Capitalist society is about using exchange and production to replace looting and killing
Capitalism is the only ethical social system so far? There are indeed some inhumane phenomena in some capitalist societies, but does this reflect human nature or the essence of capitalism?
Author: GUDORDI | 2024-05-24
The identity of a businessman certainly has an important impact on his behavior, but can all behaviors be generalized? (Shutterstock)
The man who first flung a word of abuse at his enemy instead of a spear was the founder of civilisation.
──Sigmund Freud
The author writes in “Is the Capitalist System Just About the Selfish Pursuit of Profit? 〉 Talk about the nature of capitalism and put forward two completely different related famous sentences.
The negative image of capitalism is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people
The first sentence comes from former Polish President Warsaw: “Capitalism works to make money, but it cannot see the general public.” It should reflect many people’s general impression of capitalism, that is, capitalism can release productivity, but the entire The system only advocates money and interests, and does not pay much attention to things that have little to do with them. Therefore, the human side of society is ignored.
In addition to Western societies, Eastern societies also appear to have a negative view of businessmen. In China, the image that every businessman must be a traitor is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. For many years, classes have been divided into scholars, farmers, workers, and merchants. But is this true? It is worth noting that business is a way of making a living. In addition to being a businessman, a businessman is also a person. He may also be other people’s father, husband, son, or friend. He should have been a student, worked in other professions, such as Teachers, civil servants, salesmen…the status of businessmen certainly has an important impact on their behavior, but can they generalize to all behaviors?
Moreover, there are many types of businessmen: crooks, wealthy businessmen, etc. are some of the forms that can appear. The business culture of Europe, America, China, India, the Middle East, and Japan is also different. Can we make an a priori judgment about businessmen or business society?
Thoughts triggered by "Schuttler's List"
The author remembered that more than 30 years ago, I saw a movie ” Schindler’s List” shot by Steven Spielberg . It was said to be based on real people, otherwise it would be difficult to imagine that anyone could make it out of thin air. I came up with this story: A German and a member of the Nazi Party took the opportunity to make war fortune during World War II, hired a group of Jewish employees to open a factory, and made a lot of money, but later he couldn’t bear to see the employees being forced into concentration camps and tortured. massacre, so he tried every means to save his employees from misfortune, and finally managed to escape more than 1,200 Jews at the expense of all their wealth.
This is a touching story that also shows the glorious side of human nature. But we want to go deeper, how should we describe Schuttler? After thinking about it, he may be best described as a speculator, because his original intention is just to be a businessman who makes quick money. However, he is also quite conscience and humane. His employees help him make money, and he does not want to see them being exploited. Sent to a concentration camp, he did not hesitate to spend all his wealth to save this group of helpless Jews. From this perspective, Schuttler can be said to be both a speculator and a humanitarian hero. In fact, there is not necessarily any contradiction between the two, and the motives and results can be completely different.
Does it reflect human nature or the essence of capitalism?
“The truth is rarely pure and never simple”, this is what Oscar Wilde said. It is worth noting that a basic principle of scientific methodology is that when two phenomena appear at the same time, it does not necessarily mean that there is an inevitable relationship between the two. There are indeed some inhumane phenomena in some capitalist societies, but does this reflect human nature or the essence of capitalism? This is difficult to judge.
Moreover, human nature may not have fundamentally changed over the past thousands of years. If human nature remains roughly the same and the social system changes, its dark side will still exist, but the way it manifests will be different. From this perspective, we should ask what kind of system can enable people to bring out their bright side, suppress their dark side, or even transform them into neutral or benign forces.
Running around on the stock exchange is undoubtedly just some profit-seeking behavior, which may not be very noble, but is naked pursuit of profit more acceptable than hypocrisy, false rhetoric and infighting?
Capitalism is the only ethical social system in history?
In any case, the following passage from Ayn Rand’s book Capitalism : the Unknown Ideal is worth pondering:
Capitalism is the only system in history that increases wealth not through plunder but through production; not through force but through trade. It is also the only system that protects people’s basic rights to decide how they think, work, live, be happy, and everything in between.
Capitalism was the only system in history where wealth was not acquired by looting, but by production, not by force, but by trade, the only system that stood for man’s right to his own mind, to his work, to his life, to his happiness, to himself.
As in “The capitalist system is only about the selfish pursuit of profit?” 〉 It begins by pointing out that for Rand, capitalism is the only moral social system so far. Just like the famous quote quoted at the beginning of this article, although speaking foul language is not a glorious thing, it is still more civilized than killing! The evaluation of any phenomenon should consider what the alternatives are within the constraints of reality.
