Pursuit of Wealth

JAKARTA SLIDES: to be developed into a paper/talk.[Done]

This is Main page for PURSUIT OF WEALTH -

Main Page on Polanyi, and links to related materials

For a lecture on Legitimization of Pursuit of Wealth, see my lectures on Islamic Economics. This legitimization is the key cause of the Crisis in Capitalism.

Papers to write:

1. Take my newspaper article "Pursuit of Wealth". Add references and a little bit more explanation and documentation, and turn it into an academic article. Some re-writing and research is require, because the style is not academic. Important background readings are:

• 1. Max Weber: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Chapter 2 is crucial. You could start by reading a summary on SPARKNOTES. The book itself is available on internet as well. Also available from Wikisource, where many free books can be found.

  2. Very important and relevant quote from J M Keynes: "The love of money (is a) disgusting morbidity ... but we must pretend that fair is foul and foul is fair ..."

  3. Another relevant issue is the "Easterlin Paradox" that money does not buy happiness. That is, happiness depends on relative income. If everybody works hard to get wealth, relative income does not change, and all that work is wasted since there is no increase in satisfaction levels. If this is true than emphasis on increasing GNP per capita is useless, and we ought to be a lot more concerned with distributional issues. There is lots of literature and debate on this issue. See for example MccCulloch & Di Tulla

1. What Isn’t for Sale? Michael Sandel: [link] Article shows how everything is for sale in a market society.

2. A detailed article on Market Economies and Market Societies: [link]

3. Liars Poker talks about culture of greed on Wall St. A recent resignation letter details the types of ethics now prevalent on Wall St.

4. Lottery Winners with tragic consequences: why money does not buy happines:

It is my experience that concentrating on one main point in an article is better than covering a large number of points superficially. This means that there is a potential for several papers in the ideas presented above.

I have found four arguments for allowing GREED to become legitimate:

• 1. Hirschmann: The Passions and the Interests

  2. Adam Smith: The Invisible Hand.

  3. Keynes: Accumulation of Wealth

  4. Weber: The Protestant Work Ethic

  5. Freedom & Wealth as the only possible points of agreement in a secular society.

See Presentation on Capitalism in Crisis:

Contrast between Islamic and Western approaches to accumulation of wealth: Here we could take Weber, Keynes, and Friedman, and how they make pursuit of wealth central to capitalism. Contrast with Islamic teachings which emphasize spending. There is a potential confusion here in that some Muslim writers, under the influence of western teachings, have tried to read wealth accumulation as desirable into Islamic texts as well. Monzer Kahf has written on Infaq, which is a useful contrast to western teachings. One could cite Quran and Hadeeth on the virtues of spending and generosity and also on the evil of stinginess, of accumulating wealth and counting it. Some material on ISLAMIC views on wealth accumulation is given in attachments at bottom of page.

3.2 Wealth and freedom

This concern with higher goals determines how the ends to be achieved by the use of economic means are defined. A clear and comprehensive statement is provided by the Quran in verse Q28:77 cited above: Wealth is to be used to pursue the home of the hereafter (by doing things that will please Allah). Since wealth has been given to us as a gift from Allah, we should also be generous in giving to others. These principles resemble those promoted by other religions, although they stand in stark contrast to conventional economics. Since property is a trust from Allah, we cannot do with it as we please. Those who do not believe this, in contrast, are quoted as asserting that they have earned their wealth through their own efforts and therefore have a right to do as they please with it:

(Q 11:87) They said: "O Shu'aib! Does thy religion command thee that … we leave off doing what we like with our property? "

In particular, pursuit of luxurious lifestyles and the pleasures of this world is not the object of wealth: the Quran condemns both the pursuit of idle desires (Q45:23) and emulation of luxurious lifestyles (Q3:196). The modes of behaviour encouraged by Quranic injunctions are not primarily for the economic welfare of society; that is a fringe benefit. Rather, behaving in these ways will bring people closer to God, lead to spiritual development, and develop the potential within them to be better than the angels.

Dissatisfaction with the results of the unconstrained pursuit of material wealth has led to substantial reconsideration of the idea of development in the recent past. While many different approaches have emerged, all emphasize the role and importance of human beings (relative to material wealth or capital) in the development process. Putting an abstraction over material goals, Development as Freedom by Sen (1999) is perhaps the most radical departure from conventional views amongst economists. Sen advocates evaluating development in terms of human capacities and freedoms, which has some resemblance to Muslim views. However, a major difference is pointed out by Ali (1931) in Tareequl-Qalander; unlike Sen, he holds that real freedom is only given to people who have freed themselves from base selfish desires – others are just slaves to their egos/desires and are not really free at all[1].

[1] Similar ideas occur in all religious traditions; see Wilson (1991). For example, the Bhagavad Gita compares a man controlled by his desires to a carriage controlled by the horses instead of the driver.