I’m continuing my reporting on the current installment of Conservative Estimate, the recently founded website that is devoted to demolishing Conservatism.
On Friday Alfred George showed that “job creators” are not necessary in a decent society, because jobs that really need to be done generate themselves.
Today he writes about how the profit motive, the bottom line in Capitalism, can easily lead people away front he straight and narrow, because making profit can be more alluring than the Good.
Let’s cross the orange Rubicon to see his argument.
Mr. George begins by pointing out the fact that there is nothing inherently good about profit, despite the fact that many business people and economists seem to think that it is an unquestionable good.
This is patently false. Decent people rightly regard some forms of profit-making as despicable—for instance, loan-sharking, dealing in life-destroying drugs, pimping, and any activity that harms others. Making profit is not a self-explanatory reason for the existence of any activity.
But it is not unquestionably
bad either. Mr. George reminds us that the Bible does not say “money is the root of all evil,” but “
love of money is the root of all evil.” This indicates that money and profit are not bad
in themselves, but that it is our attitude toward them and our use of them that is good or bad.
Then Mr. George goes on to point out how everyone knows that profit can tempt people to do things they might not otherwise do.
[I]t is a commonplace both in life and in art that the allure of profit quickly tempts those who are weak in character to war against the Good. The many stories of corruption coming out of the most recent Wall Street collapse are proof of that. Once people start down the path to producing profit, they can easily lose all sense of right and wrong. Focused solely on the bottom line, aiming directly at the target of making as much money as is humanly possible, people like Jack Abramoff and Bernie Madoff get lost in a maze of rationalization and self-justification.
Hence he concludes that the profit motives stands in forceful conflict with the Good.
You can read the whole post here.
Tomorrow, having described the nature of the conflict between the profit motive and the Good, Mr George will show how the profit motive deteriorates personal morality.
I’ll be reporting back each day as a new installment appears.