Money, Greed, and God: Why Capitalism Is the Solution and Not the Problem

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Money, Greed, and God: Why Capitalism Is the Solution and Not the Problem

by Jay W. Richards

4.19 · rating details · 79 ratings · 34 reviews

Does capitalism promote greed? Can a person follow Jesus's call to love others and also support capitalism? Was our recent economic crisis caused by flaws inherent to our free market system? Jay Richards presents a new approach to capitalism, revealing how it's fully consistent with Jesus's teachings and the Christian tradition, while also showing why this system is our b

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Hardcover, 255 pages

Published May 1st 2009 by HarperOne (first published 2009)

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Mar 09, 2010

"Terrence" rated it

Shelves: economics-politics

Though many things this book says are true, if you step out of its well-worn grooves of debate and take a broader look, it stands out as very secular, even pagan, for a professedly Christian book. This is fairly common for political conservatism. Though Christian political conservatives trumpet a biblical antithesis in many other areas of life, when it comes to politics they just give up and bow to the Enlightenment way, especially the American way (I did the same thing for several decades).

Ch...moreThough many things this book says are true, if you step out of its well-worn grooves of debate and take a broader look, it stands out as very secular, even pagan, for a professedly Christian book. This is fairly common for political conservatism. Though Christian political conservatives trumpet a biblical antithesis in many other areas of life, when it comes to politics they just give up and bow to the Enlightenment way, especially the American way (I did the same thing for several decades).

Christian conservatives in church tend to talk large about grace, salvation by grace, and Christ as the only way of grace. No one, they would rightly say, can please God apart from Christ, the only way. Yet, when it comes to economics and creating wealth they talk like Pelagians. When it comes to discussing the best social order in books like Money, Greed, and God Christ is wholly unnecessary and superfluous. Christ is frosting. They even say that capitalism saves nations (to echo that revealing title from that other much-praised conservative book How Capitalism Saved America by DiLorenzo).

In Money, Greed, and God, Richards reveals his default secularism in such blatant claims as: “Wealth is created when our creative freedom is allowed to prosper in a free-market environment undergirded by the rule of law and suffused with a rich moral culture” (8), and “the only known way to create widespread wealth is through capitalism” (57). Notice, any country can do this, pagan or Christian or Muslim or secular. No antithesis. No need for Christ. No need for grace. No need for the Spirit. Just laws and codes and moralism create this wonderful “divine” blessing of wealth.

Richards’ tough, graceless economic Pelagianism comes out even more clearly in his concluding “Ten Tough Steps” that include more and more legal prescriptions: “maintain the rule of law,” focus government on law, “formal property system,” no “undue regulation,” “belief in the truth that the universe is purposeful,” “right cultural mores,” and “work hard” (209, 210). For him, God’s social blessing comes through law and work. Conservatives have never come to grips with Paul’s radical, new-world declaration that “if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law.” (Gal. 3:21). Now, that’s a statement for social ethics.

If we step back even farther from Richards’ book, we find its basic assumption is that our chief social goal is to create wealth: “only the creation of wealth can alleviate poverty, and capitalism is the best engine for creating wealth” (58, note again, we’re spreading the capitalist “engine” not Christ). But is this really the chief social end for Christ’s kingdom? Where does Jesus talk like that? The prophets? The apostles? How come they missed such a huge part of Christian living? Instead, Richards lauds the entrepreneur for whom “money in hand is a means, not an end, even if one of the possible ends is more money. They risk actual wealth in the hope of multiplying it” (128). Multiplying money? More money as an end?

Jesus repeatedly described his kingdom in terms of the cross, taking up the cross daily, suffering, and self-denial. In fact, Jesus’ kingdom can be gloriously characterized as a kingdom of self-denial. So how is the pursuit of a nice middle class life and all its technological gadgets, the creation and multiplication of wealth, an obvious instance of the ethic of self-denial? I speak as the chief of sinners here, but can we at least not see the clash between the two social systems? If one were to ask someone to imagine a “kingdom of self-denial,” one simply wouldn’t think of the last four centuries of capitalism. Capitalism doesn’t have self-denial as its end, and yet Paul repeatedly tells us that the cross is the center of the Christian ethic, social and individual, all while warning “those who desire to be rich” (1 Tim. 6:9). “Desire.” These people need not be greedy; they just desire the comforts of wealth like most of us. Capitalism and the cross head in completely different directions. Now, as a longtime conservative, I know how to minimize and marginalize these sorts of claims; we’re experts at missing the weightier matters of the law. Also, since conservatives are actually deeply statist, their response to these sorts of objections is automatically to assume that I’m defending some form of state socialism. Nonsense. Think outside the Cold War. But a kingdom of self-denial does show up in the book of Acts: “nor was there anyone among them who lacked, for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them....and they distributed to each as anyone had need” (Acts 4:34,35). A kingdom of self-denial doesn’t try to explain away the apostle John’s exhortation as guilt-manipulation and ingratitude: “whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?” (1 John 3:17). It’s not complicated, it’s not the state, and it’s not capitalism.

