I ordered this book for several reasons.
I haven’t read any serious studies on economics for a long time and thought I should correct this imbalance. I wanted to have my understanding of economic theory expanded and deepened. And with the Trump Administration we live in a global economic system that is under pressure and experiencing change. Even if we don’t understand the fine print about tariffs or Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” we know some sort of transformation is afoot.
And I ordered Capitalism and Its Critics because I am a critic of capitalism—though not an economist. My questions arise not from defects in economic theory, but from what I see in ordinary people’s lives, and in the societal impact of income disparities so great they are essentially unimaginable. I am not a socialist; that has been tried and found wanting. Capitalism is an unstoppable force but identifying its systemic flaws might allow us to mitigate some of the damage and restore a greater level of human thriving. Loving my neighbor cannot ignore the economic aspects of their lives and existence; serving Christ as Lord over all means attention must be paid to the economic systems of our world.
I mentioned I am not an economist. Capitalism and Its Critics proved that and then went on to prove it again, and again. Many of the criticisms raised over the decades about capitalism are based on economic theories. Many times, these theories are expressed in mathematical formulas. And in many—perhaps most—cases covered in this book I was in—way in—over my head. Still, it was fascinating wrestling with the ideas and arguments. Just don’t ask me to repeat them.
For example, in 2013 Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century was released in French. A year later an English version was published by Harvard University Press. Unlike the vast majority of books by economists on economics, it became a best-seller. In it, Piketty “traced the long-term dynamics of inequality and warned that the prospect of recent trends continuing was ‘potentially terrifying.’” [p. 480] I find this proposition believable. As a theologian, however, my challenge is primarily an ethical one. Is it admirable, or right, for CEOs to receive compensation that allows them to own multiple mansions and yachts and airplanes while very few of the workers they hire receive anything close to a living wage? This is not heroic but rapacious greed. Caring about the wages of those we hire is a concern of God (Deuteronomy 24:14-15). To my way of thinking, that just doesn’t seem to be a difficult issue. However, as was expected, Piketty included data, graphs, and charts in his analysis of the danger of income inequality. Some apparently were hailed as breakthroughs. And he proposed a formula, “r > g… Over the long term, Piketty explained, the rate at which the economy expands sets an upper limit on the growth rate of wages and income.” [p. 185] And also as expected, economists immediately began debating the correct values for r and g. And as expected, I got lost.
The author, John Cassidy, is a staff writer at The New Yorker. Writing a history spanning the “Industrial Revolution to AI,” as the subtitle notes, is a massive undertaking. That alone makes the book interesting, with so many critics speaking out of very different social settings. “In whittling things down,” Cassidy notes in the Introduction, “I was greatly helped by the fact that, over the centuries, the central indictment of capitalism has remained remarkably consistent: that it is soulless, exploitative, inequitable, unstable, and destructive, yet all conquering and overwhelming.” [p. 4-5]
This book challenged me to be thoughtful about capitalism. To reaffirm that I cannot hold the popular myth that economic problems, such as income disparity, will “solved by the market.” That’s impossible, not because I have a formula to prove it. But because like all the ideologies and systems of our world, capitalism is broken and cannot save itself. Or us.
If you’d like to do some reading on economics but aren’t sure this book is for you, please contact Byron Borger at Hearts and Minds Books and ask him to recommend something.
Book Reviewed: Capitalism and Its Critics: A History: From The Industrial Revolution to AI by John Cassidy (New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 2025) 518 pages + Notes + Index.
Photo credit: Taken by the author with his iPhone and laptop.
