College of Business Administration

Seminar in Business and the Good Society

Discussion Questions for March 20, 2002:

2) What is 'material wealth' and 'Capital'?

3) Can wealth exist in egalitarian societies, where all have acess to the resources needed for the maintenance of a conventional way of life?

As an extension, can capital be defined as a "relationship of domination"?

4) "In the paradox of a system of power whose protagonists are mainly conscious of their powerlessness lies one of the most mystifying attributes of capitalism. How can the capitalist class be deemed the 'ruling' class of a system when it is itself at the mercy of market forces?

5) How does profit arise? Is labor a "just" relationship?

6) Given Smith;'s assertion that free markets will inevitably lead to the collective good of society, what role does the Gov't play, if any?

7) Heilbroner states that "Wealth is therefore a social category inseparable from power". Is this true? What is the relationship among wealth, prestige, and power? Can you cite examples where an individual or organization has wealth but not power? Power but not wealth?

8) Margin, or profit, occurs when the value to which the worker adds to the product is greater than the value of the material. The company pays the worker a wage. Is the worker entitled to additional compensation because of the size of the margin? Why?

9) A newer phenomenon is enlisting stockholders to try to get the corporation (other stockholders) to contribute against their will to social causes favored by activists. (Insofar as they succeed, they are again imposing taxes and spending the proceeds.) What social responsibilities to companies have in regards to

a) predatory lending (mortgage Refinancing, credit card offers)

b) air pollution

c) company-provided child day care

10) Professor Dunn comments in the Milton Friedman article that "distributed justice (is) an issue neither explicitly addressed nor intended as an outcome with the free market model". Do we see the opportunity for equality in capitalism? What is it that perhaps unlevels the playing field?

11) Milton Friedman claims roundaboutly that social responsibility necessarily comes at the expense of the interest of the shareholders. Are economic returns and social returns necessarily at odds with one another? Can you name specific instances of companies displaying both social returns and economic returns?

12) Heilbroner states that "The trend of capitalist society lies in the increased marshalling and deployment of the powers of the state" and "the more successful capitalisms of tomorrow will be those that address the difficulties of the present period:

Its helplessness against the internationalization of capital

Its propensity to inflation

Its extreme social and ecological vulnerability to technological disruption

Return to Professor Dunn's home page.