The Tenets of Benevolent Capitalism

1. Respect for All

Doing no harm is at the core of the benevolent business. And doing no harm starts with a respect for all things: first and foremost people, as well as domesticated animals, wildlife, the land and soil, our rivers and oceans, the atmosphere, and future generations. 

2. Caretakers not Consumers

Consumption exploits and devastates for short term gain. Caretakers guard and defend, balancing thriving now with the understanding that the world will soon be handed off to a new generation. We own things for a short time, but they are always passing through. We use the time that something is in our care to ensure that we will hand it off better than we found it. 

3. Greed is the Enemy 

Money is a tool, neither inherently good or bad. It has the capacity to build up or to destroy depending on the hands who wield it. Money is not a villain. It’s greed, in all its rapacious and insidious forms, that is the undoing of benevolent capitalism. 

4. Fair Profit

Profit is a necessity for all businesses, but it must be fairly earned. Every person must be paid equitably for their labor, animals must be treated humanely, and special attention must be given to regenerating what is used. If someone or something is paying the price so you can put more money in your pocket, it’s not a legitimate profit. 

5. Slow Growth

This could also be called mindful growth or responsible growth. The global economy has ballooned on a fast growth model of relentless consumption and ever more disposable goods. What we need is not more and faster, but less and better. We need small, thoughtful companies to grow in a sustainable way, creating more solutions than problems, until they eclipse the old economy.

6. Dignity in Work

Our time and our labor are some of the most sacred things we give to the world. But when respectable jobs are regarded with derision and when people are viewed as commodities to be used and replaced, dignity is stripped away. Restoring dignity requires monetary investment (paying a thriving wage) and a social-relational investment (honoring and respecting their labors.)

7. Profit and Giving Back 

People, institutions, and businesses are ultimately ephemeral, but the things they seek and build don’t have to be. Fair profit is how you stay in business, but giving back is how you cross over into the eternal. It’s how you plant seeds for a better, richer future. Always balance profit with generous giving for when you and your business pass away, the good you did for people, your community, for the planet are the only things that will remain. 

8. Embrace Progress and Change

The world’s most influential economies all measure success solely in terms of growth and profits. This has created a system where short term gains are incentivized and long term costs are ignored. The unsustainability of this approach is now clear and broad change must be widely embraced, until our socially understood and legally defined idea of success is one that emphasizes individual thriving without costing other people or the planet.

9. Hope for the Future

To quote Marcus Aurelius, what we do now echoes in eternity. Our actions create ripples that extend outward endlessly and while we might be able to see their impact at first, eventually they slip out of sight and across time. A hope like this is more than material gratification, it is a kind of devotion to the beauty of the human experience. And a quiet understanding of the interconnection that gives meaning to our days, our words, and our labor.

10. Small is Beautiful

Dreams can change. The idea that bigger is better is an illusion, a system designed to profit off our discontent. Embrace your power, exit the rat race, and devote yourself to small. The only way to reverse the widening wealth gap is to commit to staying small. The working class, when united in numbers, can shift their collective attention and dollars to small shops, depriving the largest companies of their corrupting power.