This point about a social ethic of the cross also undoes Richards’ denial that capitalism is based on greed. He gives us the standard line that it need not be driven by selfishness but only nice and smiley self-interest. And, of course, self-interest is outward looking; we seek to care for our family outside of us. (Aside: Can’t a whole family be a selfish unit, too?) But for Jesus, self-interest isn’t good enough. It’s not self-denial. Jesus asks us to create a kingdom, a social order in which we give and serve and “hope for nothing in return” (Lk. 6:35; Richards minimizes this passage on 155). Jesus isn’t just talking about loans; He’s talking about a whole orientation toward life, an orientation alien to the engine of capitalism which lives off a self-interest that requires something in return. Isn’t Jesus crazy? He must be wrong. But it’s because of such “crazy” claims that the world finds the cross utter foolishness (1 Cor. 1:23). Embracing a dominant, cutting-edge, positive-thinking capitalism certainly won’t get charged with foolishness. Detractors may hate it, but they know it works for the few. It’s not folly, but the cross is folly. Richards gives this revealing dismissal: “Any system that requires everyone always to act selflessly is doomed to failure because it’s utopian” (122). Well, why not just say it: Christ is a fool.

In contrast to a utopia of self-denial, Richards urges us to that quirky Renaissance defeatism that we should give up on sanctification; in other words, vices magically lead to social virtues – the invisible hand of the market. I’m always surprised at how easily conservatives swallow this one (myself included). Adam Smith didn’t make this up. It was a strange little theory at the beginning of the Enlightenment, and somehow “the invisible hand” became gospel truth. Of course, it doesn’t appear in Scripture anywhere. God isn’t satisfied with letting sin reign. It’s a leftover of that magical impersonalism that runs the universe without Christ, but it makes us feel good, and it relieves us of the tremendous burden of delivering the poor: the invisible hand will get them their own stuff someday.

So many of Richards’ economic arguments fail because he’s clueless about the actual history of capitalism. Despite a vast and growing literature, the conservative-pollyanna case for “Western success” always conflates free markets and capitalism. Yes, the West got rich from capitalism but not from free markets. Free markets don’t make anyone rich, and they rarely if ever show up in the history of capitalism. To get really rich, Western rich, you need massive state intervention. Find one billionaire or millionaire who got rich via a free market, and history will show you state privileges, subsidies, transfers, special protections, and more. The rich know that free markets are for losers, the poor. No rich Western nation got that way without massive state manipulations and wealth transfers. Richards betrays his ignorance of this basic history when he points to Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and WalMart as free market successes. Puh-lease. If we’re honest with history, then we can see that capitalism is the history of state intervention on behalf of the rich, and that has indeed been extremely successful over the centuries. But it’s just a variation of socialism. When the Iron Curtain fell, one lame form of socialism died and one more effective form of socialism won. Let’s not be so painfully naïve as to call this a victory of free markets. That’s just old state propaganda for gullible conservatives.(less)

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Jul 15, 2011

W. Bradford Littlejohn rated it

This book is laced with ironies. And not good ones, either. (By the way, I will admit up front that I did not finish this book. I made it to the halfway point, and then determined that to continue, with no promise that I would ever be offered a coherent argument, was merely an act of self-flagellation. If you think that the second half would disprove anything I say in here, do let me know). The author repeatedly adopts the stance, so attractive to American audiences, as the champion of comm...more

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Jun 19, 2011

John Gardner rated it

Can a Christian be a capitalist?

This is an important question, and it is how Jay Richards opens his book. Many Christians would, of course, answer “yes”, but how many are able to logically defend that answer from Scripture in the face of so many challengers who argue that free market capitalism is inconsistent with Christian charity? Don’t passages such as Acts 2:42-47 depict a form of Christian socialism in the early church?

