Re:Without morality, the market economy will destroy itself
by AnthonyMouse on Saturday December 21, 2013 @10:48PM
(#6949252)
> When you start demanding that morality, for all its subjectivity and relativity, be involved with economics, you invite troubles. The next step is for morality to be mandated through regulations.
That logic is the problem -- particularly on the part of the people who actually want to implement it. Legislating morality is a disease that encourages people to believe they only need to act morally when the law forces them to.
The thing about markets is that they don't want anything in particular. It isn't "markets" that want poor people to remain poor, it's a collection of specific instances of non-poor people who choose to value something else over improving the lot of the poor. A market is just a collection of people doing whatever it is they think is best. It doesn't have a conscience outside of the individuals that make it up, but its results do reflect the collective choices of the participants.
That logic is the problem -- particularly on the part of the people who actually want to implement it. Legislating morality is a disease that encourages people to believe they only need to act morally when the law forces them to.
The thing about markets is that they don't want anything in particular. It isn't "markets" that want poor people to remain poor, it's a collection of specific instances of non-poor people who choose to value something else over improving the lot of the poor. A market is just a collection of people doing whatever it is they think is best. It doesn't have a conscience outside of the individuals that make it up, but its results do reflect the collective choices of the participants.