Redeemable Savings or How to Become Ascetic through Consumption

Abstract

Weber’s startling thesis from The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, which seems so implausible at first sight, has undergone numerous critiques since its first publication and it still remains contested today. Among the many criticisms that were voiced, one remains particularly steadfast: while the spirit of self-restraint might be germane to capitalist entrepreneurship, an economy does not run on entrepreneurs alone; it also needs consumers willing to buy more than what actually covers their needs. Following Benjamin, capitalism is a religion without dogma or theology, but with a pure cult consisting of the ongoing celebration of the believer in order to actualise his faith through consumption. As I would like to argue, placing two moments of crisis in parallel, i.e. that of WWII and the financial crisis of 2008, allows new light to be shed on Weber’s famous thesis about the ascetic nature of capitalism, and provides a new explanation why investment capitalism and consumer capitalism are not contradictory at all, but ultimately perfectly convergent. During World War II, namely, both the US and the Canadian governments issued a series of propaganda posters that were aimed at reducing spending and redirecting the financial exertions of private households into the general war effort. Many of those posters, developed by some of the most cunning advertisers of the time, drew on one of the most deeply rooted principles of New England Puritanism: the duty of self-restraint. The message was: your savings will be redeemable by the end of the war – only slightly shifting Calvin’s perspective of savings that allow redemption by end of the world. Today, we would be well advised to think about the eschatological implications of those prophets prescribing the best behaviour in the event of the end of the crisis.