Unlike the American founding fathers, whose ideals for their nation’s growth were through democratic principles, hard work, decency and fairness in business and the marketplace, today’s foundering fathers led Americans, particularly the poor and middle class, over an indecent financial brink.
According to Philip Kotler’s new book Confronting Capitalism, lenders encouraged individuals to borrow outrageous sums to build mansion-like homes, or to start new businesses on unsound practices, knowing full well that in all probability, they would default. And they did! The bubble burst. A domino effect of the Great Recession (2008-2011) rippled across America and other countries where capitalism, in one form or another, undergirded economic policies.
Out of the ruins, more than ever, people needed employment. Kotler explains how failed businesses yanked uncountable numbers off job payrolls. Seemingly, the great divide between the “haves” and “have-nots” increased exponentially: the rich grew even wealthier, the middle class slipped backward and the poor grew destitute. At the same time, computers and automation sucked up many hands-on jobs. Desperate unhappy jobless people cried out for new leadership – America had lost its soul.
To make matters worse, as individuals and entire nations were attempting to avoid bankruptcy, scientists were loudly exposing the blatant, maybe even irreversible, harm done to the environment by exploitation of natural resources and uncontrolled damage to its protective ozone layer. The “good life” had quickly morphed into the “grim life.”
Kotler lists 14 serious faults of capitalism but also discusses down-to-earth solutions so that all might pursue happiness through financial well-being. For sure, good leaders were needed to return decency to the world. The Obama Administration took a huge step in this direction by preventing the collapse of the American economy (p. 150); almost alone, he confronted naysayers by bailing out General Motors, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and AIG.
One of Kotler’s solutions is a proposal for several plans to insure that workers earn a basic income (p. 72) or a minimum wage sufficient to live on. He suggests that rather than pay for food stamps, unemployment benefits and welfare services, the government could publicly finance jobs: to repair the nation’s infrastructure, to take care of a thinning but aging population, to work on projects to repair a fracturing environment, to teach out-of-workers skills to refit them for higher-level jobs.
He proposes that workers take part in running the companies that employ them. He suggests influencing them to purchase stock and/or shares in that company. He goes so far as suggesting that the government provide every citizen with a minimum income to make sure that no person would go hungry. With a guaranteed income, persons would be free to shop around for a job they liked – better still, they would be free to start their own enterprise.
Confronting Capitalism is an excellent book because it sends this very clear message to workers, bankers, industrialists, CEOs, politicians and presidents. If America is to reclaim its former global glory, leaders must infuse heart into the capitalism fostered by our founding fathers. It is not sufficient for a CEO to snatch the highest salary or for a business to boast the largest profit, unless they have used bona fide initiatives to reach this plateau that pulled its workers with them. Kotler feels that all is not hopeless, that change is, indeed, needed but difficult. His book will make readers aware of how they can do their parts to put heart back into the American dream.