Over the past decade, polls have consistently shown that young people are far less enamored with capitalism than the generations that preceded them. Their crisis of faith in the system is met with consternation by their elders, who are often inclined to wonder aloud What's the matter with these kids, today? In this episode of the In-House Ethicist, John Paul Rollert explores why some of his own students at Booth seem to be having second thoughts about capitalism. He shares his insights from the classroom and explores how the Financial Crisis of 2008 made them skeptical of free markets generally and those people, in particular, who have benefited most by them.

What will the world look like for our grandchildren a century from now? The economist John Maynard Keynes famously asked this question in his 1928 essay, "Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren," and the future he saw included a world of plenty and 15-hour work weeks. In this episode of the In-House Ethicist, John Paul Rollert follows Keynes's lead and looks another 100 years into the future. He envisions a world where brainpower will be passé and most people will struggle to climb the heights of what he calls a Charismocracy.

Money weighs on the minds of almost everyone from time to time, but the way a rich person tracks his stock gains and the poor man tallies his pennies is different in degree and kind. In this episode of the In-House Ethicist, John Paul Rollert takes up the different ways in which money can preoccupy us, drawing on insights of writers like John Maynard Keynes, Karl Marx, and William Shakespeare as well as his own experience cleaning dorm rooms in college.