Even many of the free market’s biggest supporters s...more

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Jul 23, 2009

Paul rated it

Shelves: capitalism, economics, politics

This was actually a very good book. Richards writes smoothly and conversationally. The book is polemical, but not nasty. Witty, but not condescending. Richards successfully refutes many of the more popular criticisms of Capitalism that you might hear on a college campus, or from those in the church (especially emergent-types). Richards does this by discussing eight myths about capitalism. He does this towards the end of eight chapters, the topics of which lead into the myth.

I was pl...more

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Jul 29, 2010

Gene rated it

A good book, and perhaps much needed, but for some reason not all that I had hoped it would be. The book begins well and even reminds me a lot of one of my favorite books of all time: Free to Choose by Milt and Rose Friedman. But somewhere it falls far short of that and in a way that I just can't quite put my finger on. Perhaps I expected the book to be the kind of thing I could loan to a Christian friend of different political perspective and hope that it could change his mind. When I finis...moreA good book, and perhaps much needed, but for some reason not all that I had hoped it would be. The book begins well and even reminds me a lot of one of my favorite books of all time: Free to Choose by Milt and Rose Friedman. But somewhere it falls far short of that and in a way that I just can't quite put my finger on. Perhaps I expected the book to be the kind of thing I could loan to a Christian friend of different political perspective and hope that it could change his mind. When I finished the book, as much as it reinforced my belief in the morality of free exchange, I don't think it would make believers out of skeptics.

Perhaps there are just too many holes in his analogies. For instance, the classroom experiment in which students each receive a toy and are free to exchange them with anyone and everyone's satisfaction increases because the perceived value of the possessions of those doing the trading increases. Well, that works with toys. But what if each classmate not only wants things, what if he needs things to survive? And what if the initial distribution of toys leaves some students only with things they and everybody in the class would not want to have? The real-life scenario is more like what I've just described than it is like a classroom of 6 billion students freely exchanging toys.

The book was not well edited. I was surprised to be told on p.98 that the word "capitalism" comes from the Latin "caput" which means "head" and told the same thing again in a different way on p.100. That and a handful of either grammar errors or typos made me think less of the process that put the book together.

The summary at the end of the book that deals with God's providence and the market system seemed irrelevant and the appendix dealing with Hayek's theory regarding order not necessarily coming from design seemed similarly off-target.

The good and convincing thing in the book is that Richards was himself a leftist who bought into the typical criticisms of a free-market economy, so he knows what beliefs he needs to confront. Also, he readily admits that there is much more to life and to human happiness than prosperity and economics. And maybe I'm old enough to see that, too, so that even Milt and Rose couldn't get me as excited about capitalism now as they did when I was in middle school watching their video series on PBS and reading their book.(less)

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Sep 13, 2009

John Caneday rated it

Shelves: 2009

This was an excellent defense of capitalism as a morally good economic system. Richards treats the misconceptions about capitalism well, and directs critics of capitalism to the source of their concerns. Capitalism is the best way to ensure that all trading partners receive satisfaction from a trade.

All who wonder if capitalism is a moral system will benefit from this book. It is a simple, easy, and engaging read. I was especially helped by his argument that our consumerist cul...more

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Oct 12, 2009

Jeff Irwin rated it

This book has remarkable insights into the nature of wealth creation. Each chapter debunks a myth associated with capitalism and shows why it really is the best system in a fallen world and should be better understood by Christians.

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Mar 22, 2011

Jason rated it

Recommended by my Brother-in-law, Malin. (Sorry Gary, I am a bit behind in my reading list but I will get to your book.)Richards lays out a compelling case for the morality of capitalism. He clearly illustrates how the free market creates wealth and has historically lifted millions of people out of poverty. He also provides clear examples of how grand, centrally planned, progressive programs have failed and have actually harmed millions of people throughout history. I rather enjoyed this book...more

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Aug 01, 2011

Timothy Bertolet added it

An excellent introduction to economics from a Christian perspective. Takes on some of the naysayers of capitalism, particularly debunking a number of myths that people use to detract from a free market system. While acknowledging the faults, he posits real solutions. He critiques some of Jim Wallis and Ronald Sider's works which posit Christian but politically leftists solutions. Some may not appreciate the conservative economic stance this book takes but it is well supported and argued. Support...more

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Jan 27, 2010

Brian rated it

Shelves: christian-living, economics, theology-doctrine

This book is a must read for everyone, a very concise guide to thinking correctly about capitalism, money, greed and how all of this works for the believer. The analogies he uses are top notch. The explanations he gives for economic principles are simple and understandable unlike some of the more scholarly approaches to economics. Though he sites many different schools of thought.

