Re:Economics education can shift people in a selfish direction?
by skylan_q on Sunday August 31, 2014 @05:55PM
(#8250502)
What do we know about capitalism's properties? Its supporters constantly talk about the moral benefits of sociopathic behavior. They say it harnesses humanity's greed... as if that's the only emotion to consider. (Rather than saying it rewards greed and punishes empathy.) So what else do we expect from courses in captalist doctrine?
It should be realized that the capitalist system should be treated as an economic mode. Far too often, people take capitalism to be a moral end.
I still consider the capitalist system the best for meeting human material needs when it doesn't take precedence over moral and ethical considerations.
Econ-as-morality becomes clear when we discuss challengers/improvements to capitalism, and flamewars erupt. (And not just unimaginative alternatives like Soviet socialism, as if the only alternative to Coke is Pepsi...)
What do we know about capitalism's properties? Its supporters constantly talk about the moral benefits of sociopathic behavior. They say it harnesses humanity's greed... as if that's the only emotion to consider. (Rather than saying it rewards greed and punishes empathy.) So what else do we expect from courses in captalist doctrine?
And this is obvious when we imagine (largely uncritical) training in any other economic system; training in morality.