CAPITALISM'S ACHILLES HEEL Dirty Money and How to

Spreading Prosperity 365
scheme is imposed upon these, its most disadvantaged participants—and imposed
not by fate or nature but by other, more advantaged participants, ourselves
included.” 13 In another writing, “ ‘Assisting’ the global poor,” Pogge
adds, “[T]he causes of the persistence of severe poverty do not . . . lie solely in
the poor countries themselves. The global economic order also plays an important
role.... [T]his order is shaped to reflect the interests of the rich
countries and their citizens and corporations.” 14 In countless other works,
Thomas Pogge has consistently demonstrated a unique sense of reality in applying
philosophical tenets to real world problems.
With Rawls as the takeoff point, theories of justice have now become
the most active line of philosophical investigation. Capitalism cannot and
will not be immune to these intellectual developments. Already, elements of
the justice movement are beginning to filter, however hesitantly, into corporate
agendas. The Caux Round Table of global business leaders, led by
George Vojta, former vice chairman of Bankers Trust in New York, is pushing
for fair play and honest standards on six continents. The UN’s Global
Compact urges corporations to exercise high standards in trade and investment,
though as yet the Compact has been signed by only some 1,800 of the
world’s approximately 65,000 multinationals. The corporate social responsibility
movement is growing, though Europe and Japan are ahead of the
United States in the scope of what these company departments are able to
influence. In short, whether spurred by the academy of philosophers or
other factors, business and banking communities are beginning to sense that
there are new patterns of thought and behavior that will grow. But ultimately
we must penetrate beyond the outer layers of these issues and get to
the core—the dominion of utilitarianism over capitalism.
In my view, utilitarianism has run out of gas. It may still be coasting, but
it has no remaining explosive energy to propel it forward. It is, or is being, replaced
by theories of justice that position justice as a priority before utility.
Capitalism must not only recognize but embrace this trend. We can
keep our maximizing instincts, but we apply them after we have achieved
justice in transactions, not before. The global dirty-money structure is
unjust. The massive concentration of global income at the top—70 to 90
percent—contains a portion that is unjust and is self-defeating in its limitations
on shared prosperity. Capitalism can be self-correcting when it
puts justice ahead of maximizing, when it breaks the dead utilitarianism
linkage.