Do business ethics have a place in a free market economy? It might be argued that Ethics are a restriction on the freedom of the market, enforced by government intervention. This imposes on the market the ability for firms to maximize shareholder wealth, and the firms' ability to capitalize the full extent of the market. Both of these factors can be said to benefit the society by helping to produce the best quality goods at the lowest price.
The benefit of the best goods at the lowest prices is obvious, but it's not necessarily the highest benefit in society, to the exclusion of others. There are benefits (like an unpolluted environment, like a workforce with healthcare, like government monopolies on law enforcement, like regulatory bodies overseeing the stock market, like the FDA regulating the sale of foodstuffs) that are not justifiable in a free market, but which society has deemed valuable (in principle) in and of themselves.
If you were to suggest that a completely unregulated marketplace is desirable, you have to argue against those restrictions on the free market that are not for the purpose of benefiting the free market (e.g., that the best goods at the lowest prices is more valuable than regulated foodstuffs and medicines).
Peace.
The benefit of the best goods at the lowest prices is obvious, but it's not necessarily the highest benefit in society, to the exclusion of others. There are benefits (like an unpolluted environment, like a workforce with healthcare, like government monopolies on law enforcement, like regulatory bodies overseeing the stock market, like the FDA regulating the sale of foodstuffs) that are not justifiable in a free market, but which society has deemed valuable (in principle) in and of themselves.
If you were to suggest that a completely unregulated marketplace is desirable, you have to argue against those restrictions on the free market that are not for the purpose of benefiting the free market (e.g., that the best goods at the lowest prices is more valuable than regulated foodstuffs and medicines).
Peace.
