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applegrove

(118,017 posts)
Thu May 16, 2013, 10:01 PM May 2013

"Capitalism might be making us evil"

Capitalism might be making us evil

By Jason Notte at MSN Money

http://money.msn.com/now/post.aspx?post=0dac2ad2-529a-4d16-bb59-5a886487f45c

"SNIP............................

It's just some non-MBA's quack theory that the market strips away all humanity and transforms people into commodities and resources rather than sentient beings whose welfare must be taken into account. There's no quantitative truth to that, right?

Well, maybe just the research of a couple of German economists.

According to a release from the universities of Bamberg and Bonn, a study by economists Armin Falk and Nora Szech released in the journal Science found that markets erode people's morality and help them make decisions that look outright awful without the thin veil of commerce. In short, capitalism makes us do some not-so-nice things.

Of course, shoppers who went out and bought clothes at retailers tied to the deaths of more than 1,100 textile workers in Bangladesh and who buy jeans that CNN says have caused whole rivers in China to turn blue already know this. But the study's key question -- would you let a mouse be killed in exchange for 10 euros? -- presented the theory in far starker terms.

...........................SNIP"
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"Capitalism might be making us evil" (Original Post) applegrove May 2013 OP
At some level I think many have instinctively known this. Sekhmets Daughter May 2013 #1
"Capitalism might be making us evil". Boy there's an understatement of the century! Initech May 2013 #2
The quacks deserve the Nobel Prize in Economics. Octafish May 2013 #3
Stating the totally obvious. nt Zorra May 2013 #4
Avarice and greed from the people that propel us down a cliff. Rex May 2013 #5
Marx called, he said this over 100 years ago. Starry Messenger May 2013 #6
From what I understand, during the vetting process for potential employees at Goldman Sachs..... marmar May 2013 #7
I'm not sure 'evil' is the correct term Cirque du So-What May 2013 #8
Sure. " Doin bidness" truebluegreen May 2013 #10
Nothing personal, you understand Cirque du So-What May 2013 #13
That's it exactly. nt truebluegreen May 2013 #15
IMHO: Duh. truebluegreen May 2013 #9
Umm, didn't Jesus tell us this, about 2000 years ago? reformist2 May 2013 #11
Human Resources... MNBrewer May 2013 #12
'Human resources' Cirque du So-What May 2013 #14
+100000. Well said. woo me with science May 2013 #17
What's human resources?... Oh you must be talking about human capital management. nt limpyhobbler May 2013 #18
Oh, hogwash. Every economic system is "evil," if you go looking for it. Honeycombe8 May 2013 #16
It doesn't have to be evil, but it pays better than being noble. raouldukelives May 2013 #19
I agree regulated markets are the way applegrove May 2013 #21
Sadly for the human race, moondust May 2013 #20
The sun might also rise in the east. TheKentuckian May 2013 #22
Ya think? Control-Z May 2013 #23
One of those studies that make you go... socialist_n_TN May 2013 #24

Sekhmets Daughter

(7,515 posts)
1. At some level I think many have instinctively known this.
Thu May 16, 2013, 10:05 PM
May 2013

We are currently paying the price for ignoring our instincts.

 

Rex

(65,616 posts)
5. Avarice and greed from the people that propel us down a cliff.
Thu May 16, 2013, 10:11 PM
May 2013

Capitalism is only as good or evil as the PTB and Owners let it be.

marmar

(76,982 posts)
7. From what I understand, during the vetting process for potential employees at Goldman Sachs.....
Thu May 16, 2013, 10:15 PM
May 2013

....... you more or less have to demonstrate that you have no conscience.


Cirque du So-What

(25,812 posts)
8. I'm not sure 'evil' is the correct term
Thu May 16, 2013, 10:36 PM
May 2013

but I believe it's made societies more sociopathic. 'Evil' implies malice and bad intentions, whereas 'sociopathy' is just doin' bidness.

Cirque du So-What

(25,812 posts)
14. 'Human resources'
Thu May 16, 2013, 11:41 PM
May 2013

a charming euphemism for ensuring corporate interests are satisfied. No one should *ever* make the mistake of thinking that HR is looking out for *your* interests.

woo me with science

(32,139 posts)
17. +100000. Well said.
Fri May 17, 2013, 12:08 AM
May 2013

Corporate ethics are not human ethics.

Corporations exist to make a profit so that they can sustain and strengthen and grow themselves. That is their purpose in existing, and all other concerns become secondary to the corporate bottom line.

Remember the recent scandal with bird seed sales, in which a company knowingly sold poisoned seed, because they calculated that any fines incurred for doing so would cause less of a financial blow than the sales they would lose if they withheld the tainted product.

This is exactly the type of decision-making we invite into our lives and the lives of our children, when we cede governmental power to corporate rule and corporate ethics.

As you rightly point out, human beings become nothing more than "human resources," entries on a ledger to be manipulated so as to yield the greatest possible profit, or to be crossed out when they are no longer profitable. This is the type of morality that justifies slashing social safety nets for the elderly, or selling out our school systems or our prisons or our health care systems to the most ruthless money-grubbing enterprises.

We are just beginning to wake up to the horrific consequences of ceding government control over our lives and the lives of our children to corporate ethics and morality.

Honeycombe8

(37,648 posts)
16. Oh, hogwash. Every economic system is "evil," if you go looking for it.
Fri May 17, 2013, 12:06 AM
May 2013

If someone is starving, what will he do to get a meal? Not money. A meal. Is that capitalism? Not unless he traded something on the open market for the meal. If they just give it to him, that's socialism, right?

People are people. There are weak people, evil people, good people, upstanding moral people. If we learned anything, we learned that during WWII. The people who risked their lives helping the Jews or others the Nazis were sending to concentration camps...and those who didn't help.

A person's nature is what it is, I think. Being mega wealthy hasn't turned Buffet into Genghis Khan. Or Soros. Or Angelina Jolie. Or Richard Branson.

There was plenty of evil goin' on when the socialists took over Russia.

raouldukelives

(5,178 posts)
19. It doesn't have to be evil, but it pays better than being noble.
Fri May 17, 2013, 01:27 AM
May 2013

Which is why we need major regulations, major reforms and a major focus on what kind of a world we are leaving.
I find it hard to blame consumers. They buy what is available, what they are conditioned to buy with stress addled minds no match for the forces of the market and non-stop advertising.
But the ones in the markets, the ones pushing for ever cheaper wages, the ones willing to trade their time on this earth in the pursuit of assisiting those corporations knowingly making things worse and those who would gladly share in the profits with them, they are the real problem.
Sadly, it appears to be unable to change or allow itself to be changed. They hold all the cards. The entire world is now being Enron'd.

applegrove

(118,017 posts)
21. I agree regulated markets are the way
Fri May 17, 2013, 01:56 AM
May 2013

to go. Regulated for safety,the environment, the worst excesses and market failure amongst others.

moondust

(19,917 posts)
20. Sadly for the human race,
Fri May 17, 2013, 01:40 AM
May 2013

the worst of the soulless creatures have come to own and operate most everything, for their own benefit, and in a general sense decide how things are going to be...for everybody.

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