Profit is ethical. It is the only sane motive for economic activity, at least for masses of people. But every last ounce of profit at any cost: terrible.
Corporations are not families, but for a long time, in America, there was dual loyalty. Employees felt it towards the company, and the company towards them. That ended, again, some time in the late 1970’s to the 1980’s, largely as a result of what newly minted MBA’s from top schools were taught and went out into the world and practiced.
Virtually every problem in the modern world in the realms of economics and public policy is the direct result of academics. I will not overlook the vast progress in the sciences, but anything touched in any way by bad philosophy has been corrupted by academics and metastasized.
In the realm of culture, we would all be better off, I think, if all Humanities departments were abolished, as they exist in the main today.
That is perhaps going much too far, but perhaps it is not going far enough. What role should we allow in our society for ruinous ideas? To what extent should we publicly fund their propagation?
This post was occasioned by a trip someone was describing to me of a trip to Avery Island and the McinHenny Company, which makes Tabasco. Apparently they take care of their workers very well. Every company could do that.
And here is the thing: even if greed is good, what is it good for? More money flows through the system, landing preferentially among those at the top, and what do they use it for? Booze, women, and fancy trips and fancy cars. That is our society as it exists today. Our elite are self absorbed hedonists.