Let’s face it, both the right-and-left-wing camps have been completely confused by the turmoil in the world economy in the last decade, it seems that nobody had the answers to the massive social and financial trauma, not even money could help because its value kept falling.

The concept of compassionate capitalism is receiving more attention after the author Richard DeVos made it the title of his book. It describes an approach to capitalism that includes social values and proposes that businesses and even states can be more profitable and sustainable if they do good things with the money and profits they earn.

If capitalism and socialism are to evolve and work together for the better of society, compassionate capitalism could show the way, but the concept has to be developed to fit more into our present reality. Compassionate capitalism could include:

• A holistic view of a person’s life and ability to repay loans, everyone is different. In this scenario, jail for small borrowers who sincerely cannot repay their loans is an absolute no-no, and taking away their homes is illegal.
• Each company and household donating a percentage of annual income to a registered charity.
• Every state budget - including defense budgets - to donate a percentage for charitable and educational works.
• Rewarding employees for exceptional contributions to a company’s values and code of ethics.
• Less emphasis on the value of money as a valuable social benefit, and more on the value of community service.
• Passing on the benefits of low interest rates to borrowers, particularly when unemployment is high and investment is needed in the economy.
• Reducing the prices of utilities to the most reasonable and average level in the EU to help businesses and households stay solvent.

When there is a balance between economic agendas, poverty, war and much of human suffering can be avoided. The very opposite of compassionate capitalism is what happened to Cyprus during the 2013 haircut, and what is happening to Greece right now. Focusing just on money and funding the state is not enough, as we see from the high unemployment rate which has reached the same levels as when the country was in a state of war in 1974.

In the final analysis, it is not capitalism or communism or the banking crisis that really caused our current economic poverty, it was greed and selfishness on many people’s parts. Being too reckless for the sake of making money in whichever sector of the economy is greedy, and the results are clear: pain all around.

Compassionate capitalism would reduce the ‘rewards’ of greed by teaching and reinforcing the value of giving as well as taking and in the long run, would build some truly valuable capital - goodwill with the wider community. After all, you can’t take it with you, so why not do some good with it when you’re alive?

There’s a funny thing about goodwill: the more you have, the more successful you are.

It’s food for thought.