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"You can't write a check to capitalism directly"

This question comes up whenever I discuss philanthropy.

It would seem that capitalism is better than charity. The countries that became permanently rich, like America and Japan, did it with capitalism. This seems better than temporarily alleviating poverty by donating food or clothing. So (say proponents), good people who want to help others should stop giving to charity and start giving to capitalism. These proponents differ on exactly what \u201cgiving to capitalism\u201d means - you can\u2019t write a check to capitalism directly. But it\u2019s usually one of three things:

1. Spend the money on whatever you personally want, since that\u2019s the normal engine of capitalism, and encourages companies to provide desirable things.

2. Invest the money in whatever company produces the highest rate of return, since that\u2019s another capitalist imperative, and creates more companies.

3. Do something like donating to charity, but the donation should go to charities that promote capitalism somehow, or be an investment in companies doing charitable things (impact investing)

https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/does-capitalism-beat-charity\xa0