Unregulated capitalism is amoral

Resolved: Unregulated capitalism is amoral. Unrestrained, unbridled, uncontrolled, capitalism is bereft of moral considerations. Without restriction on monopolies/mergers, and without labor rights, capitalism will eventually consolidate wealth into the hands of a few at the expense of the many. However, this is not to imply that capitalism has no value, indeed it does, as an engine that runs an economy. It is a powerful force. A market economy has the potential to improve standards of living and quality of life, but only when it is directed to do so. Capitalism is a force without conscience and so it must be balanced by ethical considerations. Definitions Unregulated: not regulated; not subject to rule or discipline Capitalism: an economic system in which the investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations, especially as contrasted to cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth. Amoral: Not admitting of moral distinctions or judgments; neither moral nor immoral. Lacking moral sensibility; not caring about right and wrong. "Unregulated Capitalism" is essentially allowing private business to operate with impunity, or permitting private business to write public policy so that the law no longer impedes profit making, even at the expense of labor, environmental, and human rights. This ideal business climate is often called laissez-faire… Laissez-Faire:a doctrine opposing governmental interference in economic affairs beyond the minimum necessary for the maintenance of peace and property rights. (from Merriam-Webster) 1. Capitalism in the Past History shows us that business owners are willing to treat people like things. The treatment of humans a labor commodity dates back to the beginning of time, as if evidenced by discussions of slavery in the writings of the Geeks and in the bible. Slavery and feudalism predate the industrial revolution, but the circumstances of all three arrangements illustrate the willingness of private financial interests to exploit people for profit. Industry only cedes power when it is forced to. The conditions for factory workers in Europe during the industrial revolution were so abhorrent that Karl Marx wrote the Communist Manifesto in reaction to what he saw. A combination of reformers organizing worker protests, public outrage, and community activism, finally forced change - largely through legislation that limited the number hours that a child could be forced to work. Great Britain passed the Factory act of 1819 which limited the number of hours that children could work to a maximum of 12 hours a day. In the Factory Act of 1833 children under nine were banned from working in the textile industry, and older children were limited to 48 hours a week, and so on through the 19the century, incremental change was evinced by persistent legislative actions to limit the power of employers over workers. http://www.schoolshistory.org.uk... http://www.saburchill.com... 2. Capitalism Now Children still die working in factories today, this happens in any country that has not passed laws to protect workers from the exploits of business interests - Korea, Mexico, and India are but a few capitalist countries where exploitation is rampant because business goes largely unregulated. The IMF and the World Bank, two of global capitalism's biggest players, have "led the race to the bottom" and when challenged by labor or human rights groups they have simply rewritten laws. http://www.globalissues.org... http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org... The less countries regulate the treatment of workers, the worse their workers are treated. The absence of unions in a workplace correlates with higher job site death and injury rates. http://www.freedomhouse.org... The problems of the past are the problems of the present, and without stronger labor rights and regulations, will be the problems of the future. Power and greed corrupt uniformly, and as our recent economic debacle in the U.S. illustrates, the fox cannot be trusted to watch the hen house. 3. A system based on Greed Capitalism in its purest form sets no boundaries on the behavior of business. It operates with one clear goal: increasing profits. It is frequently thought that in the capitalistic sense, greed is good. This indeed was the concept put forth by one of capitalism's greatest supporters Milton Freidman http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca... But, to base a system on greed is to deny that ethical considerations are important, or necessary, in our mode of production. Power doesn't capitulate willingly. Labor rights were not given, but rather won by hard fights and enormous tragedy like the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in 1911. In that case it was public outcry that motivated change, and the recent rash of suicides at Apple's Foxconn factory in China, again it was public outcry that embarrassed Apple enough for them to make some promises for improved conditions. http://business-ethics.com... Although it seems now that many of those promises were empty. http://news.cnet.com... http://news.cnet.com... Another example of amoral behavior by capitalist entities is the existence of "Dead Peasant" policies: http://deadpeasantinsurance.com... Corporate Owned Life Insurance Policies are just one creepy way that private businesses make money surreptitiously off the death of employees. Disclosure of COLI wasn't even necessary until 2006. http://abcnews.go.com... Other examples of rampant greed: trading in hedge funds, derivatives and speculation on water, food or fuel resources that are vital to life. Food speculation blamed for famine in East Africa: http://www.swissinfo.ch... Monopolies on primary goods are seeds of revolution waiting to bloom. http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org... Fuel speculation spikes prices: http://www.huffingtonpost.com... Wall Street itself exhibits a pathological addiction to gambling (speculation), and resistance to regulation and taxation shows that greed and recklessness rule the day when capitalism is freed of ethical considerations: http://www.ted.com... http://www.wdm.org.uk... I can find no evidence that capitalism contains any inherent ethical considerations. Rather, the opposite seems apparent – that capitalist entities only take human rights into account when they are absolutely forced to, by protest, legislation, boycott, or public embarrassment. And, while it may be possible to find a few exceptions to this general trend, the overall abuses of unbridled capitalism far outweigh the occasional self-motivated acts of conscience. *Note that I am not arguing that capitalism is immoral – though I might do so with a fair amount of justification – I am only arguing that its primary concern is for profit and that ethical considerations are factored in mostly as a facet of public relations.