Thursday 9th June
Capitalism is based on greed, that most corrosive and destructive of human emotions. Over the years various Governments in different countries have tried to regulate or moderate it; with little success. In my book ‘2066 – a personal memoir’ I imagined a future where, with every financial transaction recorded and checked by Government computers (and the replacement of money with cred), Capitalism could finally be tamed; they would be allowed to make a certain level of profit but would have to employ people, even though computers could do the job better, and would have to continually plough back most of the profit into improvements in their factories or offices. A pipedream I am afraid, but not impossible – if we wanted it.
On Tuesday we had the unedifying spectacle of Mike Ashleigh, a self-made millionaire admitting that he paid his staff below the minimum wage, kept them on zero-hours contracts and fined them for lateness and illness. Today we will have the equally bullish Sir (for the moment) Philip Green trying to defend his behaviour as boss of BHS. A few years ago we had the collapse of banks brought about by financial greed, for which we are still suffering Austerity and Benefit and other cuts, and nobody has been punished for this abject failure of Capitalism. I doubt that either Mr. Ashleigh or Mr. Green will lose much sleep in their featherbedded mansions. They certainly will not be punished, even though Sports Direct has broken the law they will simply be fined and promise to behave better in future. As for Philip Green, what can we say? He may have broken no laws at all, but if every Capitalist boss acted in this way we would soon be in a sorry state. What then is to be done?
Maybe Government should create a code of conduct which major employers sign up to, and those who refuse would be named and shamed. It is surely in Capitalism’s long-term interests to behave in a socially acceptable way, respecting their employees and not treating them like modern-day slaves. Well, we will see…