Let's Be Nice Capitalists

Socialism is a word we love to hate, especially Americans! So you can imagine how shocking it was to see the results of a US survey in 2017, showing that nearly half of millennials would prefer socialism to capitalism.

Now the same trend is happening in the UK: "... eight out of 10 of young Britons blame capitalism for the housing crisis and two-thirds want to live under a socialist economic system." (The Guardian)?

But now we are way more sophisticated and have come up with some better terms for swallowing this particular pill. One of them is compassionate capitalism - probably one of the greatest oxymorons of our time.

How did we get here? Gethin Nadin explains in his HRZone article, Employee experience and the rise of compassionate capitalism: "?The very foundation of capitalism relies on the relationship between employee and employer. Yet this huge power shift (driven in part by the pandemic) is challenging a system that many are tired of.?Six million people dying from Covid had the huge side effect of your people realising just how short life can be. The fact that?90%?of workers are willing to earn less money to work for a more meaningful organisation doesn’t seem so surprising anymore."

Socialism Won't Solve Our Problems

I understand young people’s disappointment with capitalism, but socialism will not solve their problems. For one, our egos grow continuously, and if a certain regime succeeded at one point in history, it will not succeed in the future since it will not be suitable for our bigger egos. Second, our entire culture encourages having such a self-centered mindset .... socialism is really not an option.

For us to be able to enjoy a thriving economy, we must have a thriving society. A society that is built on constant struggles, suspicion, and ill-will, cannot thrive. It will disintegrate, and the economy, which relies on the quality of connections among people, will collapse.

Meanwhile, capitalism also isn’t working so well anymore, and for the same reason: our growing ego. We’ve become so self-absorbed that nothing balances our behavior. The principles of free market and competition have become a winner-take-all contest, where the winners can do whatever they want basically.

The solution to this will not be found in either ideology, but in a new type of economy. The economy reflects the state of our society. And our society is changing. The pandemic changed us. The invasion of Ukraine changed us. And there are more changes up ahead.

For us to be able to enjoy a thriving economy, we must have a thriving society. A society that is built on constant struggles, suspicion, and ill-will, cannot thrive. It will disintegrate, and the economy, which relies on the quality of connections among people, will collapse.

Learning To Truly Care For Others (won't come naturally)

Having an economy that guarantees people’s well-being requires learning to care about each other’s well-being. Establishing care and mutual responsibility must therefore be the top priority in every society, and the main focus of every future economic model. This may seem like mission impossible when thinking about society in general, but these concepts can be applied in any organization.

Young employees will still want to realize their dreams and express their unique skills and traits, but they will be happy to do it for the common good. Besides the satisfaction of realizing their potential, they will enjoy the recognition and gratitude of society for their contribution.

Young employees will still want to realize their dreams and express their unique skills and traits, but they will be happy to do it for the common good. Besides the satisfaction of realizing their potential, they will enjoy the recognition and gratitude of society for their contribution.

There will, of course, be a monetary system, but making a lot of money will not be people’s main incentive. Their present and future livelihoods will be secured by society, which will free them to realize their unique characteristics in a manner that supports all of society. Since contribution to society will win people society’s respect, while exploitation of it will result in harsh reproof and condemnation, people will do their best to advance the society, and everyone will benefit from their efforts.

We will learn to care for others, while they care for us. And the better we become at doing so, the happier we will be.

In this way, we will learn to care for others, while they care for us. And the better we become at doing so, the happier we will be.

My colleague's clip on this topic got 2 million views within 24 hours - 100% organic. Clearly this is an issue that many young people are interested in finding solutions to.