Selfishness, Greed and Capitalism

Selfishness, Greed and Capitalismor a status symbol. They leave no room in their analysisfor products which are not required for subsistence livingbut which nevertheless benefit the owner in various otherways. A second car and a larger house may not be necessities(although working parents of growing families maydisagree), but it does not follow that they only benefit theowner by providing status. The Skidelskys may sneer at the‘stream of useless, mind-numbing consumer goods’ thatpeople buy (ibid.: 33), but that is no less a personal opinionthan Frank’s view that Ferraris are over-rated.As a Porsche 911 fanatic, Frank believes that his preferredcar is the best buy and his proposed tax systemseems designed to keep it – and, by association, him – atthe top of the pile. But no matter how much empiricalevidence he offers to support his preference for the Porsche,it remains a subjective opinion. Like the Skidelskysand the happiness gurus, he conflates his own personaldesires with the wants and needs of society as a whole.It is reasonable to assume that both Richard Layard andRobert Skidelsky consider a Porsche 911 to be an extravagance.Frank would disagree. All three of them woulddisagree on much else. Drawing on Keynes, Skidelsky hassuggested that an income of £40,000 a year is ‘enough’whereas Layard, drawing on happiness surveys, suggeststhat the true figure is less than half of that (Skidelsky2009; Layard 2006: 33). 6 Both men list quite different6 Skidelsky’s estimate of £40,000 per year indicates that, by his ownreckoning, Britain needs a great deal more economic growth. Inhis later book, he tells us that the mean average income is £21,500.116