CAPITALISM'S ACHILLES HEEL Dirty Money and How to

ate homogeneity, and the lowest income disparities among all industrialized
nations.
Latin American scholars often look at exceptionally wide income gaps
and an abiding persistence of poverty and believe they can see religious roots
in such realities. The Church, with traditions of authority and hierarchy
coupled with a strong male bias, is sometimes linked to the pattern of social
and income stratification that pervades much of the region.
Perhaps no philosophy had such dramatic implications for economic affairs
as Marxism. Shaking off czarist traditions, Russia leaped at the intellectual
rationale for nationalizing private property and regimenting commercial
life, achieving early success. But then the communist system, unable to motivate
citizens, operate efficiently, and grow, collapsed beneath the weight of
stagnation and demoralization.
Philosophy can also be overthrown in relatively short order. Mao Tsetung
was determined, no matter what the cost, to rid China of many Confucian
traditions he saw as counterproductive. Some scholars see China’s
startling growth today as linked to its earlier demythologizing, though
bloody, revolutions.
A rich body of literature surrounds these questions of philosophical attachments
and economic results. My purpose is not to wade into specific debates
but to make the wider point that, indeed, philosophy can and does
become culture, and culture can and does become economic reality. In western
societies, utilitarianism is so deeply entrenched that it often passes without
notice. Yet there it sits, constituting a major part of the third station,
which, along with illegality and inequality, forms capitalism’s threatening
continuum.
THE GREAT INFUSION
Philosophy Becomes Culture 313
Jeremy Bentham synthesized utilitarian philosophy. John Stuart Mill made
it somewhat more palatable by expanding the idea to include not just quantities
but also qualities of pleasure and pain. It was now left to several transitional
figures to anchor these notions into the core of western economic
thought. While some of these individuals may be strangers to many readers,
it is important to understand the path they trod in order to understand
where they brought us.