I am a Capitalist….. I think?

I used to be more certain about that a decade ago, but recently I’ve been having doubts.

Since the Great Recession I’ve been watching many of the failings of modern Capitalism become apparent, unravel with disastrous effect and be widely debated, discussed and dissected.

I’ve seen solutions offered by nationalists and populists which have horrified centrists like me, but against which we have done very little to effectively counter.

I have seen more hopeful, optimistic solutions offered by those to my left. Almost all of their diagnoses I agree with, many of their social solutions I agree with too, but some of the economic proposals don’t seem like the right way to achieve those goals.

Further to the left still is a growing popularity for ideas whose time I thought was past – removing private property, deploring monetary incentives and empowering authoritarian states.

I am mostly worried by what I haven’t seen – a compelling new narrative emerging from the centre. Either from where I sit on the centre-left, with European Social Democrats who are failing to muster any enthusiasm, or from those on the centre-right, who I don’t even know how to describe any more.

Even more worrying still, is that I haven’t seen much of the important work that needs to get done before new narratives emerge – a deep analysis of the flaws of our system. What did “The Third Way” get wrong? What assumptions were incorrect? What optimism was misplaced?

The current state of affairs is as much a failing of Third Way as it is of Neoliberalism. Spending our time telling Socialists why we think they’re wrong is not a productive use of anybody’s time. Maybe it’s their turn to ask us for a coherent philosophy that they can critique?

My firm belief is that there is valuable wheat but also a considerable amount of chaff in how we think and talk about modern Capitalism. Without doing the heavy lifting of sorting out the two, we risk re-creating a progressive Economic philosophy that will resonate with nobody and, more importantly, will still be full of incorrect ideas.

That is the goal behind Capitalism Reframed. Every day for the next 100 days there will be a new article with an idea, a concept, a challenge or a story. I aim to ask difficult questions about how we talk about Capitalism, to return us to first principles and to give us space to re-think them in light of all the things we now know.

If you believe that competitive markets, individual incentives, money, prices and other tools of Capitalism will play an important role in our collective future prosperity, then we need to revisit the first principles of Capitalism and re-write the tenets of a moderate, progressive economic philosophy.

Every week will focus on a new theme. This week our theme is Competition. It is a cornerstone of capitalist theory, but as today’s first article notes, most capitalists are actively trying to circumvent it. Competition is healthy for for companies, but it’s exhausting for people. Is “you will live your life in constant competition” a compelling economic philosophy? Is it what we want?

Check in each day for a new article, or subscribe to the weekly newsletter which will summarise the week’s theme and link to the key ideas.