Most of us tend not to think of capitalism as a moral system. The prevailing view of the free market, among laypeople and economists alike, is that it's one step removed from the law of the jungle. But the fact is that capitalism has always had an explicit moral framework that runs as a thread through the writings of Adam Smith, Milton Friedman, and Friedrich Hayek among other foundational thinkers.
[This article was provided with permission from Harvard Business School Working Knowledge.]
This is unreal. The authors cannot be serious, for the results of \"upholding capitalism\" is everywhere to see. Yes, people get richer, but at what social cost? Are they happier because of it? Should we ask the factory worker in China? Capitalism is a short-cut that makes privileged people feel better, instead of asking the real question: is this way of economic functioning really beneficial to people? Communities? Environment? Putting it in a simplistic GDP growth or some other similar metric is short-sighted and reveals intellectual laziness. So let\'s ask the real question - what are real goals of an economic system? Economic equality? Sustainable growth? Environment and resource conservation? Now pull out Capitalism\'s score card on this and let\'s see how well it does and then make a case whether managers owe it to the system or not. Managers are people, and they owe nothing to a particular line of economic though looks at them as cogs in a bigger machine. Try this BS somewhere else.
on Aug 22, 2013