Inclusive capitalism

Inclusive capitalism is a term composed of two complementary meanings: (1) poverty is a significant, systemic problem in countries which have already embraced or are transitioning towards capitalistic economies, and (2) companies and non-governmental organizations can sell goods and services to low-income people, which may lead to targeted poverty alleviation strategies, including improving people’s nutrition, health care, education, employment and environment, but not their political power.

Inclusive capitalism originates with philosophical questions that predate modern day capitalism. These questions regard people’s motivation. Are people motivated by what is best for their own self-interest, for the good of society or perhaps somewhere in between? Different philosophers have advanced their own ideas about these questions, including Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679). Hobbes thought “[m]an was motivated by his appetites, desires, fear and self-interest, seeking pleasure and avoiding pain […] His main desire, and the most important of natural laws, was self-preservation and the avoidance of death” (Curtis 1981:327). Hobbes’ assertion would become the foundation for capitalism, which espouses an exclusive rather than inclusive nature of people.

Hobbes’ ideas influenced Adam Smith (1723–1790) who thought governments should not repress people’s self-interest in the economy. “Smith never suggests that they [people] are motivated only by self-interest; he simply states that self-interest motivates more powerfully and consistently than kindness, altruism, or martyrdom” (Buchholz 1989:21). In the 17th and 18th centuries notions of morality (theology) and value (economics) separate, leading Smith to advance a new theory of value based on divisions of labor rather than value being defined in a religious context of working for God (Wilk and Cliggett 2007:50-51). For Smith "value cannot be measured by money, because sometimes money is artificially scarce [...] because all labor is of equal value to the worker, labor is the best measure of value" (Wilk and Cliggett 2007:51-52). Thus the concept of capitalism is rooted in an idea of human nature being inherently self-interested and the value of goods and services are derived from labor.

...
Wikipedia