Why Businessmen Need Philosophy

1. Businessmen are morally righteous creators of wealth and prosperity

The businessman carries scientific discoveries from the laboratory of the inventor to industrial plants, and transforms them into material products that fill men's physical needs and expand the comfort of men's existence.

Businessmen are heroes. Far from being exploitative or greedy, businessmen and industrialists are the primary creators of wealth and prosperity in society. They take scientific discoveries and innovative ideas and transform them into tangible products and services that dramatically improve human life. Some key ways businessmen benefit society:

• Create jobs and economic opportunities
• Develop new technologies that enhance quality of life
• Increase efficiency and productivity, leading to economic growth
• Provide goods and services that meet human needs and wants
• Generate wealth that can be reinvested in further innovations

By pursuing profit through voluntary trade, businessmen coordinate vast networks of production and distribution that would be impossible to centrally plan. Their productive achievements should be morally celebrated, not condemned.

2. The morality of altruism undermines capitalism and individual rights

The idea that the good consists in achieving the good of others—of your neighbors, of your country, or even of your enemies—of anyone or anything, real or imagined, that is not you—the idea that you must sacrifice your personal values without even an expectation of return—the idea that nobility means being selfless, and wickedness means being concerned with self—the idea that morality is synonymous with altruism, and immorality synonymous with egoism—all of this is challenged in Atlas Shrugged.

Altruism breeds collectivism. The conventional moral code of altruism and self-sacrifice is incompatible with capitalism and individual rights. By teaching that selfishness is evil and self-sacrifice is noble, altruism:

• Undermines the moral legitimacy of profit-seeking and wealth creation
• Provides a moral justification for redistribution and government control
• Makes people feel guilty for pursuing their own happiness and success
• Breeds a mentality of entitlement to the efforts and property of others
• Leads to ever-expanding demands for sacrifice to "society" or the "common good"

A new moral foundation is needed that upholds rational self-interest as moral and rejects the duty to sacrifice oneself to others. Only this can provide the ethical basis for capitalism and a free society.

3. Government regulation of business is unjust and economically harmful

The antitrust laws give the government the power to prosecute and convict any business concern in the country any time it chooses. The threat of sudden destruction, of unpredictable retaliation for unnamed offenses, is a much more potent means of enslavement than explicit dictatorial laws.

Regulation is economic dictatorship. Government regulation of business, especially antitrust laws, represents an unjust and economically destructive expansion of state power over the economy. The problems with business regulation include:

• Arbitrary and contradictory laws that make compliance impossible
• Punishment of successful companies for being too competitive
• Stifling of innovation and economic dynamism
• Violation of property rights and economic freedom
• Creation of uncertainty that hampers long-term business planning
• Expansion of bureaucratic power at the expense of market forces

Rather than protecting consumers, antitrust laws and other regulations ultimately harm the economy and violate individual rights. A laissez-faire free market without government interference is both more just and more economically beneficial.

4. Principles are essential for ethical decision-making and defending freedom

In any compromise between food and poison, it is only death that can win. In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit.

Principles cannot be compromised. Acting on moral and political principles, rather than pragmatic compromise, is essential for making ethical choices and defending freedom. Key points about principled action:

• Compromising with evil only enables and emboldens evil
• Apparent "moderate" positions often just concede to statist premises
• Principles provide guidance for navigating complex situations
• Consistent application of principles is necessary for achieving goals
• Unprincipled pragmatism leads to gradual erosion of freedom

Defending capitalism and individual rights requires adhering to moral principles absolutely, without compromise. This principled approach is both more practical and more moral than attempting to find a "middle ground" between freedom and statism.

5. Environmentalism is anti-human and threatens industrial civilization

Environmentalism seeks the renunciation of all progress and pleasure. Its goal is not the elimination of air pollution or filthy water—or anything else actually harmful to man. What's really driving the movement is a basic idea that has animated environmentalism since its inception: the idea that nature is to be protected from human "intrusion."

Environmentalism is misanthropic. The environmental movement is fundamentally anti-human, seeking to restrict industrial and technological progress in the name of preserving untouched nature. Key problems with environmentalism:

• Values pristine nature over human flourishing and prosperity
• Opposes life-enhancing technologies and energy sources
• Based on unscientific alarmism about environmental threats
• Would dramatically lower living standards if fully implemented
• Treats human impact on nature as inherently negative
• Provides justification for expanding government control of the economy

Rather than seeking reasonable environmental protections, the movement is driven by an ideology that sees human civilization as a blight on nature. This poses a serious threat to continued economic and technological progress.

6. Money-lending and profit-seeking are moral and economically beneficial

If you wish to know whether a man is honest, ask him to define honesty. If you wish to know what acts he regards as evil, ask him what constitutes the good.

Profit is moral. Contrary to conventional views that see money-lending and profit-seeking as greedy or exploitative, these activities are both moral and economically beneficial. Key points:

• Interest compensates lenders for delayed consumption and risk
• Profit incentivizes efficient allocation of resources
• Pursuit of profit drives innovation and economic growth
• Money-lending enables valuable investments and economic expansion
• Regulations on lending and profit harm the economy

The moral condemnation of money-lending and profit has no rational basis and stems from altruist ethics that see self-interest as evil. A new moral framework is needed that recognizes the virtue of productive money-making.

7. Atlas Shrugged offers a new moral foundation for capitalism and individualism

Atlas Shrugged is nothing short of America's second Declaration of Independence.

A new moral ideal. Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged presents a radically new moral philosophy to replace the altruist ethics that undermines capitalism and freedom. Key aspects of this new philosophy:

• Upholds rational self-interest and the pursuit of happiness as moral
• Presents the productive businessman as a moral hero
• Rejects duty and self-sacrifice as the essence of morality
• Provides ethical justification for individual rights and laissez-faire capitalism
• Offers a this-worldly, pro-reason alternative to religious ethics

By challenging conventional morality at its root, Atlas Shrugged aims to provide the philosophical foundation needed to defend capitalism and individual rights. It seeks to complete the American revolution by providing the moral case for the political and economic system of the Founding Fathers.

Last updated: July 21, 2024