To Desire to Make Capitalism Moral Is, in Reality, to Demand Its Suppression

[marmar]

To Desire to Make Capitalism Moral Is, in Reality, to Demand Its Suppression

Sunday, 19 May 2013 11:15
By Yvon Quiniou, L'Humanite in English | Op-Ed


Moralizing capitalism, what does this mean and is it conceivable?

(Original French Article: Vouloir le rendre moral, c’est, en réalité, exiger sa suppression; translated Wednesday 15 May 2013, by Leopold O’Shea).


The demand to moralize capitalism emerged in public debate, ironically, during Nicholas Sarkozy’s term of office, while he himself was embarking on ultra-free-market policy laden with scandalous human consequences. Its expression however is sapped by a strange contradiction, which manifests its limitations from the start. This contradiction presupposes that there is indeed something immoral in capitalism, since it would not need to be moralized otherwise. And at the same time, and for the same reason, it implies that such a moralization is possible: one does not demand what cannot be done, and at the horizon of this is the idea that a more moral capitalism is perfectly conceivable. I want to untangle this contradiction and denounce this imposture.

The contradiction stems from what is conceived of as immoral in the functioning of this system: the excesses of certain agents like traders, the unbelievable salaries of company heads or the acts of bosses now characterized as criminal, in short the behavior of certain individuals one can isolate from the system while leaving it intact, the reduction of the former thus allowing a return to the normal functioning of the latter, to which full consent is otherwise given. The limits of this attitude, which is seductive if one isn’t vigilant, are visible from the start: capitalism is criticized morally, but only at the margins, in some of its aspects, not in its essence. At this level it is considered as good for man and as serving his interests. Conclusion: if we confront these particular slip-ups, it can be made moral again.

This is a theoretic imposture. To see it, a return to Marx’s understanding of capitalist economy must be undertaken. The latter is not a set of objective processes, comparable to natural ones, and independent of man — in which case it would not, in fact, be strictly moral but amoral, escaping moral judgment, as the 20th century free market theoretician Hayek strongly maintained, for whom only the actions of an individual can be characterized as just or unjust, not a whole social system intended by no one; on the contrary, it is a set of practices by which certain people act in relation to other people in the field of the production of wealth: by buying their workforce, by paying them, by deciding on their working hours and the forms that these take, and, if need be, by making them redundant, etc. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/16461-to-desire-to-make-capitalism-moral-is-in-reality-to-demand-its-suppression