Abstract
The predominant economic theory in the United States and most of the developed world emphasizes competitive relations among individuals or institutions. These relations are often justified by traditional moral concepts such as justice, equality, rights, etc. The ethics of care, on the other hand, emphasizes personal relationships among individuals in their communities and takes interdependence as a necessary condition for achieving individual interests. Prima facie, the ethics of care seems to be, at best, irrelevant and, at worse, inconsistent with this economic theory. I argue that the claim that the ethics of care is irrelevant is misguided. The claim that it is inconsistent with the predominant economic theory, on the other hand, seems correct. This, however, need not be viewed as a flaw of the ethics of care since, I contend, it is more plausibly construed as a flaw of the predominant economic system. The ethics of care is relevant to economic theory in two ways. Firstly, it is relevant in settling disputes within the preferred economic theory. The ethics of care places primary importance on the interests of the individuals who are affected the most by such arrangements. Secondly, it is relevant in evaluating competing economic theories. The ethics of care can ensure that an economic theory creates a system that will positively affect the individuals and their societies by assigning primary roles to them. The relevancy of the ethics of care further suggests that any inconsistency between it and an economic system should count against the economic system. An economic theory, if it is to be justified, must be conducive to the welfare of the individuals in their communities. The ethics of care can help us determine whether an economic theory can be justified.
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Notes
- 1.
The terms “corporate” or “corporations” are intended to have a wide scope as to include any private or state owned company.
- 2.
Slote (1998) views the ethics of care as an agent-based virtue ethics of caring. Held (2006) argues that Slote “misses the centrality of caring relations for an ethics of care” (p. 51). A caring person, according to her, not only needs to have the intention to care and the disposition to care effectively but must also participate in caring relations. Although I agree with Held, whether the ethics of care is an independent moral theory or a version of virtue ethics is not pertinent to my argument.
- 3.
See Rousseau (1986).
- 4.
- 5.
The results were presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Boston.
- 6.
See Cookson (2008).
- 7.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) reports that global cancer rates are expected to increase by 50% to 15 million in the year 2020. (Press Release No 145 in April 3, 2003.)
- 8.
The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Report published in January 2011 paints a similar story.
- 9.
This explanation is nevertheless incorrect since it ignores that the financial sector was aware that the were selling “bundles” of and selling insolvent loans. For a comprehensive analysis see Baruchello (2011).
- 10.
Natural Law Theory provides justification for the former while Kantian Ethics provides justification for the latter.
- 11.
Held (1993) believes that the ethics of care is only applicable to the private realm and proposes to combine it with the ethics of justice, which she views as applicable to the public realm. Gelfand (2004), on the other hand, argues that justice can be conceived as a part of caring. Slote (1998) makes a similar argument.
- 12.
McMurtry’s value theory offers a compelling criterion to determine real needs. See McMurtry (2005).
- 13.
- 14.
Held argues that neo-liberalism ignores these relations.
- 15.
Decisions made by individuals who interact with one another through or in markets often have negative effects on individuals outside the market. Economists use the term “externalities” to refer to such costs. Air or water pollution is an example of an externality (Wolff and Resnick 1987). It is worth noting that corporations can pass such costs to others without violating Friedman’s provisions since externalities need not arise from either deception or fraud.
- 16.
Noam Chomsky provides this analogy in the documentary “The Corporation”, which is based on the book by Joel Bakan (2004).
- 17.
See Shaw 2011: 230.
- 18.
Since executives virtually determine their own pay by appointing the board of trustees, they are not on a par with an average worker.
- 19.
I am grateful to Giorgio Baruchello, Douglas Woods, and an anonymous referee for helpful comments.
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Gatzia, D.E. (2011). Towards a Caring Economy. In: Hamington, M., Sander-Staudt, M. (eds) Applying Care Ethics to Business. Issues in Business Ethics, vol 34. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9307-3_4
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