Markets and Ethics

Abstract

This chapter will show that a compelling ethical case can be made for the market that takes into account questions of self-ownership, economic efficiency and the altruistic desire to help other people. While the classical Marxist and socialist critics of capitalism believed that capitalism was both inefficient and immoral in comparison to the socialist alternative, today it is more frequently alleged that although capitalism may be more efficient than any alternative economic system, it is nevertheless a form of economic organization that encourages and rewards selfishness, dishonesty and other forms of immoral behaviour (for example, Plant 1999; Wilson 1995).