Sauve-qui-peut

Question

A terribly sophisticated British magazine (which, of course, is way over my head) had these words: "But [country X's] welfare capitalism is very different from the state-controlled capitalism of [country Y], which is in turn almost wholly different from the free-market, sauve-qui-peut capitalism of [country Z]."

I ran to my dictionary, which told me that the French phrase (literally "save who can") means "panic" or "disorder."

Would you kindly explain to this humble soul what "sauve-qui-peut capitalism" means in good old plain English?

Thank you

Clive · Accepted Answer

Hi James,

I take it to mean free-for-all, anything-goes, every man for himself, survival of the fittest capitalism.
ie completely unregulated.

Clive

Henry74 · Answer

Sauve-qui-peut is a sentence you hear in disaster movies, especially disasters at sea, and usually goes together with Abandon ship! I'm not sure what a native English would say, maybe Save yourself/yourselves!
So, Clive's interpretation seems correct. A sort of savage capitalism that has you run for your life (or maybe "pockets" in this case).

CalifJim · Answer

James Msauve-qui-peut

When military discipline fails, the battle is being lost, and the troops are being routed, the cry goes up, "Sauve qui peut!" (Let every man save himself who can. ~ Run for your life.) The implication is that it's too late to save anyone else, so you had better give up any pretensions that you can be heroic. It's time to act in your own self-interest. So to the paraphrases already offered I would add "selfish capitalism".

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

Thank you very much, Clive, Henry74, and CalifJim, for your enlightening replies. (It does hurt a bit to hear a "certain" country's economic system described in such terms, though!)

Sauve-qui-peut

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