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Long before the global COVID-19 pandemic shuttered cities and businesses, the economic equality gap was widening, and many people believed that capitalism as a system had failed them. According to an extensive global survey of more than 34,000 people conducted in 2019, 56% of respondents agreed with the statement that “capitalism as it exists today does more harm than good in the world.”
From healthcare systems that don’t cater to women and minorities, to AI-driven products and services that cement bias by discounting or ignoring the needs of diverse communities, the capitalist system appears in need of fresh and radical overhaul.
Some of the leading thinkers in the worlds of business, politics, academia, and tech spoke to the Verizon and Yahoo Finance #ChamberBreakers podcast series about how capitalism is malfunctioning and shared their ideas for how we as businesses can take action to shape a more equitable future for everyone.
Democracy back in the driver’s seat
Robert Reich, a professor of Public Policy at UC Berkeley and former US Labour Secretary, thinks that first and foremost we need to educate people and corporations about how capitalism actually works if they are to become responsible citizens.
“What we need, if we're going to have both capitalism and democracy, is for democracy to be in charge,” Reich told #ChamberBreakers. Right now, that is arguably not always the case, according to him, as big corporations and wealthy individuals wield the power to override democratic checks and balances, especially in the Unites States.
The US political system’s heavy reliance on donations to fund campaigns creates a situation where rich donors have outsize influence on a government level, and in turn the power of their corporations goes unchecked. Over time, laws and regulations shift in ways that favour the rich, while it gets tougher for the rest.
“We now have a situation where, for example, a handful of CEOs, including Jeff Bezos at Amazon, control a very substantial portion of the economy and the wealth of the country. That gives them the ability to directly or indirectly continue to hold antitrust at bay,” Reich says. “We need regulations, antitrust rules, we need to restrict the kind of subsidies that go to businesses that are unrelated to any social goods.”
In the current, harsh US system, the rich enjoy what Reich calls “socialist capitalism.” He points to the bankers who received bailouts in the 2008 financial collapse, while ordinary people ended up losing their homes.
Arguably, Reich says that some of the elite indirectly tolerated or quietly encouraged racism or white supremacy in the country, for the simple goal of keeping people divided. As long as working- or middle class black and white people are pointing the finger at each other and blaming the other for their struggles, “they cannot and will not come together as a voting coalition to try to get back some of that wealth to change the rules of the game so that they are fairer.”
The end result of this permanent division is the growth and perpetuation of destabilizing populism, which in the end will hurt the whole of society.
Reich believes the only choice is to fix capitalism. On a business level, he urges corporations to support and not stand in the way of legislation to raise the minimum wage or mandate better sick pay and family leave.
“Get out of the way and don’t use your corporate public relations and government relations offices to distort the political process,” he said.
Capitalism needs a healthcare rethink
Considering that health of a population is critical to the functioning of the economy, capitalism has routinely ignored the majority of its workers — the 70% of women that comprise the healthcare system, but who only hold 25% of senior decision-making roles.
According to Dr. Roopa Dhaat, Executive Director and co-founder of Women in Global Health advocacy network, women’s perspectives are just not being included, resulting in gender-blind policies.
A study found that 85% of around 150 COVID-19 task forces were male-led, which led, for example, to life-saving personal protective equipment like gloves and gowns not fitting women properly.
“When you have diverse teams, you're going to have greater innovation, more sustainable solutions, and more ethical decision-making,” Dhaat told #ChamberBreakers.
Looking at it through a capitalistic lens, Dhaat says governments need to recognize that universal health coverage is an investment into national well-being and the economy. “It’s not a private sector business opportunity,” she said. “That's difficult to imagine since the health sector is one that leads to economic growth for many countries.”
In terms of what companies can do to redress the balance, Dhaat wants them to thoroughly examine their investments in the healthcare sector on one hand, ensuring that they invest in corporations that put a value on physical and mental health. They can also start to address the shocking 28% pay gap in the sector, as well as working to end the workplace violence and sexual harassment that causes women to leave their jobs.
“Currently estimates are that it's going to take us at least 100 years to achieve gender equality,” Dhaat said. “Let's work together and accelerate—that's something that I know the private sector world is really well-known to do.”
Can AI unbias capitalism?
Gender bias in healthcare is also a tech problem, particularly when it comes to AI development. Acclaimed roboticist Dr. Ayanna Howard, the Dean of Ohio State University College of Engineering, told #ChamberBreakers that studies found black women were not offered follow-up healthcare services, based on historic data that informed the AI.
The author of "Sex, Race, and Robots: How to Be Human in the Age of AI,” said she started to feel concerned a few years ago, when companies started using AI without first looking at the issue of bias. Since AI is going to be embedded in all aspects of our lives, from whether or not we get approved for a loan to insurance and healthcare, it behoves companies to really tackle any inbuilt bias now at the programming development stage.
AI has the potential to be a powerful tool to create equity within capitalism by lowering barriers to entry or to career promotion faced by some groups. But there’s no getting away from the fact that it is programmed by humans, who select the data that is used to instruct the AI.
Howard thinks that bias training for developers is crucial for creating fair AI. Another step companies could take is to offer “bias bonuses” to outsiders, who would be paid bounties to find bias in the AI systems — in the same way that they pay people to find security bugs in their tech systems.
Company leaders need to “really start committing to what I would call third party auditors with respect to bias,” she added. “If your company does not look like the world, how can you expect to have a competitive advantage if you're creating products for people you don't understand?”
Another way to tackle bias is to look not only at racial and gender diversity in the company, but also experience diversity. That could mean inviting input from people such as ethicists and social scientists to ensure a range of different professional expertise and viewpoints.
Advocacy groups can make strong partners in the AI development journey. “They may not be users, but they're also the ones that can help companies think about the social impact…the possible negatives, and also the positive benefits in this respect,” Howard said.
In the world at large, companies can really make a difference to the next generation who will be living and working in an economy powered by AI systems by investing in education “with a focus on ensuring that there is responsibility, and there are ethics that are weaved into the curriculum…companies need to sponsor and support that as well.”
Maybe someday AI can even become the teacher, detecting nuance in sexist, racist, or homophobic language or practices that may be too subtle for precise coding.
“I think AI can do this, but it has to be adaptive,” Howard says. “Imagine if you were typing in something and it knew your identity, and would say, ‘that word, it's showing you're a little biased against this certain group.’”