: The Book That Changed the World,” took the Epiphany Prize for Most Inspiring TV Program of 2011. Each Epiphany Prize is worth $100,000.
MovieGuide also awarded three Kairos Prizes for Spiritually Uplifting Screenplays by First-Time and Beginning Screenwriters. The Kairos awards went to Amy Williams of Marina Del Rey, California, for “Halo Theory” ($25,000); David (Nicholas) Hartmann of Mason, Ohio, for “A Dolphin in Our Lake” ($15,000); and Sean Paul Murphy of Baltimore, Maryland, for “I, John” ($10,000).
The 20th annual Movieguide ceremony occurred on February 10 at the Universal Hilton in Los Angeles, and aired nationally on the Hallmark Movie Channel on February 24. Funding for the Epiphany and Kairos Prizes is provided by grants from the John Templeton Foundation.
Nature’s God
Does evolution explain religious belief? If, as recent findings in physics and cosmology suggest, the universe is fine-tuned for the emergence of life, why is there so much suffering? Why is evolution so messy? In February, biologist Jeffrey Schloss and philosopher Michael Murray addressed these questions and more in two lectures delivered at Western Washington University, as part of its Bellingham Lectures in Philosophy & Religion. The first lecture, “Evolutionary Theories of Religious Belief” can be seen online here; the second, “Natural Evil in a Fine-Tuned Universe,” is available online here.
Established in 2009 with grant support from the John Templeton Foundation, the Bellingham Lectures intend to increase understanding of contemporary issues in philosophy of religion, particularly as they relate to other academic disciplines and intellectual fields. The lectures are meant to engage general audiences with recent research that sheds light on the Big Questions, and to provide a model of enlightened civil dialogue for discussing controversial topics.
