College of Business Administration

Seminar in Business and the Good Society

Discussion Questions for March 19, 2003:

1) What is your simple one line definition of capitalism? And why?

2) What’s the big deal with capitalism?

• Does it deserve to be the title of our current society?
• Is capitalism strictly a kind of economics or is it a social structure?
• Was it a natural progression of the feudal and imperialistic societies ahead of it or did it spontaneously combust with the input of the worldly philosophers?

3) Does this equation hold true today in our society: wealth = prestige = power?

• Has the relationship of these 3 ideas changed over the last 100, 200, 300 years?

4) Heilbroner discusses the fact that the advantage property owners have in a capitalistic society is that they can legally not allow or withhold use of their possessions from others. What is the importance of not allowing use as a function of ownership?

5) Taking of money or profit was believed to be excommunicable offense by the Catholic Church as late as 1311 by the Council of Vienna. Heilbroner suggests that the development of sciences changed the view of accumulation. That is to say that there was now social justification for accumulation and taking of profit.

• How was the act of taking money or accumulating profits separated or legitimized with respect to morality.
• Is moving a plant in the name of profits moral despite the social ramifications?
• Is capitalism a trade off in morality?
• Is a capitalist immoral by definition and does capitalism create or allow immoral behavior?
• What effect did utilitarianism have on this view?

6) What is the historical view on the value of nature in society – i.e. mother earth? How does this differ from Heilbroner’s view of how capitalist view nature today?

7) Milton Friedman argued that people and not businesses have social responsibility.

• Does business have the responsibility to create a profit?
• By definition can we consider business to be immoral under Friedman's definition?
• It is clear that the manager has responsibilities towards his shareholders and employers but does a manger have social responsibility towards society?

8) In tributary societies, people rarely questioned the ruling classes’ right to rule. They may have argued about genealogy or that there taxes were too high but the question of whether the ruling class has the right to rule or not was never an issue.

• How is this similar or dissimilar to our capitalist society or bourgeoisie class?

9) It was very clear in previous societies who the ruling classes were. There was usually a direct link between the ruling class and control of the public works, civil services, collection of taxes and military force.

• Who is the ruling class in our democratic and capitalistic society?
• What direct and indirect control do they exert over the areas normally controlled by the government?

10) A. Why do men and women allow themselves to be place under government in a capitalistic society? How this changed through history. B. Is it related to the capitalistic feeling that only endeavors which allow for profits are worth taking? What is the relationship between state and capitalism – can one live without the other?

11) It has been argued that in a capitalistic society government is set-up and vital to protect and defend individual property rights.

• How does this translate to today’s government in our current international setting?

12) In most capitalistic societies there exist some sort of underlying democratic principles (freedom).

• Does democracy or freedom = capitalism? • Can one have one and not the other? Can a capitalistic society thrive in a non-democratic setting?

13) We have developed sciences to study the affects of capitalism and aggregate fiscal and private spending.

• With this or any other information can we predict the life span of capitalism?
• Will it continue indefinitely?
• What is capitalism ultimate future?

14) There are several large consulting/lobbying firms setup to influence economic decisions in our government, such as the LECG. These groups are made up of ex-government employees and successful business people

• Do the actions of groups such as these follow the traditional rules of capitalism? Are they beneficial to business or hurtful in the end?

15) Most of you are familiar with the CCAT program. How does technology developed by the government aid in the growth of capitalism? Is it right for the state in a capitalist economy to try to commercialize its technology?

16) Who are the champions in our capitalistic society? Are they people with the greatest social impact or people with the greatest gain in profits?

• Who would you rather be?

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