Author Roy Swan believes it is possible to shape a “positive sum” economic system “rooted in democracy, morality and reason” that values people as well as profit, reviewer Hilary Pearson writes.
Positive Sum: How Zero-Sum Thinking Broke Capitalism – And How We Can Fix It, by Roy Swan. John Wiley & Sons, 2026; 247 pp; ISBN 978-1-394-43672-9
It’s rare these days, especially in progressive circles, to read a tribute by one of capitalism’s critics to two of the best-known proponents of capitalism: Adam Smith, author of The Wealth of Nations, and Milton Friedman, arch-conservative economist. This critic, Roy Swan, has been the director of mission investments at the Ford Foundation since 2018. For many years before joining Ford, he had a career in banking and investing, at the heart of capitalist finance. But, as he describes himself in his new book, Positive Sum, he is also a “preacher’s kid,” the son of a full-time preacher and unionized auto worker. For most of his career as a capitalist financier, he brought his moral values and convictions to work, believing in the possibility that the economic system shaped by capitalism “can be something far more beautiful, more accessible and more enduring than most of us dare to imagine.” The negativity and damage caused by zero-sum capitalist practices, where one person’s gain is another’s loss, can be replaced, in Swan’s view, by a positive-sum approach that he variously calls patriotic, democratic, or socially responsible capitalism. And he persuasively argues that Smith and Friedman were themselves visionaries of positive-sum economic and market systems.
This is a hopeful book, written at a time when we see much in the way of social and economic injustice, as well as climate destruction, to make us despair. Swan sets out to show the reader how the tools of capital deployment can be used to benefit all; not only owners, but also customers, employees, and communities. He believes that it is possible to shape an economic system “rooted in democracy, morality and reason.” His argument is based on insights drawn from history, as well as economic data and corporate business success stories that demonstrate the possibility of achieving both profit and purpose.
We can craft another kind of capitalism where the choice isn’t between idealism and realism, but short-term thinking and long-term value creation.
Roy Swan
From Swan’s perspective, and he is not alone, the last few decades of increasingly deregulated zero-sum capitalism, particularly in the United States, have created enormous individual wealth and at the same time political polarization, popular disengagement, and social dysfunction. The solution he suggests is not to replace capitalism entirely as a system but to “design institutional frameworks that align individual success with collective benefit.” Retracing the political philosophy of Smith and economic thought of Friedman, Swan shows that both men believed that sustainable and profitable business depends on treating employees and communities well, and that the state plays an essential role in establishing fair rules and preventing exploitation. They were far from believers in the unconstrained and selfish pursuit of profit. In a witty chapter, Swan imagines a dinner party hosted by Dorothy Parker, the famous literary critic, with Smith, Friedman and the moral philosopher John Rawls, during which they discuss a redesign of capitalism for positive-sum outcomes, “where fairness and prosperity both thrive.” Swan cleverly illustrates how Smith and Friedman agreed on a vision of stakeholder capitalism in which serving broader stakeholder interests creates advantages that benefit everyone. He sums this up in a description that captures his own strong beliefs: “In Smith’s moral philosophy and Friedman’s commitment to fair rules, we find a unified call for a capitalism built on more than self-interest alone. They remind us that markets work best when guided by ethical principles, and the pursuit of profit serves society best when laws ensure its fairness . . . we can craft another kind of capitalism where the choice isn’t between idealism and realism, but short-term thinking and long-term value creation.”
