Capitalism is a wonderful thing. So, why is it showing so many signs of decay?

Capitalism is the only economic system the world has ever known that is capable of raising people out of poverty without creating welfare dependent lazy families. Free markets have generated wealth that kings and queens of history have not enjoyed. Our grocery stores are filled with fresh fruits and vegetables and our choices seem endless. Ever been to one of the former east European communist countries, or a developing nation run by a tyrant? No choices, limited quantities. You’re lucky if the food is fresh. When former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev visited Ottawa he was taken to a grocery store and looked around in disbelief. He thought the store was deliberately stacked for his visit and asked to be taken to another. He couldn’t believe the bounty.

Capitalism is the best system we know for rewarding hard work, innovation and our built-in desire to improve our situation. Capitalism improves literacy and decreases cheap labour and has other benefits, says American philosopher Michael Novak. In particular, he writes that on every index of health – mortality, infant mortality, elimination of disease, discovery of cures, clean water – the world is better off with capitalism. Freedom fuels invention and "invention, not cheap labour, fires economic expansion," says Novak in his new book The Universal Hunger For Liberty.

So what’s gone wrong? Why are so many small businesses, on-farm operations among them, feeling the weight of regulations crushing their entrepreneurial spirit? At the same time, why do laws appear to favour rampant profiteering among large corporations? Why does talk of profits too often outweigh all other costs and benefits?

Capitalism (free markets) and democracy are the best of partners but only when joined with good work habits and a philosophy of life that was once taught by every grade school teacher and can be synthesized to the golden rule: "Do to others as you would have them do to you."

But that is gone. In an after dinner conversation, a 2005 graduating Canadian surgeon noted that among his colleagues there is no sense of doing something because it is objectively the right thing to do. There must always be some benefit to self, he was told. A recent MBA graduate argued over drinks that businesses operate for one reason only: to make money.

Is that what we can expect from a new generation of leaders? Doesn’t it count when an individual or business operates to earn a living but also to help others, to do good, honest work and satisfy one’s own innate desire to create? Canada is losing its way. Those who seek what is right and good and true are drowned in a chorus of "what’s in it for me?" But if we don’t seek more to life than "what’s in it for me?" then life will become empty, an ever chasing of the next ephemeral titillation: the next sale, the next drink, the next trip, the next favourite TV show, the next Saturday night.

Western capitalism and democracy worked well because they were built on Judeo-Christian principles. It’s not that Christianity is necessary for capitalism to work well but it sure helps if you’re seeking an honest transaction from two parties. Honesty is a boon to business, Novak writes. So is religion, he says. Atheism offers no reasons for correcting bad behaviour. We need a return to a philosophy of life that promotes and expects hard work and sacrifice from each individual.

Farm families, by size and demands of family chores, are one of the last bastions of self-sacrifice (do to others as you would have them do to you) over self-centredness (what’s in it for me?). They need to be encouraged to hang on to what they’ve got, to swim against the current, to raise good citizens. It is one of our last best hopes of this country that the next generation be taught well. Faith and religion do not have a monopoly on how to raise a family. Any parent can teach children well by instilling virtues: patience, self-control, toughness, honesty, kindness, generosity. It is the heroic self-sacrificing of parents, their fight against their own personal defects, the day-to-day teaching of right and wrong in the nitty-gritty details of life that will win the day. It is this constant sacrificial love, not one’s earning potential, that will determine if children grow up believing that freedom is not for doing whatever they want but for having the right to do what they ought.

We are a long way from correcting the country’s slide into decadence but there is much hope in that we already know we can make a difference from home. A country is built on the strength of the family, say the philosophers. Let us remind ourselves constantly that the conscience of our children is their memory of the voice and actions of their parents.