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<\/a>Held at Newbold College of Higher Education on Tuesday, 8 November, surprising numbers turned out in the pouring rain to spend the evening thinking about Christianity and Capitalism. While not everybody\u2019s idea of entertainment, the sub-title of the lecture by economist and theologian, Dr Eve Poole, clearly piqued people\u2019s imagination: \u2018Why Women and Shopping Matter.\u2019<\/p>\nUsing a variety of props including a puppet, a fish-shaped oven glove and a Santa Claus toy, Dr Poole encouraged her audience to think about the essentials of the capitalist system in which they live and \u2018Seven toxic assumptions\u2019 made by banks and other companies with whom they trade \u2013 assumptions probably shared by some of the Christians and possibly the Newbold Business Students in the audience. Where women and shopping come in was revealed in due course!<\/p>\n
The first toxic assumption is that the market is kept healthy by encouraging everyone to compete \u2013 an assumption based, said Dr Poole, on the importance of testosterone-fuelled behaviour in male dominated businesses. The behaviour is toxic because it means that someone has<\/em> to lose. With apologies to the men in the audience, Dr Poole pointed to research which shows that companies with mixed-gender boards outperform homogeneous boards made up of all men. So that was the first reason why women matter in a Christian approach to capitalism.<\/p>\n The idea of the \u2018invisible hand\u2019 is closely linked to the assumption of \u2018utility\u2019 \u2013 that is that consumers will \u2018optimise their own utility \u2013 work out how to get a good outcome from things\u2019. Dr Poole argued that this notion is toxic because it assumes that individuals always make entirely rational and socially conscious decisions. \u2018Cod stocks in Newfoundland were exhausted because everyone was following their own utility,\u2019 she said. \u2018A whole generation\u2019s livelihoods were used up by this kind of \u2018atomistic thinking\u2019.<\/p>\n The final toxic assumption described by Dr Poole was \u2018limited liability status\u2019 held by over 90% of companies. Originally a useful business plan, this arrangement skews the responsibility of making the business a success and abdicates responsibility which should be exercised by both employers and employees.<\/p>\n<\/a>What economists call \u2018the Invisible Hand\u2019 is the second toxic assumption of capitalism \u2013 the idea that if we all, individually, pursue self-interest, the invisible hand of the market will sort everything out to the benefit of everyone. This assumption is toxic because it ignores the fact that if you are rich you have more opportunities to get what you want. Thus, the market is shaped by people who use it most and poorer people find themselves marginalised.<\/p>\n<\/a>The next two toxic assumptions are related to relationships in business between those who set the work tasks and those who actually carry them out. Agency theory suggests that the way you make people work in your interest is to incentivise or \u2018bribe\u2019 them with stock options \u2013 the right to own some of the stocks in the company. Dr Poole argued that describing the relationships between owners of capital and workers in this way, is a \u201cvery dodgy view of humanity which owes a lot to Sigmund Freud!\u201d The importance of ownership of stocks by workers as a means of creating harmony between bosses and workers is closely akin to another toxic assumption \u2013 what Dr Poole called \u2018the myth of shareholder value\u2019. She astonished her audience with an amazing fact: \u201cthe average share is now held for between 11-22 seconds\u2026. Shareholder value is a myth used like Santa Claus (cue Santa Claus toy!) to threaten people.\u201d The perpetuation of this myth denies the importance of wider stakeholders in companies and the need to look closely at their support.<\/p>\n