Last week I came across a battered copy of a little book that was used in almost every primary school between 1933 and the late-1960s….Those of us who daily sang those hymns and prayed those prayers were shaped by their attitudes and values. They reflected what we might call the Protestant affirmation of ordinary life. All occupations are vocations under God and the purpose and satisfaction of work is not to heap up material possessions for ourselves, but to contribute towards the common good.
The present crisis in financial markets suggests that this has not been the orientation of some, if not all of us, in more recent years. Not just bankers. We have all helped ourselves to the fruits of their activities and shut our eyes to the risks. Some of the politicians who now decry the money-men are the same politicians that previously lauded their boldness and creativity. Some of the clergy who denounce them were quite happy to accept the better stipends they made possible. If we are to learn from our mistakes we need to turn from moralising to morality.
Despite the turbulence and the risks, it’s hard to see any alternative system with the same capacity as capitalism to lift the world’s poor out of poverty – which is surely what any social ethic demands. However, this crisis has revealed that we have all become less motivated by that concern for common good commended in that book of Prayers and Hymns.
Socialism without ethics can bring ruin on us all.
Communism without ethics can bring ruin on us all.
Feudalism without ethics can bring ruin on us all.
Cottage Industrialism without ethics can bring ruin on us all.
Democracy without ethics can bring ruin on us all.
Monarchy without ethics can bring ruin on us all.
There is no political or economic system that will work without the vast majority of participants being self-regulated ethically and morally.
This should come as no surprise.
YBIC,
Phil Snyder
We live in an age when good intentions have replaced ethics. Government demand that banks issue loans to people who couldn’t afford them because it was necessary to make life “fair” once again demonstrates where good intentions lead.
When we took God out of the classroom, we took ethics out as well. I’m afraid it’s that simple.
You CANT have capitalism without ethics. Capitalism (free exchange of property between two willing parties) is by definition ethical.
“Capitalism (free exchange of property between two willing parties) is by definition ethical” —JustinMartyr [#4]
Islamists love this rhetorical trick: defining your cause in idealized terms so that you can deny it ever does wrong: e.g., “Because Islam is a religion of peace, it can play no role in inciting terrorism.”
_ _ _ _ _ _
You define capitalism as “free exchange of property between two willing parties.” But doesn’t capitalism also include exchanging property for services or services for property? When you work for wages, your employer pays you money.
Is prostitution ethical?
“Cottage Industrialism without ethics can bring ruin on us all” —#1
Well put! And let no one say cottage industries get off lightly at T19!
Hugo Chavez: “Comrade Bush announced he will buy shares in private banks.” Have we come to the end of a capitalist experiment that like democracy is doomed to fail?
“Government demand that banks issue loans to people who couldn’t afford themâ€
—Celtichorse [#2]
This accusation is false—and no less false for being so persistently repeated.
Neither in principle nor in practice did the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) force lenders to make bad loans.
http://new.kendallharmon.net/wp-content/uploads/index.php/t19/article/16653/#285444
http://new.kendallharmon.net/wp-content/uploads/index.php/t19/print_w_comments/16417/#282378
CRA lending has had “about the same†or “somewhat higher†profitability than banks’ other lending.
http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/surveys/craloansurvey/cratables.pdf (tables 3a, 4a & 5a)
Who generated most subprime loans? Not banks but mortgage companies and other firms to which the CRA does not apply. http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/53802.html The CRA applies to only one of the top 25 subprime lenders.
Yes, Capitalism without ethics can bring financial ruin.
That being said, Socialism is the only form of government in the history of the world that has demonstrated the capacity to kill over 100,000,000 of their own people. [ http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/20TH.HTM ]
If I must choose, I will choose the possibility of financial ruin over the possibility of mass murder at the hands of socialist governments that think “they” know what is best for everyone. The Nanny State is also malevolent at a fundamental level.
For a good read on this: http://www.americanthinker.com/2005/03/return_of_the_swastika_1.html
All should remember that Adam Smith was not an economist. He wrote from his chair of Moral Philosophy at Univ. of Edinburgh.