I think of capitalism more as the idea that, even when everybody is selfish, it still works out surprisingly well. You could come up with a set of values that would do the most good in a capitalist system composed mostly of selfish people, and call them capitalist values, but I don’t think that’s really the point.
I don’t think there’s some capitalist value that it’s intrinsically moral to grab all the money you can get. There is instead a capitalist belief that if you do try to grab all the money you can get, you will have to help more people than you hurt to do so. Well, they’d probably try to deny the hurt part completely, because most people don’t understand that policy debates should not appear one-sided, but you get the idea.
I think of capitalism more as the idea that, even when everybody is selfish, it still works out surprisingly well. You could come up with a set of values that would do the most good in a capitalist system composed mostly of selfish people, and call them capitalist values, but I don’t think that’s really the point.
I don’t think there’s some capitalist value that it’s intrinsically moral to grab all the money you can get. There is instead a capitalist belief that if you do try to grab all the money you can get, you will have to help more people than you hurt to do so. Well, they’d probably try to deny the hurt part completely, because most people don’t understand that policy debates should not appear one-sided, but you get the idea.