Changing capitalism=happiness?

There is much talk at the moment about changing capitalism to something that delivers results but has a more human face. 

President Sarkozy of France is promoting this 'New Capitalism' at the moment in the lead up to the G20 meeting.

If we believe that our actions are driven by our core beliefs, then perhaps it is these that could usefully be changed. Now that mainstream religion has become less important for many people, there is often no stock set of morals or beliefs to immediately align with. So like President Sarkozy, we are tempted to modify capitalism and maintain that as a belief system. I dub  this the "If I can just have one more handbag I'll be happy approach".

Sadly, I have found that in all the personal change work I have done with others, having one more handbag or one pair of shoes resulted in nothing more than a brief moment of satisfaction which is often followed by a sense of guilt or shame. Consumerism as a religion or core moral code does not work.

But as a society we have been in a similar position before. In the 19th century there were capitalists who both made money and had a core set of values that led them to use there business and money for the greater good.

One example of this was Joseph Rowntree, a chocolate maker and a Quaker (The Religious Society of Friends). Rowntree for example set up the first ever occupational pension scheme.  He built bought land to provide low cost housing and in 1905 set up charitable trusts that continue the work today (www.jrf.org.uk).

Could his example help us today? Not necessarily using his religion for guidance, but even anon religious  humanist could use their core inner beliefs and moral sense to guide them to a better way of working and living.

If capitalism's core belief is that any profit gained is good and that return on investment is the only true measure of worth, then we are probably doomed to repeat the boom/bust cycles every few decades. Greed will be the core belief at work and we already know that this on its own is destructive.

But just perhaps, if we and the people who invest on our behalf (pension funds for example) took a wider view than just monetary return on investment, we might have a better society for everyone.