[Buddha-l] Poll on Buddho-capitalism

[Richard Hayes]

On Monday 14 May 2007 09:52, Blumenthal, James wrote:

> While I don't think it is
> impossible to be an ethical Buddhist in a capitalist society, I think a
> serious examination of the implications of capitalism would find it
> objectionable to most analyzing from a  Buddhist perspective.

I am pretty familiar with the major and minor Buddhist precepts and have spent 
a fair amount of my life reflecting on how best to observe them. (I have also 
spent a fair amount of my life failing to observe them, but that is not for 
want of understanding them.) With that preamble, I have to say I cannot see 
how capitalism conflicts with any Buddhist principles.

Capitalism is a name given to an economic system in which people who have 
spare financial resources can invest those resources in a commercial 
enterprise and perhaps realize some gain. If one thinks of the sort of 
capitalism described by Max Weber's classic work on the Protestant ethic and 
the spirit of capitalism, I think every observation he made about 
Protestantism and capitalism would also apply to Buddhism and capitalism. To 
be specific, Buddhism, like Weberian Protestantism, promotes a kind of 
secular asceticism, whereby people who have money are discouraged from 
spending the money in conspicuous and frivolous ways. Instead, they are 
encouraged to be generously charitable and to invest rather than spend. 
Second, Buddhists, like Weberian Protestants, are encouraged to make money 
honestly through fair trade practices and integrity. What the Protestant (and 
Buddhist) ethic results in is that commercial enterprises run by people who 
are disciplined and have integrity tend to prosper, and the entrepreneurs 
make money. Not being encouraged to spend it lavishly on comforts and 
luxuries, they live modestly and accumulate a surplus of resources that they 
then give to charities and invest in other enterprises. There is nothing 
about this system that strikes me as in any way objectionable; indeed, it all 
seems very much in keeping with the advice given in texts aimed at lay 
disciples. For this reason, I think that the practice of disciplined and 
ethical capitalism could be an integral part of a lay Buddhist's practice. 

These days it is more easy than it used to be to invest while staying well 
within the boundaries of one's ethical, environmental and pacifist scruples. 
Quakers have been doing it for centuries and still do it. So do many Jains, 
Parsis, Muslims, Jews and Buddhists. In other words, one can, with a bit of 
working at it, be a capitalist without being in any way greedy and without 
investing in enterprises that promote or facilitate greed, hatred and 
delusion. Capitalism need not be synonymous with consumerism, with 
unrestrained globalization or with monstrous forms of individual or corporate 
greed of the sort that now blight much of the world. I think that when people 
condemn capitalism wholesale, when what they really mean to condemn are 
unrestrained selfishness and greed and imperialism, they are just being 
conceptually sloppy in their speaking (and perhaps in their thinking).

> I  
> doubt most Buddhist who are thinking seriously about these things would say 
> they would create a capitalist society if starting from scratch.

At the risk of proving to everyone who did not already know it that I am 
either not really a Buddhist or cannot think at all seriously, I dare to say 
that I am not sure that any other kind of economic system is inherently 
better than capitalism. If it is possible to have any economy at all while 
being ethical---and I would argue it is possible so long as one does not 
begin by defining commerce as inherently evil by its very nature---then my 
guess is that it is neither more nor less possible to be ethical as a 
capitalist than to be ethical in any other kind of economy. In other words, I 
really do think that there is such a thing as right livelihood, and I claim 
that one need not be a celibate homeless mendicant to practice it. 

-- 
Richard Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico