The Future of Capitalism: Facing the New Anxieties.

• Author: Hemphill, Thomas A.

The Future of Capitalism: Facing the New Anxieties

Paul Collier

New York: HarperCollins, 2018, 248 pp.

Paul Collier, Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford University, acknowledges that writing The Future of Capitalism was intellectually "daunting, my proposition being that what was needed was a synthesis of moral philosophy, political economy, finance, economic geography, social psychology and social policy." In presenting a comprehensive case for what ails capitalism and his "remedies that address our new anxieties," Collier proposes "an ethical capitalism that meets standards that are built on values, honed by practical reasoning, and reproduced by the society itself."

The social bases of these new anxieties, found in North America, Europe, and Japan, are geographic, educational, and moral. The successful "metropolitan-located class" is well educated, affluent, and possesses the skills needed for the 21st century. Individuals in that class have developed a distinctive moral superiority and have elevated group characteristics, such as minority ethnicity and sexual orientation, into "victim" identities. In contrast, the stigmatized "white working class," is made up of older workers and young, first-time employees, often (but not always) located outside metropolitan hubs; they are employed in less meaningful, lower paying jobs, and have declining living standards. With a growing percentage of wealth accruing to the rich, capitalism has lost some of its popular support and is regarded by many as unfair.

Collier mirrors British political analyst David Goodhart who, in his book The Road to Somewhere (2017), describes this socioeconomic-political divide as the "Anywheres" versus the "Somewheres." The Anywheres are cosmopolitan, educated, mobile, and networked, their lives centered on communities of affinity rather than place, which is secondary. Their politics are progressive or classically liberal. Somewheres, however, are rooted in local communities, where their jobs (often working with their hands or on their feet), commitments, and friendships are part of their families, neighborhoods, and religious congregations. Politically, they tend to be socially conservative, patriotic, and less disposed to vote with their feet.

Collier acknowledges that the parties of the center-left and center-right are incapable of addressing these new anxieties. Ideologues and populists have, since the Great Recession of 2008, replaced social democracy, which was the prevailing political force of the post-World War II era through 1970. Why? Because "the social democrats of the left and right each drifted away from their origins in the practical reciprocity of communities, and became captured by an entirely different group of people who became disproportionately influential: middle-class intellectuals," who Collier refers to as the "WEIRDs: Western, Educated, Industrial, Rich and Developed."

The economics profession also incorporated a...