An obsession of any kind is usually unhealthy, but obsession with money can destroy the soul. Karl Marx believed that human activity is paralyzed by the capitalist system. To be sure, the all-encompassing passion for wealth and power is unchristian, but is all capitalism evil? If the answer were yes, then abandoning capitalism, with its central goal of profit, would seem to be an obvious solution to the social ills of mankind. Of course, eliminating capitalism is not the answer. The fact is that capitalism, based on free competition without deception or fraud, can lead to justly obtained profits, while serving the common good.Consider the entrepreneurs Eli Whitney, John Deere and Henry Ford, and the enormous contributions they made to society. No matter how much money they may have earned, it was insignificant compared with the tremendous economic benefits, shared by millions of people, due to the innovation of these great American inventors. Often the greatest criticism of capitalism comes from social visionaries, such as Erich Fromm. He proposes that mankind must cease living in the having mode, concerned only with material wealth and power, to enter the being mode, and abandon their selfishness and greed. Fromm states, “In the having mode of existence my relationship to the world is one of possessing and owning, one in which I want to make everybody and everything, including myself, my property” (12). This view of the having mode would certainly explain the obscenely extravagant impulses of residents of Beverly Hills, California, but would it apply to corporations, whose contributions ultimately raise the standard of living for all? Advocates of social responsibility often point to philanthropic activities, as typifying their vision of corporate citizenship. If one strolls through the halls of a major-city hospital, library, or college, they will come upon a list of patrons responsible for the funding of the...