He commits to the idea that Christians can enjoy the fruits of capitalism without feeling guilty. He b...more

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Jan 05, 2011

Jon rated it

Shelves: economics-finance

A great book on how free markets are the best solution we have for an economic system. One of my favorite quotes: "Wealth is created when our creative freedom is allowed to prosper in a free-market environment undergirded by the rule of law and suffused with a rich moral culture. This creative freedom should be no surprise to Christians. We believe that human beings are made in God’s image—the imago dei. Our creative freedom reflects that divine image. This is one of the least appreciated t...more

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Jul 05, 2010

Shawn rated it

Very well thought out and researched book. Richards approaches his argument in favor of Capitalism by examining and disproving eight myths. I will only talk about the first myth in this review. The first myth he writes about is the Nirvana Myth(contrasting capitalism with an unrealizable ideal rather than its live alternatives). This chapter give a great overview of Communism around the world and how it contrast with capitalism. He refers to many other books, so there is a great bibliography to ...more

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Aug 14, 2010

Bernie rated it

Richards takes a critical look at Capitalism, and finds that in a fallen world, that Captitalism is a system that is most likely to foster the creativity and productivity that is the hallmark of a creature created in God's image. It is human creativity that makes us unique and is our input into this world. Materials have already been created by God, but it is the spark of human creativity that bridges the gap between the material and the spiritual.

Captitalism is of course not per...more

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Sep 26, 2010

Missjgray rated it

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meh.

Kind of a waste of time. He (maybe, sorta) shows half his subtitle, that Capitalism isn't the problem, but he makes no effort at all to even approach the other half that Capitalism is, therefore, the solution. Really all he does is Mythbust a list of straw men people accuse against capitalism. If those are really the only objections, then he has proved his side. I remain unconvinced.

His definition of the problem/cause of poverty as the lack of the creation of wealth ...more

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Jun 02, 2011

Luke Evans rated it

Shelves: politics, economics-and-liberty, non-fiction

This book is outstanding. Richards is an extremely talented writer. It is clear, precise, lucid, and witty. I agree completely with everything in this book except for parts of the last chapter on "Myth #8." It seemed that he sort of went of on a tangent or a hobby horse with the global warming bit. But, this book is excellent.

The most important "readable" book for Christians to read on economics/capitalism.

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Jan 07, 2010

Darius Teichroew rated it

Shelves: politics-and-culture, christianity

One of the most important books of recent years, MG&G deals with the myths behind capitalism and why it is the most Biblical economic system available to us.

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Jun 11, 2010

Angela rated it

felt like I got a good crash course in economics and made me think twice about a lot of things that I believe and why I believe them . . .

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Jul 22, 2010

Rita rated it

Very much enjoyed this. One of the shortest, easily read books on economics ever, I would guess.

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Jun 27, 2009

Douglas Wilson rated it

Shelves: politics

One of the best books I have read in some time. What a good business. A detailed review to follow.

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Jun 26, 2010

Bud Hewlett rated it

Great book! Should be read by any Christian interested in economics

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Oct 26, 2011

Jared Mcnabb rated it

Sombody should send this to Jim Wallis

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Aug 28, 2011

Chuck Lehman rated it

A must read for all generations!

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Aug 02, 2011

Raf Planos rated it

Heavy on spin and opinion, light on facts.

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Aug 13, 2010

Mike rated it

A Christian defense of capitalism.

I enjoy a lot of the philosophy of Ayn Rand, but could never wrap my head around her insistence that selfishness and greed are virtues. They are not. Richards is very clear: selfishness and greed are NOT virtues, but capitalism is the only economic philosphy that succeeds and treats people justly in spite of greed. The only way a greedy businessman can succeed is to provide quality products at decent prices that customers choose.

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Jul 14, 2010

Christopher rated it

Best book on economics I have ever read.

