From Karl Marx to Bill Gates

The Impossibility of 'Creative' Capitalism

Abstract

The concept of creative capitalismin Bill Gates's speech has led to interesting debates, particularly the proposed restructuring of the company to change the structure of investment. It emphasizes the development in area of consumer acceptance that serve the public, especially the needs of people in developing countries, rather than solely pursuing profits in the market. This will create a better image for the company and allow investment to make benefit for the poor. Can nonprofit capitalism actually work? This question arises from the principle of infinite accumulation in Marx's theory, which proposes a nonprofit capitalist system would be difficult because it is incompatible with the internal processes of the capitalist system that need to accumulate capital in order to be able to reproduced in the next periodic production. In other words, Capitalism is not a viable system by merely exploiting the poor. It also exploits within its own systems for the repetition of capital. Although one side of capitalism has made many advances in the world, the other side is creating problems by consolidating wealth and discouraging others from the system. To tackle the problem, we should begin by accepting the problem honestly and trying to analyze it by escaping from the frame of belief that we cannot have a good life in addition to a capitalist economy. This will open up a new space for hope of solving the problem effectively.