I, capitalist

Being a capitalist is not something one would normally shout about.

As a word it is sometimes followed by 'pig' and spat out as an insult. So capitalists tend not to brag about being one. It's just not good form.

But maybe some of us are capitalists without realising that we are?

A good place to start is with a definition.

Wikipedia defines a capitalist as:

'A person who uses their wealth to invest in trade and industry for profit in accordance with the principles of capitalism'

Ah, so that would be George Soros, Warren Buffet and co. The super rich who invest billions in the stock market. Not us ordinary Joes and Joannas who strive for our daily crust.

But what about the self employed and small business owners? Are we capitalists? Well, some self employed - 'the gig economy', who sell their own services are probably acting more like an employee. Employees with a little more choice and freedom, but 'employee-like' nonetheless. They are an essential part of the capitalist system but are not exhibiting capitalist behaviour themselves.

On other other hand, the business owner who has built his or her business to a reasonable scale and has employed people and resources to achieve this, is probably now a capitalist. The cafe owner, the chap with the small industrial unit, the boss of small professional services firm. They may have built the value in the the business with their own 'sweat' capital or their own modest savings but (going back to our definition) they have 'invested in trade and industry for profit'. So they make the cut as capitalists.

So that's the Buffets of this world, other wealthy investors and business owners. That's a small slice of the population who are described by the 'c' word.

But under a change by the government introduced from 2012 it could be argued that we are all (or most of us) capitalists now. Pensions auto enrolment means that all employees above a certain earnings threshold need to be enrolled into an employer pension scheme. The pension provider will on their behalf invest the employee's and employer's contributions in trade and industry, hopefully for profit.

We can of course opt out, or maybe choose our own pension scheme which invests in  government securities rather than the capitalist stock market. But the returns are likely to be much less. Do we really want to choose to be poorer?

Maybe we could insist our pension provider looks at ethical investments? Yes but that is still capitalist - softer and fluffier, but capitalist.

So don't say it too loudly, but most of us, knowingly or unknowingly, are capitalists.

And probably better off for being so.

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