“Are you a capitalist?” – social entrepreneurs respond

“Are you a capitalist?” – social entrepreneurs respond
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As part of my investigation into benefit corporations – a new legal corporate form springing up across the US – I asked early adopters a simple question: “Are you a capitalist?”

It put some of them on the spot. Benefit corporations are set up to serve a “triple bottom line” of social, environmental and economic objectives and their backers don’t fit the capitalist stereotype of cigar-chewing plutocrats running smoke-belching industrial behemoths. (Gary Gerber, who runs Californian solar energy company Sun Light & Power, is the first chief executive I’ve interviewed who apologised for coming to find me in his hybrid Toyota Prius because the two electric cars he uses were unavailable.)

I tend to agree with Christopher Meyer and Julia Kirby, whose book Standing on the Sun points out that capitalism is “only a term for what capitalists tend to believe and do”. They suggest that in time “puzzling exceptions to the pursuit [of financial profit maximisation] – corporate social responsibility, venture philanthropy, sustainability – will be recognised to have a logic consistent with capitalism”. Which would mean that even contrarian “reluctant businessmen” like Yvon Chouinard, the surfing and mountaineering founder of Patagonia, the biggest benefit corporation, are capitalists.

Here’s how the executives I interviewed responded to the question:

Stefan Pellegrini, Opticos Design (urban design and architecture consultancy): “Yes. What’s important for us is that we feel we should be able to make choices about what we’re investing in and what others are investing in us.”

Sean Marx, co-founder and CEO (self-styled “chief eternal optimist”), Give Something Back Office Supplies: “I studied economics. I’m not a capitalist in a free-market way.”

Gary Gerber, president and founder, Sun Light & Power (renewable energy contractor): “Yes, I am. It’s the best system we’ve got – if it’s tweaked a little.”

Rick Ridgeway, vice-president of environmental initiatives, Patagonia (outerwear): “It’s a good point about whether ‘capitalist’ is a good moniker. Maybe ‘neo-capitalist’, recognising that it is more than just about money.”

Fred Keller, founder and chief executive, Cascade Engineering (manufacturer, specialising in injection moulding): “Capitalism is a pretty broad spectrum. I believe capitalism has lots of attributes. I don’t believe we should be overthrowing capitalism at all. I think we have an opportunity with capitalism to expand [the definition] as opposed to being focused on making money.”

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