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This is true in the sense that a market economy, i.e. capitalism, is based on morality. Few people are aware of the moral justification for capitalism. Morali
by EarthLaunch 13y ago
This is true in the sense that a market economy, i.e. capitalism, is based on morality. Few people are aware of the moral justification for capitalism. Morality trumps politics. Without a moral justification, the market economy won't survive.
> "No social system (and no human institution or activity of any kind) can survive without a moral base. On the basis of the altruist morality, capitalism had to be—and was—damned from the start." -Ayn Rand, Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, 30
- PavlovsCat 13y agoWhen was capitalism ever based on altruism? Isn't the idea rather that everybody being as selfish as possible magically leads to good results?
- lumberjack 13y agoThe idea you are referring to is about self interest not selfishness.
- PavlovsCat 13y agoI know that the idea is enlightened self-interest. Is it in the enlightened self-interest of a person that after they died, there is still life in the Universe? Is it in my enlightened self-interest that those who starve and have no water have a better life? What, exactly, is the difference between self-interest and selfishness? Is one not just a euphemism for the other?
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- eli_gottlieb 13y agoInitially it was based on that. Then, when that didn't work, it shifted over to Ayn Rand's "material self-interest is the only good" system of ethics.