Is Capitalism Dead?

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Is capitalism dead or is it just in need of an overhaul? I’m Judi Otton with GrowthCast and I’m here with your Fiscal Fitness Tip of the Week. I’ve been reading more and more articles about how capitalism is dead, how capitalism has failed. And I don’t agree. What I’m seeing with my clients is a new form of capitalism emerging, commonly known as conscious capitalism. We usually hear about the failures and successes of capitalism with respect to the behemoths – Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Whole Foods. But the small businesses I work with have always embraced many tenants of the conscious capitalism movement, even if they weren’t explicitly aware of it. They just called it being a good person or contributing to my community or engaging or taking care of my employees. In fact, conscious capitalism is both easier and more natural for small companies and small business owners for a few reasons. First of all, the owners have their own moral compass to follow. They don’t need to get consensus on what our mission should be or what causes we care about. They know what they care about. Second, they have lots of contact with their employees and stronger relationships with their employees than say, you know, Jeff Bezos, he probably doesn’t even know who his warehouse employees are. Third, they’re part of their community. Their businesses are almost always in the communities where they live and often have grown up for their entire lives, so they want to be a positive contribution for their community. And finally, with almost every small business that I work with, there is no room for deadweight. All their employees count. All their employees need to be empowered and working towards a common goal. So whether you’re designing green buildings, or baking healthy bread made from sustainable ingredients from local suppliers, or you’re just committed to paying all of your employees a living wage, small business owners like you are embracing conscious capitalism, even if they don’t know it, I would love to hear from you in the chat. Tell me how you’re living out your personal values in your business. Let’s get a conversation started about this. Thank you, this is Judi Otton and with GrowthCast and I’ll be back next week with another Fiscal Fitness Tip of the Week.