How ‘charity’ is one of the basic constituents of our economy

After 1968, capitalism transformed into what we could call a cultural capitalism in which charity became one of the pillars of our economic system. It can be seen in the advertising strategies of many big companies around the world, and also in the massification of the philanthropic causes of many millionaires. Many years ago, there was a clear difference between the consumerist and the anti-consumerist, but nowadays, it seems like the tendency is to bring the two dimensions together in the same cluster. So, when you buy something you are not just buying the product but your redemption for being a consumerist.

One example is the advertising strategy of the company Starbucks, where they try to put in the mind of the consumer that when they buy a coffee they are also ensuring that the farmers who grow the beans receive a fair salary for their work, that one part of the price of the product is destined to help starving children from poor countries and indirectly they tell you that buying to them a cup of coffee helps to restore the environment. Another example is the American company Toms Shoes which has the phrase: One for one. That means that for every pair of shoes you buy to them, they send a pair of shoes to a child in some African nation.

Additionally, there is another expression of this cultural capitalism what we could call: the charity syndrome. There are many millionaires (many of them who gained his fortune in suspicious ways) who give a lot of money in charity in order to alleviate the poverty, but that doesn’t remedy it but prolonged it and I think is indeed part of the decease because that actions and the approval of the media of those actions cloud the real solution which is to reconstruct our society in a way that poverty will be impossible. That type of charity is generally approved by the media and is a central part of our system in order to maintain the status quo of the economic system.

In conclusion: Charity is nowadays a central pillar in our economic system and is expressed in the advertising strategies of many big companies, for example Starbucks and Toms Shoes, which add the charity factor as a part of the products they sell. Additionally, charity is also expressed in the approval of the philanthropic causes that many riches promote in order to maintain the status quo of the economic system.

This essay is adapted from the Slavoj Zizek’s conference: First as a Tragedy, then as a Farce.