Meditations on Capitalism & DEI
"We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of Kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art…and very often in the art of words.”
- Ursula Le Guin
Many years ago, my therapist said to me “you can never be enough or do enough within a capitalist society.” I found these words to be profound. I had never really considered that my worth or value would be inherently limited or tied to a particular economic system; one that favours profit above all else. And let’s be real - significant, eye-watering profit for those select few who already harbour much of the world’s wealth and power.
In the years since, my thoughts frequently circle back to capitalism. I often catch myself wondering whether it is the source of all evil - an extreme thought, perhaps, but one worth seriously weighing up given the links between capitalism and war (more on this below). Most recently and perhaps because of the salience of multiple global conflicts, I have been ruminating on the effectiveness and future of DEI work within capitalist societies. Is it really possible to both exist within such a system, and create positive, transformative change? Or are we simply tinkering at the edges? These are questions that keep me awake at night, and yet I have no real answer to them.
I acknowledge upfront the complexity of these issues - that perhaps capitalism is neither inherently good or evil, nor socialism, and that both can have advantages and disadvantages (we have seen how both systems can be manipulated to gain power and personal enrichment). I also grapple with the fact that I, like so many of us, both exist within - and benefit from - a capitalist system, whilst feeling deep unease about its chokehold on the world. The cognitive dissonance is real, and we all must confront this reality.
Whilst the term capitalism has no agreed upon definition, it can be roughly understood as an economic, political, and societal system where “capital is appropriated by some to the exclusion of others” (Blanc, 1850). In other words, it is a system that promotes individualism on all fronts. Comprising private property ownership, market competition, and product organisation by firms; these essential features combine to shape how capitalism operates in any given nation.
Capitalism uses a basic premise: co-opting and hoarding resources in the core (usually the Global North), often by acquiring such resources from anywhere outside of the core (usually the Global South). In order for capitalism to thrive, it depends heavily on oppression of nations and groups of people (often marginalised communities / societies) outside the core, depriving them of the right to sovereignty over their lands and production (Hickel, 2024). In this way, capital generally does not belong to those who generate it through hard or indeed forced labour.
The promise of capitalism is an expanded middle class, where many can enjoy sweeping benefits such as wealth generation, economic growth, innovation, and social freedoms. Yet capitalism can be viewed as a key driver of many of society’s interlinked evils, including (as Dr Martin Luther King argued) racism, poverty, and war.
Capitalism has a dark and violent racialised past. Racism has been used to fuel wars, whilst simultaneously furthering the ideology of imperialism and white supremacy. As noted by Cosimo Perrotta, a Professor of Economic History at the University of Salento:
“The system [capitalism] has created certain self-celebratory myths. The idea that it is the mission of the West to bring civilisation to the world has justified colonial plundering and slaughter, generating racism.”
- Cosimo Perrotta
It will likely come as no surprise that capitalism can also exacerbate poverty (often most keenly felt by marginalised communities). If we look historically across and within nations, income inequality (i.e. the gap between the richest and poorest) was for many thousands of years, relatively stable. It wasn’t until the explosion of capitalism, particularly after the Industrial Revolution, that income inequality began to widen significantly. Now the rich hoard vast sums whilst poverty worsens, and the difference in wealth between the richest and poorest countries is stark. Even within rich countries, poverty is rampant. There is no greater example of this than the increase in homelessness and people living below the poverty line in the UK. As of 2024, more than 320,000 households were assessed as homeless, hitting a record high.
Lastly turning to war, even now as the genocide in Palestine and the invasion of Ukraine continues, capitalism is profiting. For example, shares in military and security firms selling weapons skyrocketed in the wake of these conflicts. On a broader level, capitalism gives rise to militarised accumulation, which involves the continual engagement of a nation in “low and high intensity conflicts, social control and repression to sustain capital accumulation in the face of chronic stagnation and saturation of global markets” (Robinson, 2022). The startling truth of the matter is that wars generate capital and inject life into a flagging economy.
Whilst generating capital, wars simultaneously take a huge toll on the environment. A recent study by Neimark and colleagues (2024), demonstrate that Israel’s oppression of Palestinian people in Gaza is fuelling the climate crisis. Indeed, in the first 120 days of the conflict, Israel emitted more carbon than the annual carbon footprint of more than 20 of the world’s most climate-vulnerable nations.
