--- The generosity of capitalism The US is the world's biggest giver because its ethos of individualism encourages humanitarianism, argues Lawrence Lindsey, Financial Times Published: November 21 2001 19:54 | Last Updated: November 21 2001 22:09 Approximately $1.3bn has been donated to benefit the victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks. While this is a considerable sum, it is consistent with Americans' generosity. According to the American Association of Fundraising Counsel, in 2000 Americans gave $203bn to charitable organisations, or 2 per cent of gross domestic product, far surpassing the contributions of any other nation. Further, those other countries that were runners-up in private philanthropy were nations that share US values and traditions. Why are Americans such big givers? Some say this generosity is merely the outgrowth of the spectacular success of capitalism at wealth creation. And no one should argue with capitalism's success in generating wealth, or that possessing wealth beyond that required to meet one's immediate needs makes contributing to humanitarian causes easier. But surely there is more to the link between capitalism and humanitarianism than wealth creation. After all, there are plenty of things one can do with one's wealth other than contribute it to meeting the needs of others. Humanitarianism rests not just on wealth but on an ethos. And two aspects of the ethos of capitalism - materialism and individualism - are what make humanitarianism possible. Materialism is the belief that the quality of one's life on earth is important: that life should be more than a daily struggle to meet immediate needs. This is important, for if one does not believe that the material conditions of life are important, no value exists in meeting the material needs of others. The individuals who commandeered the aeroplanes and flew them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon did not think the material conditions of life mattered. Indeed, they did not think life itself mattered. They willingly brought death to themselves and thousands of others and suffering to tens of thousands for a non-material purpose. Indeed, their acts and the rhetoric of their leaders are not just non-material, but anti-material. They believe in tearing down. Capitalism, by contrast, is the ideology of building up; it is the best ethos for making our dreams and aspirations concrete that mankind has ever found. Indeed, "Man Also Rises", the painting by Frank O'Connor, husband of novelist Ayn Rand, is a rendering of a skyscraper under construction. The symbolism behind our enemy's choice of targets is profound. So, of course, materialism is also necessary for wealth creation, which in turn makes humanitarian acts possible. But materialism as an ethic, as well as materialism in its substance, is a precondition for meeting the needs of others. The second ethic of capitalism that is necessary for humanitarianism is a belief in the individual. Individualism places value on the sin gle person apart from the value of the group. It requires rebuilding an individual's spirit. Humanitarianism is not the act of helping humanity in the collective - indeed, such an act is difficult to imagine. It is the act of helping to meet the needs of an individual or a number of individuals and thereby assisting humanity. This point is lost on the US's new mortal enemy. But it was also lost on that other mortal enemy: communism. Communists often speak of the needs of humanity. But this does not make them humanitarians, for they never care about the needs of a single individual. Indeed, it is communism's lack of caring for the individual that ultimately stopped communism from meeting material needs. As Margaret Chapman, founding president of the US-Russia Business Forum, wrote of the dying days of the Soviet Union: "It is often said people are willing to die for their country but not to work for it." Unlike communism or nationalism, humanitarianism is not advanced by anyone's heroic death. Humanitarianism is never that easy. It requires hard work and sacrifice to improve the life of another individual. It requires being there day in and day out. Indeed, the ethic of communism or socialism works to undermine humanitarianism. If one is told that the state will care for the needs of the individual, individuals are absolved from the responsibility of caring for their fellows. The reality of this was brought home to me when I visited Romania in the early 1990s to adopt our daughter, Emily. What we think of as civic society had been destroyed in Romania by years of brutal Communist dictatorship. The elderly were starving in their apartments because they could not leave to get food and no one thought it their duty to help. A neighbour of one of the consulates died, leaving a widow and several children. The consul offered help in the form of food and a small amount of cash. Her Romanian employees were furious, insisting that the condition of the neighbour's family was none of her business. Taking care of people was viewed soley as the state's responsibility. The basis for even elemental acts of kindness, let alone humanitarianism, had been destroyed by an ethos that denied individualism and individual responsibility. Individualism as an ethic defines the individual not only as the ultimate beneficiary but also as the ultimate problem-solver. While government can perform many important functions, it is hard to think of the state as humanitarian. Indeed, most religions recognise the individual's role in this function. Christianity recognises charity as one of the seven holy virtues, along with faith, hope, prudence, justice, temperance and fortitude. Islam considers alms to the poor as one of its four pillars. Judaism has a similar concept: tzedakah. Each of these - charity, giving alms, or tzedekah - involves an individual act. There is no collective short cut. The point is that it is no accident that the US's attackers on September 11 were those who did not value the material and had no concern for the individual. It is also no accident that Americans' response to their fellow citizens' tragedy has been so generous. Paradoxical as it may seem, men and women who are free to pursue individualism and material wealth turn out to be the most compassionate of all. The writer is President George W. Bush's economic adviser and director of the National Economic Council at the White House ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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