The Feedback

When we learned that several bigwigs at Davos seemed prepared to chuck capitalism, or at least modify it heavily, we had to ask our readers if they agreed. Should we replace modern capitalism with something else—and, if so, what?

Reader Greg Zerovnik suggested that rather than adjust capitalism, we may need to adjust ourselves. He wrote:

Capitalism is good at what it does. However, many societies appear to be ill-equipped to provide ethical and moral standards to effectively resolve the dilemma of what to do with the fruits of capitalism.

That is a separate issue altogether. We see China struggling with this. New power elites and a growing middle class are clearly emerging. Yet people are failing such simple tests as helping a fellow citizen lying injured on the street.

Reader Nathan, meanwhile, doesn’t see too much that’s seriously broken:

No system is or ever will be perfect, because we live in a world where humans are flawed. Unless everyone is always honest and selfless, the system will always have some type of flaw or problem. Ultimately, freedom is what should be pursued and practiced, and capitalism seems to promote this much better than any other system I know.

Perhaps reader ron gaesser offered the most succinct synthesis of these views:

What present day capitalism lacks is the ethical dimension that [Peter] Drucker seems always aware of.

That—plus space tourism, at least for now.