Coming back to the modern day, Swan points to examples of a positive-sum transformation. He briefly cites familiar data that show the importance to business of engaging and satisfying workers, creating more diverse executive teams, building inclusive cultures, and investing in communities. But in the second half of his book, he focuses on what has deeply engaged him for the last decade, which is the role of philanthropy and foundations in rethinking how to deploy capital through the approach of mission investing. Swan gives us profiles of some of his pioneering heroes in the mission-investing world, including Luther Ragin, the founder of the Global Impact Investing Network; Clara Miller, the former president of the Nonprofit Finance Fund and the F.B. Heron Foundation; and, of course, Darren Walker, the recently retired CEO of the Ford Foundation, who hired Swan as the first director of mission investing at the foundation. He also names other lesser-known US thought leaders such as Louis Kelso, who proposed “employee stock ownership plans” in the 1950s; Aren LeeKong, an investor who acquires and holds mid-market businesses with the goal of creating quality jobs; and Andrew Kassoy, the co-founder of B Lab and B Corporation. In the last two decades, these have been US leaders of new thinking about using capital for social purpose. Swan tells the story of how the Ford Foundation led the way by moving $1 billion of its $12-billion endowment into mission investing, with several other private foundations following suit.
In Canada we have a similar story; efforts by the McConnell, Chagnon, and, most notably, Inspirit foundations are showing others in philanthropy that it is possible to invest sustainably with solid financial returns and measurable social returns. We also have champions such as Bill Young at Social Capital Partners, who has advocated persistently and successfully for employee ownership models, as well as a deepening pool of practitioners such as Derek Ballantyne at Boann, Adam Spence at SVX, Jory Cohen at Silk Pin Capital, and Graham Singh at Relèven.
Arguments against better mission alignment are more about preserving comfort zones than protecting financial returns.
Roy Swan
Given this success, why isn’t mission investing the norm among philanthropic foundations? This is an especially pertinent question given the increasing urgency of the economic, social, and climate crises we are seeing. The last part of this practical book is about how to conquer roadblocks and convince the skeptics. Swan suggests that the greatest barriers to positive-sum investing, as he calls it, aren’t technical but psychological. He states bluntly that “arguments against better mission alignment are more about preserving comfort zones than protecting financial returns or carrying out fiduciary responsibilities. They have to do with fear.” Using a vivid image, he describes the “invisible wall” of convention, which, “with bricks crafted from opposition and indifference . . . encloses the philanthropic world like a fortress, ensuring that endowments will maximize financial returns while grants address social problems.” This is direct language. But Swan has empathy for the human assumptions and biases that pervade the philanthropic investing world. He takes time to analyze the psychological and structural roadblocks to more mission investing and suggests how to “bust through” them. And he offers some pragmatic advice to institutional leaders about how to embrace positive-sum strategies.
Swan concludes with a strong business case for what he calls the cornerstone of positive-sum investing: a commitment to quality jobs as both a moral and a financial imperative. Citing data on the cost of employee disengagement, high turnover, and low productivity, he suggests that if just one out of every three businesses took systematic steps to improve their workplace culture and captured just a third of the profits associated with those changes, there could be an increase of somewhere between US$500 billion and US$1.6 trillion to the stock market (equivalent, as he points out, to nearly half of Canada’s full stock market value of around $3.5 trillion). And positive-sum investing is also about workers in their communities. Swan cites the leadership of the private equity investor Pete Stavros of KKR, who has promoted employee ownership, and other investors and developers who are committed to affordable housing, community infrastructure, and accessible financing.
Swan is an optimist and a convincing one. In a relatively short but very accessible and clearly written book, he has made the compelling case for a future economy and society that value people as well as profit. He sees opportunity even within the uncertainties of a future dominated by artificial intelligence and quantum computing, which he addresses in his closing pages. In his view, data calculated by AI offers a new form of transparency and accountability for the unpaid external costs of creating wealth. He believes that “in a world of radical transparency, wilful blindness is not a viable strategy. As their actions become not just immoral, but irrational, those who cling to the zero-sum models of the past will soon be left behind . . . we can start to build a new economy rooted in good math, scientific evidence and experience – a patriotic capitalism that works for everyone.” It’s an innovator’s view of what is possible, and it doesn’t take fully into account the political system that is now fed by the extraordinary wealth of the few. Nevertheless, his book serves as both inspiration and map for the optimists among us who are looking for paths out of the seemingly bleak present to a better future.
