This question comes up whenever I discuss philanthropy.
It would seem that capitalism is better than charity. The
countries that became permanently rich, like America and Japan, did
it with capitalism. This seems better than temporarily alleviating
poverty by donating food or clothing. So (say proponents), good
people who want to help others should stop giving to charity and
start giving to capitalism. These proponents differ on exactly what
“giving to capitalism” means - you can’t write a check to
capitalism directly. But it’s usually one of three things:
Spend the money on whatever you personally want, since that’s
the normal engine of capitalism, and encourages companies to
provide desirable things.
Invest the money in whatever company produces the highest rate
of return, since that’s another capitalist imperative, and creates
more companies.
Do something like donating to charity, but the donation should
go to charities that promote capitalism somehow, or be an
investment in companies doing charitable things (impact
investing)
