DON’T BURY THE TALENT: Capitalism, the Parable of the Talents, and America’s Ladder of Opportunity

A savings account can protect what you already have. Investment creates the possibility of becoming something more. The Parable of the Talents gives us an even deeper principle: what matters is not simply what you were given, but what you do with it.

By Michael T. Ruhlman
CashLeak.com | WFPX Commentary

There are two fundamentally different ways to think about economic security, and one of the easiest ways to understand the difference is to compare a savings account with the stock market.

A savings account is primarily about preservation. You deposit your money, accept a relatively modest return, and seek security and predictability.

The stock market operates on a different principle:

OPPORTUNITY → POSSIBILITY

There are no guarantees. Investments rise. Investments fall. Companies succeed. Companies fail. Investors can lose money.

But accepting calculated risk creates something that guaranteed preservation generally cannot provide at the same level: the possibility of substantial long-term growth.

That distinction provides a useful way to understand one of the great promises of capitalism.

CAPITALISM OFFERS A LADDER, NOT A GUARANTEED DESTINATION

Capitalism does not promise that everyone will begin in the same place. It does not promise that everyone will finish in the same place.

It offers something different:

The opportunity to improve your place.

Work. Save. Invest. Learn. Build. Invent. Own.

Start a business. Learn a trade. Develop a valuable skill. Buy a home when financially practical. Invest part of every paycheck. Turn an idea into a company. Turn knowledge into something somebody else values.

Turn wages into savings. Turn savings into investments. Turn investments into assets. Turn assets into wealth. And ultimately, turn wealth into stewardship and legacy.

Capitalism works best when capitalism isn’t something ordinary Americans believe only wealthy people do.

Capitalism works best when ordinary Americans become capitalists.

THE PARABLE OF THE TALENTS

Nearly two thousand years before anyone opened an online brokerage account, Jesus told a story containing a remarkable lesson about stewardship, responsibility, fear and multiplication.

In Matthew 25:14–30, Jesus describes a master preparing to leave on a journey. Before departing, the master entrusts his property to three servants.

One receives five talents. Another receives two. Another receives one.

Notice something immediately:

They do not begin equally.

Scripture says the master distributes the talents to each according to his ability. Then the master leaves.

The servant receiving five talents puts what he was given to work and gains five more. The servant receiving two does the same and gains two more.

But the servant receiving one makes a radically different decision.

He becomes afraid. And he buries it.

“I WAS AFRAID”

When the master returns, the third servant explains why he did nothing productive with what had been entrusted to him:

“I was afraid.”

Those may be among the most important words in the parable for understanding the economic analogy.

Fear told him: Don’t risk it. Don’t lose it. Protect what you already have. Bury it somewhere safe.

His objective was preservation.

The other two servants approached what they had been given differently:

Put it to work.

They accepted responsibility. They acted. And what they had been entrusted with multiplied.

When the master returns, both productive servants are praised as good and faithful servants. The servant who merely preserved what he had originally received receives no such praise.

Fear buried the talent.
Stewardship multiplied it.

JESUS WASN’T TEACHING A STOCK-MARKET CLASS

We need to make an important distinction. The Parable of the Talents is a spiritual teaching. It is not an economics textbook, and Jesus was not explaining capitalism, Wall Street, mutual funds or modern securities markets.

It would therefore go too far to claim that Matthew 25 constitutes a biblical endorsement of modern capitalism.

But the parable plainly presents principles with profound relevance to economic life:

STEWARDSHIP • RESPONSIBILITY • PRODUCTIVITY • ACCOUNTABILITY • COURAGE • MULTIPLICATION

The question isn’t simply, How much were you given?

The more challenging question is: What did you do with what you were given?

FIVE, TWO AND ONE: UNEQUAL STARTING POINTS

There is another detail in the parable that deserves considerably more attention. The servants don’t begin equally: five, two and one.

Yet the servant receiving two talents is not criticized because he did not produce the five-talent servant’s result. Both productive servants are praised.

The standard is not equality of possessions.

The standard is faithfulness with what each person has been entrusted.

Modern life also begins with unequal circumstances. People possess different abilities. They are born into different families. They receive different educations. They encounter different opportunities. Some inherit assets. Others inherit debt. Some begin adulthood with extensive connections. Others begin with almost nothing.

Capitalism should never pretend those differences do not exist.

Instead, the American free-enterprise objective should be to make the ladder of economic advancement accessible to the greatest possible number of people.

The answer to unequal starting points should be greater genuine opportunity—not artificially identical destinations.

THE FLOOR VERSUS THE LADDER

This brings us to one of the central differences between economic philosophies.

Socialist and social-democratic approaches generally place greater emphasis on establishing economic floors through government benefits, guarantees and redistribution.

The moral impulse behind a safety net is understandable: No person should simply be abandoned when facing genuine hardship.

Capitalism and compassion are not opposites.

A prosperous society should be capable of helping people facing disability, catastrophe, temporary unemployment, poverty and circumstances genuinely beyond their control.

But there is an enormous difference between constructing a safety net and constructing an economic system around permanent dependency.

A safety net should catch someone who falls. It should not eliminate the incentive to climb.

Every government guarantee has a cost. The resources ultimately must come through taxation, borrowing, redistribution or some combination of them.

Government must then decide who qualifies, how much someone receives, who pays, and at what point benefits are reduced or eliminated.

Those decisions can create bureaucracy, political favoritism, fraud, rent-seeking and unintended incentives.

One of the worst outcomes occurs when someone attempts to climb economically only to discover that earning another dollar causes the loss of substantial benefits.

