Capitalism and Spiritual Capital: A Perspective for the Evolution of the Korean Economy

Abstract

Current capitalist system that has been developed along with material selfishness and blind competition seems to be seriously challenged by the public's attention of rising income inequality. What the economy needs today is to enhance spiritual capital which is a complementary asset to material capital. Even if spiritual capital may not bring about immediate growth, the new framework of morality and cooperation has to be designed to ensure sustainable economic development. Korean economy that has been more evidently driven by material capital should also find a momentum to strengthen the base of its spiritual capital for future growth. A variety of policies for its execution can be found in three areas–education, institution, and leadership. This approach may be called ‘reflective capitalism’ which advances economy with a focus on the competences of morality and cooperation.