Capitalism has ethics. Even if the profit motive were supreme, that would be an ethic. Choosing to be evil is an ethical stance.
But in practice capitalists are always ready to sacrifice their profits and prosperity to maintain hierarchies, and more specifically white supremacy. Capitalists will pay billions to bail out banks so that the banks maintain their hierarchy over the capital of the petit bourgeoisie.
Capitalists will pay trillions to fight wars to destroy a nation’s production capacity to prevent them from becoming socialist egalitarian, or to secure control of oil deposits that will produce mere billions in profits to shore up their dominance over the market.
Capitalists will burn down a low-status corporate department and spend millions on temporary replacements rather than admit their work is necessary. They will work employees to the bone rather than profit off their relaxed creativity.
Capitalist insurance companies will rather waste billions of dollars on birth complications rather than tell doctors to defer to midwives on birth positions. They will rather be in the lurch for millions of dollars of emergency healthcare for the medically bankrupt than provide preventative care.
In capitalism, profit is an excuse for exploitation. If you intend to exploit people and you’re upper class, there are always venture capitalists willing to give your idea a try. If you intend to empower people and have scientific studies to prove it’s profitable, then sadly they just need a couple more studies believe you.
And if you manage to crowdsource the funding to do the profitable empowering thing, inspectors and cops and vandals will come crawling out of the woodwork to tear you down. And if none of that sticks, they will create a competitor to operate at a loss to drive you out of business and restore the capitalist hierarchy.
Capitalism has ethics. Even if the profit motive were supreme, that would be an ethic. Choosing to be evil is an ethical stance.
But in practice capitalists are always ready to sacrifice their profits and prosperity to maintain hierarchies, and more specifically white supremacy. Capitalists will pay billions to bail out banks so that the banks maintain their hierarchy over the capital of the petit bourgeoisie.
Capitalists will pay trillions to fight wars to destroy a nation’s production capacity to prevent them from becoming socialist egalitarian, or to secure control of oil deposits that will produce mere billions in profits to shore up their dominance over the market.
Capitalists will burn down a low-status corporate department and spend millions on temporary replacements rather than admit their work is necessary. They will work employees to the bone rather than profit off their relaxed creativity.
Capitalist insurance companies will rather waste billions of dollars on birth complications rather than tell doctors to defer to midwives on birth positions. They will rather be in the lurch for millions of dollars of emergency healthcare for the medically bankrupt than provide preventative care.
In capitalism, profit is an excuse for exploitation. If you intend to exploit people and you’re upper class, there are always venture capitalists willing to give your idea a try. If you intend to empower people and have scientific studies to prove it’s profitable, then sadly they just need a couple more studies believe you.
And if you manage to crowdsource the funding to do the profitable empowering thing, inspectors and cops and vandals will come crawling out of the woodwork to tear you down. And if none of that sticks, they will create a competitor to operate at a loss to drive you out of business and restore the capitalist hierarchy.