Completing Capitalism: Meeting Bruno Roche

One of my great pleasures in my week in Geneva was meeting Bruno Roche, one of the leaders of the Mars Incorporated. He has written a book called Completing Capitalism. If is one of the few books I have read that in my view applies Biblical principles to economics and business development in a solid way.

On my Facebook page, I have sometimes responded to my liberal friends with astonishment that they do not understand that socialism leads to greater poverty for the greatest number, at least over the long haul. But the answer is not unbridled capitalism. It is rather and incentivised capitalism that rewards business that expand opportunity for the many and share profit with the employees and not only maximizing profit for share holders and owners. The tax structure of nations should reflect this orientation. Roche and the Mars Incorporated are working on a model of capitalism that is heavy on the emphasis in human capital (human beings as the resource), social capital (the cohesiveness of human community and relationships in business) and finally resource and environmental capital. They actually develop metrics to measure such things, and also hold out for patterns of compensation that are fair to the risk taking business leader, the employees and that seeks to expand opportunity in poor communities around the world.

I think they are getting at the truth. The answer is not socialism and leveling, nor is it greedy and abusive capitalism, but is a new humane capitalism. I greatly recommend this book.