CAPITALISM'S ACHILLES HEEL Dirty Money and How to

372 CAPITALISM’S ACHILLES HEEL
The one thing capitalism cannot abide is a sustained inability to correct
severe, long-term income disparities. Thus, narrowing the gap between rich
and poor is a risk-aversion strategy. Much of our future is dependent upon
spreading prosperity to an increasingly impatient world. Illegitimacy slows
growth, widens gaps, and stalls prosperity; legitimacy enhances growth, narrows
gaps, and spreads prosperity. Capitalism must build on its strengths
rather than pander to its weaknesses.
Putting it concisely, the future of capitalism is linked to justice, in
principle and in practice. The subordination of justice embedded in strict
interpretations of utilitarianism has run its course and needs to be replaced
with new underpinnings for capitalism grounded on prioritizing justice as
a first commitment. The injustices foisted upon billions of people by illegal
transactions in which the West is a willing and able participant have to
be curtailed.
Furthermore, justice is a growth strategy. A just world that spreads purchasing
power and prosperity to billions more will have a faster growth rate
and a higher GDP than an unjust world that illegally relocates resources
continuously to the rich. In the twenty-first century with the triumph of
capitalism, we have reached a point where prioritizing justice can contribute
to maximizing utility, but prioritizing utility cannot contribute to maximizing
justice.
A just world is also a safer world. Capitalism has the capacity to draw
billions more into a common economic arrangement, giving everyone a
stake in free markets and lessening the tendencies for alienation, dissociation,
and resentment that characterize terrorism and crime. Terrorists, criminal
syndicates, and drug kingpins operating outside the legal free-market
system are simply taking their cues from others who operate illegally within
the system. We cannot close off their channels for moving illicit funds while
holding on to our channels for doing the same thing. Capitalists must opt
for legality, honesty, fair play, and transparency in practice and in principle if
our economic system is to achieve its potential and make its full contribution
to a secure world.
Capitalism and democracy are intimately linked. A grand bargain exists
between these two ideas: Democracy will give an equal share of political
rights to each person, and capitalism will offer a fair share of economic benefits
to each person. Globally, capitalism is not holding up its end of the bargain.
Democracy is being undermined in many developing and transitional