These things are all connected. Capitalism requires resources from the natural environment to operate. Resources are plundered from outside the imperial core at the cost of the planet, and squirrelled away by the elite, leaving many impoverished. Those most affected by poverty often come from historically marginalised communities. Many conflicts erupt out of resistance to degradation of living standards, oppression and racism. Capitalism thrives during such conflicts as it gathers more resources, thus stimulating economies. The cycle repeats.
Anthropologist Jason Hickel at the Transnational Institute's Ignite Festival in 2024 explains clearly how a liberated Palestine threatens global capitalism. See full video here.
Now I know what some of you might be thinking, capitalism doesn’t have to operate in this way, and I agree. But the reality is that the most pernicious form of capitalism is ravaging the planet. So this raises a few questions; Are there alternative ways that are more effective and less harmful? Can we transform capitalism from the inside? And what does this all mean for DEI work?
Let’s start with alternatives to capitalism. The natural opposite to capitalism is socialism, and specifically communism (in which the means of production are owned collectively by the people). Despite the fact that most of the world’s nations adopt some form of capitalism, there are some who have trialled communism at various points in history. What I find most interesting is how strongly people react when they hear the word socialism or communism. Numerous notable public figures have been disparaging of it as an economic, political and societal system, no doubt due to some extreme historical examples in which communism became a byword for violent autocracy. From Stalin in Soviet Russia, to Polpot in Cambodia, to Mao in China, communism doesn’t exactly have the best track record. Though critics have argued that these individuals behaved in fundamentally anti-communist ways (e.g. committing mass genocide).
“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.”
- Winston Churchill
Pretty scathing Winston! Yet, it interests me that we only ever hear about the evils of socialism and communism, and not because successes do not exist. For example, Cuba has good education and health & social care systems, albeit with sluggish economic production - not helped by the decades-long embargo imposed by the USA. In fact, the form of capitalism that runs the world seeks to discredit alternative systems and shut down reflective conversations. It strikes me that there are elements of democratic socialism that are a boon to societies - such as equal access to resources and public services, reductions in poverty, a healthier environment, and greater social cohesion. There are also elements of capitalism that can contribute to flourishing societies.
The issue is about how we determine what we value in society, and as it stands, the predominant global capitalist system values profit above all else. We can see this most clearly by the way we choose to measure national standards of living - we use Gross Domestic Product (GDP). On reflection, is it not bizarre to use a measure of the monetary income of production, goods and services, to assess how well we live? This begs the question of whether it is possible to shift or recalibrate what we value in a capitalist society to be more inclusive of some socialist ideologies (i.e. prioritising people over profit). Can we create a fairer global economic system that prioritises equality? The Nordic countries have arguably set a good precedent here, by successfully embracing socialist ideals within a capitalist framework.
Some economists believe it is possible to reimagine capitalism and fix its many flaws. As Rebecca Henderson, a pro-capitalism Economist at Harvard Business School argues, capitalism has the potential to positively transform societies - but only when markets are truly free and fair. Unfortunately, the capitalist framework most of us operate in is neither fair nor free, and Henderson believes that businesses should step up to help fix some of the issues borne out of their greed (e.g. the degradation of the environment and human health). In a similar vein, Mariana Mazzucato, an Economist at UCL, suggests that we need to rethink how capitalism operates, and shift focus away from valuing profit over purpose.
DEI is itself an imperfect framework existing within imperfect, complex economic systems. Just as a well-meaning politician might lament the broader corruption of political systems whilst trying to transform them from within, so too can we critique the ills of capitalism, whilst pushing for bold, transformative change. This is difficult, messy work, and it relies on a holistic approach. Just as activism is as important to political life as lobbying influential figures, DEI must apply pressure from a number of angles:
✊🏾 Grassroots organisers must continue to apply pressure from below, alongside the implementation of new policies and cultural norms from above.
💡CEOs must challenge their industry peers to do better, whilst managers embrace vulnerable conversations on pay and performance in their teams.
🌍 Organisations must embrace B-Corp principles (Purpose, Profit, Planet) whilst regional teams engage in meaningful CSR activities that connect them to their local community.
If we can find a way to do business that is fair and equitable; building genuinely diverse leadership teams, with ethical values, then we have the opportunity to change whole industries - and in turn, to build the kind of societies we all want to live in.