You could criticize A Christmas Carol as a capitalist critique by saying that Ebenezer Scrooge is an unrealistic strawman of a capitalist *because* he is miserable and wallows in misery in ways that aren't even profitable for him.
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But the thing is, qualities like keeping his employee miserable and lending money in ways that ruin rather than aid his borrowers... that mean-spirited short-sightedness... is abundantly on display in modern business.
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Nowadays it's done in the name of Growth rather than Thrift, but it's the same impulse.
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If we accept the text as true within itself -- and the WSJ's quibble with Dickens isn't that he got the events wrong, only their meaning -- then Scrooge doesn't go broke when he starts paying Cratchit more and treating him better.
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And again, Scrooge himself within the text is the one who realizes it doesn't cost an employer anything to regard their employees kindly, and it makes the employees' lives better for nothing.
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We know that Marley died with money and that he left it to Scrooge. When Scrooge dies, one imagines his money would have gone to Fred, who at least would have enjoyed it. There's no indication in the source that they enriched society materially with all their thrift.
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Replying to @AlexandraErin
In the Christmas Present party scene someone asks Fred why he bothers trying to be nice to Scrooge and Fred explicitly says it's not for financial gain because there's no chance in Hell Scrooge put him in his will
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Replying to @arthur_affect @AlexandraErin
We don't actually know if this is true but it seems in character for Scrooge to go out of his way to keep Fred from inheriting, considering that he not only dislikes him but morally disapproves of what he thinks of as his spendthrift ways
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Replying to @arthur_affect @AlexandraErin
And Fred is by no means living it up like a dilettante. Its just that Fred and Clara don't see any point in depriving themselves of basic comforts (good food, sufficient heat, occasionally entertaining friends) to save a few pennies.
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Replying to @wfrolik @AlexandraErin
I think it's specifically that Fred is in debt/doesn't mind going into debt, which drives Scrooge up the wall (and was as frequent a topic of moralizing in Victorian times as it is among personal finance columnists today)
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It isn't spelled out in the novella, Scrooge just yells at Fred that Christmas is for him a time for "paying bills without money" (ie on credit) But it seems like obviously implied that Fred's nice house was bought on a mortgage etc
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