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Respect Other People: Moral and Cultural Conditions of Human Dignity

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The Keynesian Revolution and Our Empty Economy

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Abstract

How do economic systems shape the way we treat other people? Major economic paradigms before the Keynesian Revolution began from a view that human beings had an inviolable dignity. The Consumption paradigm treats human beings as bundles of irrational appetites that respond to stimuli and can be easily manipulated. Since our economic lives include our most intimate and important personal decisions, political control over the economy implies political control over nearly every decision. This creeping totalitarianism of economic management is the gravest threat of hollow prosperity.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The full quote is: “There is one and only one social responsibility of business – to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud” (Friedman 1970). Friedman added that the people running the business should obey the moral duties they discern themselves to be under to their consciences, their families and their nations; and that it is government’s responsibility to pass laws to accomplish social ends, and businesses must comply with these laws. His argument is that the business itself is distinct from the people running it and from the government regulating it, and it ought to leave moral discernment and social regulation to these two agencies respectively. We may ask whether it is desirable, or even possible, for a business to operate without institutionalizing in its practices ethical judgments that reach beyond the bounds Friedman permits; even Friedman acknowledges that because businesses are “artificial persons” they may have “artificial responsibilities.” But there is no question that Friedman acknowledges the pervasive presence of social and governmental moral influence upon business activity.

  2. 2.

    See Plato’s Meno.

  3. 3.

    See Plato’s Phaedo.

  4. 4.

    Estimated deaths in Ukraine range from 3.3 million (Snyder 2010, 53) to 7.5 million (Marples 2007, 50) and about 2 million died in Kazakhstan (Pianciola 2001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers, FL, USA

    Victor V. Claar

  2. Trinity International University, Deerfield, IL, USA

    Greg Forster

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  1. Victor V. Claar
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  2. Greg Forster
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Correspondence to Victor V. Claar .

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Claar, V.V., Forster, G. (2019). Respect Other People: Moral and Cultural Conditions of Human Dignity. In: The Keynesian Revolution and Our Empty Economy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15808-8_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15808-8_10

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

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