The ladder suddenly develops a broken rung. Advancement can actually be penalized.

BUILD THE FLOOR—BUT DON’T DESTROY THE LADDER

Build a floor strong enough to prevent catastrophe without building a ceiling low enough to suppress ambition.

The floor says: When genuine misfortune knocks you down, society will not simply abandon you.

The ladder says:

Now rise.

Learn. Work. Save. Invest. Build. Own. Multiply. Give. Teach. Pass it forward.

A society becomes poorer when the floor replaces the ladder. A society becomes stronger when compassion helps people regain the ability to climb.

CAPITALISM IS A MULTIPLICATION MACHINE

Capitalism, when constrained by morality, competition and the rule of law, creates an extraordinary mechanism for multiplication.

Capital can be put to work. Savings become investment. Investment finances businesses. Businesses create jobs. Jobs create income. Income can create savings. Savings can purchase productive assets. Assets can produce additional capital. Knowledge becomes innovation. Innovation increases productivity. Productivity can increase prosperity. Prosperity, properly stewarded, can create opportunity for another generation.

That isn’t merely accumulation.

It is multiplication.

YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE RICH TO BECOME A CAPITALIST

This may be one of the most important economic lessons America can teach its children.

You don’t have to own a multinational corporation. You don’t have to inherit millions of dollars. You don’t have to work on Wall Street.

Own one share of a productive company.

Put $25 into an investment account. Acquire a valuable skill. Build a small business. Own your home when financially practical. Save part of what you earn. Invest part of what you save. Reinvest part of what your investments produce. Teach your children why you’re doing it.

The objective isn’t worshipping money.

The objective is stewardship, independence and productive ownership.

FROM WORKER TO OWNER

Imagine if America’s economic objective wasn’t merely creating more jobs.

Imagine if it were also creating more owners.

More employees owning shares of companies. More renters becoming homeowners. More tradespeople becoming business owners. More families accumulating productive assets. More children understanding compound growth before graduating from high school. More Americans understanding that every dollar presents a choice between immediate consumption and potential future capital.

That makes capitalism personal.

Instead of teaching people primarily to ask, “How much does somebody else have?” teach them to ask:

“How can I responsibly multiply what I have?”

THE STOCK-MARKET MINDSET

Now return to the savings account and the stock market.

The savings-account mindset asks: How much can I protect?

The investment mindset asks:

What can this become?

Both have legitimate roles in personal finance. Emergency savings and prudent reserves are important precisely because investing involves risk.

But as a metaphor for national ambition, the distinction is powerful.

America should not become a country whose highest economic ambition is protecting everyone from every uncertainty.

America should strive to be the country where the greatest possible number of people possess the freedom, knowledge, property rights, skills and opportunity to turn uncertainty into possibility.

DON’T BURY THE TALENT

The Parable of the Talents ultimately asks a question extending far beyond money.

Your abilities are talents. Your knowledge is a talent. Your time is a talent. Your opportunities are talents. Your property is something to steward. Your capital is something to steward. And your freedom itself is something to steward.

What are you going to do with what you’ve been given?

Will fear convince you to bury it? Or will you put it to work?

THE CAPITALISM AMERICA SHOULD ENCOURAGE

This isn’t an argument for greed. It isn’t an argument for exploitation. It isn’t an argument that someone’s bank balance measures his character or his standing before God.

It is an argument for productive ownership.

Build something. Own something. Improve something. Employ someone. Invest in someone. Give something. Teach someone else how to do the same.

Then leave the next generation more opportunity than you inherited.

THE BETTER ROAD

Government can establish floors.

Government cannot manufacture purpose. It cannot legislate ambition. It cannot command innovation into existence. And it cannot substitute government dependency for the dignity that comes from producing, building, owning and providing for others.

Those things ultimately come from people: families, communities, workers, entrepreneurs, investors, inventors and builders.

America should maintain a reasonable floor for genuine need while relentlessly expanding the ladder of opportunity above it.

The great promise of capitalism isn’t that nobody will ever fall.

It is that ordinary people have the opportunity to rise, build, own, multiply and leave something behind.

The five-talent servant multiplied. The two-talent servant multiplied. The one-talent servant buried what he had because he was afraid.

Don’t bury the talent. Don’t bury the seed. Put it to work.

Creation → Cultivation → Multiplication → Stewardship → Legacy.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael T. Ruhlman writes commentary on business, capitalism, investment, economic opportunity, public policy, faith, ownership and stewardship. His commentary draws in part upon decades of experience in investment banking, corporate restructuring, distressed situations and real estate.

EDITORIAL & BIBLICAL DISCLOSURE

This article is commentary and opinion. The economic and biblical interpretations expressed are those of the author. The discussion of Matthew 25:14–30 applies principles of stewardship, responsibility, accountability and multiplication found in the Parable of the Talents to modern economic life. It does not assert that Jesus Christ endorsed modern capitalism, securities markets, stock investing, any contemporary economic platform or any political party. Christianity should not be reduced to a modern economic ideology, and wealth should not be interpreted as evidence of righteousness or divine favor.

FINANCIAL DISCLAIMER

This article is provided solely for educational, editorial and informational purposes and does not constitute investment, financial, tax, accounting or legal advice. References to stocks, investing, businesses, homeownership, savings and other assets are illustrative. All investments involve risk, including possible loss of principal. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Savings accounts and investment accounts involve materially different risks and protections. Readers should evaluate their individual circumstances and, where appropriate, consult qualified financial, tax and legal professionals before making financial decisions.

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