A sad and oxymoronic story in the News in Brief section of the Times today. It's about a GAP executive who stole £412,000 because he didn't want to admit he had "failed financially"?
It's a bit disturbing that we all know what this means. Whereas, since there is no link between wealth and virtue, "financial failure" should make as little sense as "inebriation failure".
There's nothing wrong with desiring money - this makes the world go round. But we have elevated this desire to the moral sphere, which is stupid and corrupting. Capitalism is indeed the least bad way to organise our affairs. But it originated in a world of faith. People believed in something bigger than their own squalid preoccupations. So they could try to get more money, and as a by product turn the wheels of the economy, and not be driven into shame if they did not get very much.
When I was a merchant banker I was very impressed with my observant Jewish colleagues who, however much they relished their bonus, had it in their contracts they could leave at 2 pm on Friday in winter, to be home by the start of the Sabbath. This belief in something bigger than money is what makes capitalism bearable. Without it, the market economy may become just one of many shambling roads to barbarism.