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Jan 30, 2010

Layla rated it

Excellent read for anyone who's tired of socialism or communism being passed off as a secular form of Christianity. Long live capitalism and the free market!!

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Oct 13, 2010

Simon rated it

Shelves: economics

What a great book! Everyone should read this, because it is a sensible, careful, thoughtful, Christian account of what capitalism is, and what is possible with it. It answers the common objections with clarity, and makes a great case for free-market capitalism, as well as showing that it is consistent with Christianity and the proceeding worldview. In fact, it shows how capitalism just fits with a faith in Christ.

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Dec 29, 2011

Eric K. marked it as to-read-if

Shelves: finances, culture-america, economics, library-byu

This might be interesting to read after reading The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.

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Oct 04, 2011

Brad Belschner rated it

Skimmed this, and didn't find anything beyond the same old capitalist responses that I'm used to.
I considered reading it more thoroughly for the purpose of writing a critical review, but then Bradford Littlejohn did it before me (see here).

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Feb 23, 2010

Lynne rated it

Shelves: facebook

If you're interested in learning about Capitalism, wealth, poverty, money and morality, then read this book. You will not be sorry for doing so, as it is very readable, educational and never boring.

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About Jay W. Richards

Jay W. Richards has served in leadership positions at the Discovery Institute and the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion & Liberty, and is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Heritage Foundation.

He has written many academic articles, books, and popular essays on a wide variety of subjects, from culture, economics, and public policy, to natural science, technology, and the environ...moreJay W. Richards has served in leadership positions at the Discovery Institute and the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion & Liberty, and is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Heritage Foundation.

He has written many academic articles, books, and popular essays on a wide variety of subjects, from culture, economics, and public policy, to natural science, technology, and the environment. His previous books include The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos is Designed for Discovery, with Guillermo Gonzalez (Washington DC: Regnery Publishers, 2004); The Untamed God: A Philosophical Exploration of Divine Perfection, Immutability and Simplicity (InterVarsity Press, 2003); Are We Spiritual Machines?: Ray Kurzweil vs. the Critics of Strong Artificial Intelligence, as editor and contributor (Discovery Institute Press, May 2002); and Unapologetic Apologetics: Meeting the Challenges of Theological Studies, as editor and multiple contributor, with William Dembski (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, February 2001).

Money, Greed, and God: Why Capitalism Is the Solution and Not the Problem (HarperOne, May 2009), seeks to explain the market economy to people who don’t like economics, and defend it against its religious critics.

Richards is also executive producer of several documentaries, including The Call of the Entrepreneur, The Birth of Freedom, and The Effective Stewardship Curriculum (Acton Media and Zondervan, 2009). He has been featured in several television-broadcast documentaries, including The Call of the Entrepreneur, The Case for a Creator, The Wonder of Soil, and The Privileged Planet, based on his book with astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez.

A self-described “shameless generalist,” he has academic specialties in philosophy, theology, and political science, including extensive research in formal logic.
He has a B.A. with majors in Political Science and Religion, an M.Div. (Master of Divinity) and a Th.M. (Master of Theology), with a thesis on social philosopher Michael Polanyi (from whom F.A. Hayek got his concept of “spontaneous order”). He also has a Ph.D. (with honors) in philosophy and theology from Princeton Theological Seminary. While at Princeton, he helped restart and edit the Princeton Theological Review, and led extracurricular apologetics seminars during his four years there.

His work has been covered (and sometimes harshly criticized) in The New York Times (front page news, science news, and editorial), The Washington Post (news and editorial), The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, Nature, Science, Astronomy, Sky and Telescope, The Scientist, Physics Today, California Wild (California Academy of Science), New Scientist, The Chronicle of Higher Education, American Enterprise, Congressional Quarterly Researcher, Human Events, American Spectator, First Things, Science & Spirit, Science & Theology News, Christianity Today, Crisis, National Catholic Register, World, Breakpoint, American Atheist, World Socialist of the International Committee of the Fourth International, and many other academic and popular outlets.

He has been interviewed for stories in print publications not just in the U.S., but also in Germany, Switzerland, France, New Zealand, Canada, Spain, and the UK.

Jay Richards has lectured at scores of academic conferences as diverse as the Evangelical Theological Society and the Western Economic Association, on scores of college and university campuses, at many public policy meetings, and on several occasions has lectured to members of the U.S. Congress and U.S. congressional staff.
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