John Ruggie: Is Ethical Capitalism Possible?

"Is ethical capitalism possible? Sure," says Ruggie. "But it isn't likely to occur in the face of incentives and regulatory structures that lean in the opposite direction. You can't provide the kinds of incentives that have been provided for Wall Street, for example, in the last few years and then expect ethics to counterbalance that. It just doesn't happen. People don't work that way."

This Carnegie Council event took place on October 28, 2008. For the full video, audio, and transcript, go to http://www.carnegiecouncil.org or
http://www.policyinnovations.org

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[Mike10four]

@lamourlupus “Reasonable” is a relative term! What is “reasonable” to me may be unreasonable to you. Who defines “reasonable” and how does one measure it? All organizations must keep a balance relative to our unalienable Rights or the organization will die. Please view my channel video, where I think you may find a reasonable intelligent response to your question.

[lamourlupus]

@Mike10four - Can any organization, local to international, cite verifiable wage and benefits by eliminating or keeping minimum wage and reasonable labor protections? Ensuring reasonable taxes to businesses, owners, and investors can done thorough financial audit worldwide. Intelligent responses will be appreciated.

[Mike10four]

Ethical capitalism is possible, if and only if, educational systems teach morality and virtue. Such education will tame greed, a part of humanity, in quest for: wealth or, power over others.

[ForOrAgainstUs]

Ethics come about naturally through rational self-interest and logical reasoning. Government regulation gets in the way of this, using unethical practices in an attempt to institute ethical behavior.

Government can't create ethical behavior by enforcing it unethically. It's a contradiction, which is why regulation breeds such behavior. Regulation will always be counter to ethics no matter how good of a law it is because non-self-imposed regulation itself is unethical.

[DoctorMontalban]

No need to dance around the question. His own answer should make it clear that the answer is "no, it's not possible". Pure capitalism breeds the greed and addiction to money that has always and will always create unethical practices. The regulators create rules and the capitalists look for ways to bend, and ultimately break, those rules. The cat and mouse game is perpetual.