Ethical decisions and moral choices have to be made in the context of uncertain outcomes. We can’t know in advance whether our choice will have a better or worse outcome than any other choice. That’s why it’s better in ethics to choose an outcome where at least you know you’ll have a better chance at doing some good than a choice where doing a greater good has a lesser chance of succeeding.

such a skill to express this thought as you do.

The US did have a strong anti-industrial, anti-capitalist movement that included the early unions, socialists like Debs and anarchists like Goldman. They didn’t accept the wage system and felt that workers could and should manage capital themselves.

But a century later, we cannot articulate an alternative not because those ideas don’t exist but because anything smacking of socialism/communism/anarchism has been systematically and relentlessly attacked and suppressed.

I think this is why the only solution offered, in the face of massive and unmerciful class warfare is a tepid “lets primary some Democrats”.

I was struck by some of the interviews of Wall Street types after the bust and saw my old boss in their reactions. I think many of them were genuinely confused as to why they would get death threats or picketing or threats to reduce their salaries and bonuses. They have convinced themselves, and everyone around them since birth has convinced them, that they really are that important and valuable. People who do the work are replaceable widgets while they are at the top because they deserve it and make the company what it is. I never could convince my boss that we (I was middle mgmt) would be better off protecting the jobs and salaries of the front line people than management. As I put it, the people whose contracts I ran were obviously very happy with the way I ran my department and appreciated that I did a good job, and certainly I was worth a lot to them and to the company. But when it comes right down to it, what they really care about is how well the people who show up at their sites and perform the direct services do their jobs day in and day out, whether there are enough of them, they are trained enough, have the right supplies, are happy enough to work hard, etc. Seems like a no-brainer to me, but completely foreign to her. They lost all their contracts in my department in the downturn and laid us all off while she kept her salary and laid off office staff so if someone called in sick there was literally no one to answer the phone or greet people at the front. I heard she was let go after about a year, never having come to terms with the idea that she was killing the enterprise by hanging on to her notion of her own importance to the enterprise. A Wall St banker stuck in a Main Street life, poor thing.

But it’s easy to look back and say I ought to have done such and such and if other people in the same position had done such and such what a wonderful world this would be. Ethical decisions and moral choices have to be made in the context of uncertain outcomes. We can’t know in advance whether our choice will have a better or worse outcome than any other choice. That’s why it’s better in ethics to choose an outcome where at least you know you’ll have a better chance at doing some good than a choice where doing a greater good has a lesser chance of succeeding.

PaulaT

“The greedier and more sociopathically callous you are, the better you do in the corporate world.”