Jay Richards, the author of “Money, Greed and God” tarts his book by saying that in the battle between communism and capitalism that happened in the twentieth century capitalism became the winner. As a result the world’s society today is mainly capitalist. In his book Richards explores the relationship between capitalism, finance, economy and Christian faith.
The author states that in the world of nowadays capitalism is mostly viewed as a negative phenomenon that destroys non-material values, shifts people’s lifestyles, encourages greed, envy and gluttony. He writers, “just turn on the TV and you’ll see capitalism blamed for almost every social problem” (Richards, 2010). Yet, the author disagrees with the public opinion about capitalism stating that it is not the problem of the modern society, on the contrary, it is the solution to the biggest issues.
Many Christians grew to despise capitalism and often mention that in the Bible it says that love for money is the root of all evil. Richards points out positive intentions and outcomes of capitalism and notes that capitalism and greed should not be mixed up. The author notes that people were made in the image of their creator, this is why creating and multiplying goods is their natural feature, which should not be banned or disrespected (Richards, 2010).
The book “Money, Greed and God” is quite persuasive, because the author takes time to respond to the critique and opinions of various experts. He also disagrees with the active supporters of greed and consumerism. Instead, he forms his own opinion and delivers it to the readers. Richards does not deny the negative sides of capitalism, he just prefers to differentiate between capitalist nature and perspective and fanatic obsession with money and goods.
He starts with enumerating all the main aspects of capitalist society that are considered to be the most destructive morally, psychologically and emotionally. The author agrees that all of these happenings exist, yet he focuses on viewing capitalism as a means of reducing poverty, providing options and opportunities for the people. Richards does not justify the blind accumulation of goods just for the sakes of consumption.
He sees positive outcomes of the selfish actions. “Money, reed and God” is an outstanding work because it is focused on viewing a well known phenomenon for the rare and unusual perspective. Besides, the author chose a very complex subject; his attempt to break a bullet proof stereotype that capitalism is the source of all evil is brave and impressive. Richards’ book provides the readers with an explanation why a Christian can also be a capitalist.
The society that managed to increase opportunities, diminished poverty, and, at the same time, withstand the pull of greed can be called extremely righteous, virtuous or simply utopian. According to the Bible, people are sinful by nature, they conceived in sin, they live in sin and every minute their tempted hearts generate various evil behaviors and feelings such as envy, immorality, bad thoughts, theft and various other crimes.
The Bible contains many verses about the wickedness and deceitfulness of human hearts that do not allow us withstand the vicious pull of greed. This means that the only human society that could do this is the fantasy society. This is why today we should understand that capitalism is based on a great and virtuous thought, but it is the wicked nature of mankind that does now allow capitalism to be righteous.
Human imperfections make them desire more and more goods and money, and fall into the temptation of material pleasures. According to the Bible, lust for money, greed and gluttony are the manifestations of the works of flesh, they are basically impossible to ignore or resist for the majority of humans, as they are natural they come together with our bodies as soon as we arrive to this world.
The first interesting perspective I learnt from this reading is that capitalism should not be viewed from just one side, it is a complex phenomenon and it is not pure negative. Capitalism carries a lot of virtues. The second insight the book by Jay Richards (2010) provided for me was the perspective viewing capitalism as a trait put into humans by the creator as a feature he also possessed, which automatically makes capitalism a non-evil process.
“Money, Greed and God” also gave me understanding of capitalism as creative process that is much deeper than just blind passion for money and goods. Richards altered my attitude towards capitalism showing it as a phenomenon based on initially noble intention. One more interesting revelation that I found in the book by Jay Richards is the fact that economic and trade relationships are actually a win-win game, but not win-lose game as most people tend to think.
Both sides receive what they are interested in. Finally, I found it pleasant to read that the growth of someone’s income does not mean that it is done at the expense of others. Capital can be created; there is no fixed amount of goods in the world (Richards, 2010).
Reference List
Richards, J.W. (2010). Money, Greed and God: Why Capitalism is the Solution and Not the Problem. New York: Harper Collins.