After Capitalism, What?

Lewis Lapham, the former long-time editor of Harper’s Magazine and father-in-law of Brian Mulroney’s daughter, Caroline, has given his views on The End of Capitalism in the form of an interview in Lapham’s Quarterly. These were reprinted in Salon. He does not say what he thinks will follow capitalism.

This will not prevent us from speculating.

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Lapham was asked what were the dominant characteristics of America.

“It’s faith in the spirit and mechanics and moral value of capitalism. It is a country of expectant millionaires. You have the notions of risk, of labor put to a productive use, deferred pleasure – ideas that come out of our Puritan ancestry. And Puritans, by the way, were also venture capitalists. The plantation in Plymouth, and then in Massachusetts Bay, was intended to bring money to its investors in London.…

“Capitalism is the promise – it’s the bet on the future. It’s the hope of a new beginning over the next ridge of mountains, around the next bend in the river. It gives the common man a chance….

“There’s a new book called Relentless Revolution: A History of Capitalism” by the eminent historian Joyce Appleby. And her argument – and I think it’s probably true – is that capitalism is an historical phenomenon. It’s not a given. It’s not human nature. It arises at the end of the 16th century in Holland, but then is developed over the next four centuries for the most part in England and America. It’s had a life span of four centuries. Prior to, let’s say, the 16th century, you had warrior kings who disdained commerce. Commerce existed from the very beginning – you have trading going on in Islam, in the Indian Ocean, in China…this goes back thousands of years. But the hope of the government is stability, hierarchy, order, degree. People knew the stations to which they belonged, to which they were born. Until 1600, 80 percent of the people in England lived on farms, and there was no question of improving their stature. There was no place for their surplus labor to go until you begin to develop commercial venture, trade and so on.

“Jared Diamond wrote a book a couple of years ago called Collapse, in which he says that ideas, civilizations, in a state of decay cling desperately to the systems that are no longer functioning. And it’s also probably true to say that capitalism in its stronger forms went out the window in the United States in the 1930s, because now, once you get the combination of government and business – I mean, speaking to Diamond’s point – propping up a system that is essentially dead in the water is what we’ve done with the government takeover, the stimulus bill, the TARP. I suspect we’re attempting to rescue a corpse.”

Lapham was asked whether it might be best to let it die.

His answer:

“Let it die and hope that it will be replaced by something that we know not yet.”

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So let us speculate.

Between the beginnings of recorded history until the 16th century we had various forms of barter and commerce without capitalism. That is what we have today in the underground economy and in areas of the world outside the global community. And that is what we also had during the German inflation after WW1 when money had lost its value.

History has shown that mankind can survive perfectly well by barter without the rat-race of capitalism, which has lasted for only four hundred years.

We must assume that what we have learned cannot be unlearned – that there will be no amnesia.

There are an infinity of possible models between two extremes:

Anarchy – decentralized, tribalized, with many cults and religions, exchange mechanisms and property arrangements ranging from private to cooperative and communal, preferably with some sort of peace-keeping machinery. Technology linked to religion. (Please don’t ask how this will be done.)

Ancient Egypt: one governing priesthood, hierarchy, order plus high tech – (helpful when new pyramids have to be built) – a stable economy somehow linked to the governing religion.