A major criticism of capitalism taken straight is that it creates an environment that pushes people toward self-interested, greedy, unethical behavior. This is far from necessarily the case, but the emotional force of the argument’s impact alone is enough to drive policy. Unfortunately, a lot of that policy is itself self-interested, greedy, and unethical, if you can imagine that.
Consider the ethics movement in the corporate world. Businesses now commonly have “ethics officers,” and business schools are eager to outdo each other in providing ethics courses in their MBA programs and executive seminars.
But the truth is, capitalism doesn’t make people bad, and ethics courses and officers don’t make them good. Rather, people find ways to use either system to give expression to their fundamental character. See this item from a recent BusinessWeek.com for just another dispiriting example of how this plays out in the contemporary ethics environment.
We can neither legislate nor institutionalize ethics that don’t exist naturally within us. Efforts to pretend we can only trivialize our comprehension and expression of ethical behavior or moral thought. But that doesn’t mean, of course, that we can’t keep trying to figure this one out.
Any ideas?
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If you are interested in this general topic, I encourage you to view the 5-part series on “Karma Capitalism.”
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[...] In a separate article at the same website, another writer agrees that ethics can’t be legislated. We can neither legislate nor institutionalize ethics that don’t exist naturally within us. Efforts to pretend we can only trivialize our comprehension and expression of ethical behavior or moral thought. [...]
[...] In a separate article at the same website, another writer agrees that ethics can’t be legislated. We can neither legislate nor institutionalize ethics that don’t exist naturally within us. Efforts to pretend we can only trivialize our comprehension and expression of ethical behavior or moral thought. [...]
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