Economics
and Morality
A. Voin
As for
socialism, then link the economy and morality declared to the tenets of Marxism
and in
the folk sayings. "From each according to his ability,
to each according to his work" - is not only an economic postulate, it is
also moral
one, establishing economic justice in Marx's
understanding of it. People saying of the period over-ripe socialism states: "If you
think that you pay us, you also may think that we will work for you”.
This is the appraisement
by the people of this most Marxian justice in its real
incarnation, i.
e. it
is once again the moral of the economy. In this passage from Marx's formula to
folk’s one we can see obvious
influence of the moral state of society on the success or not success of the
socialist economy. As long as people believed in the Marxist idea and
honorably served her, the Soviet economy was developing enough successfully. When faith is gone and
there was, therefore, the demoralization of society, the economy collapsed, and
behind her, and the Union.
The main problem of Marxism was perhaps in a
misunderstanding of the relationship of morality and the economy. Marx believed
that morality is a function of the economic system, labor relations, is
completely determined by them. He
believed that under capitalism the workers, not being owners of the means of
production, are not interested in the result of labor, but under socialism,
they - the owners, working conscientiously for the benefit of society and
therefore the productivity of labor under socialism will necessarily be higher.
But it turned out the opposite. This happened because under socialism the
workers did not actually owners of the means of production, but real owner of them is nomenclature. And
when the workers understand this, then come "if you think that you pay
us, think also that we will work.
But why, under socialism, contrary to expectations of Marx, the nomenclature,
but not workers became the real
owners of enterprises,?
Marx, among other
things, have the theory of
the gradual withering away of the state. It shall wither away under communism,
and then some kind of man-made paradise on
earth will come. But under
socialism state is still necessary, because socialism – still is not paradise, but better (so he
thought) than under capitalism.
But why, one wonders, Marx was against state? Well, Marx wrote that the state is a violence, and therefore - not good. And
it is absolutely true. But it seemed to me that Marx had yet another reason not to love the state,
which he felt intuitively, but do not fully think about it. The fact that the
state is not just for no reason at all the violence. It is primarily a management. Society need
management always, including under communism, if it is possible and will come someday. But management is a power. And here morality,
independent, contrary to Marx, from the system, intermeddle in the case. Marx, based on
its erroneous position on the dependence of morality on the system, believed
that the power under socialism would be absolutely moral, and being able to manage the country in every way it pleases, will voluntarily relinquish plants, factories, etc., and give to workers themselves to rule it. But contrary to
expectations of Marx, the moral nature of people in general and in power, in
particular, has not changed in the blink of an eye with the victory of socialist
revolution and the people who have received political power, did not want to
leave to themselves only the general,
the political administration of the country, and business management to
transfer to workers . As a
result they got "If you're
thinking ...".
The management of common property by the nomenclature was also not effective. Nomenclature was even less
moral than the people. Actually, the decay of socialism, as shown above, started from decay nomenclatura. Although the financial position of
representatives of the nomenclature was much better than the people, but its
representatives did not care so much about the success of the common cause, but
about personal promotion on the career ladder. Ultimately, it came down to a
total theft and idleness, as on the top so below. More precisely, were, of
course, honest people, especially among
ordinary, not the nomenclature. They were even not so
little, but the tone was set by crooks and loafers mediocre, which took seats not on law, not according to their abilities. They also watch to power,
taking care of their personal interest,
contrary to the interests of society. And it decided the
case.
Thus, we can say that Marx's misconception about complete dependence of the moral from order of society have destroyed the real
socialism. The misconception, which contradict to Marx's the same,
though borrowed him from
Under capitalism, at first glance
it seems that morality has no relation to the economy, to crises and to the present one, in particular. The dominant view that
the capitalist engine of the economy is not morality, not a conscious concern
of each of the interests of society as a whole, but the selfish interest of each and the
capitalist and the worker. Some chases for profits, others
for high wages, and as a result of the whole society gets richer. Everyone
cares about their interest, but this interest, unlike
socialism, coincides with the interests of society as a whole. And in certain
situations, at certain times it is true. But not always. That is, in fact, a
complete coincidence of interests of economic actors, whether capitalists or
workers, with the interests of society as a whole is not never, in principle,
but there are times when these interests coincide more or less, and there are times when they are far apart.
And the capitalist and socialist economy
can be represented as a game according to certain rules. Only rules in each
case are different, such as in one case, football, another chess. In every game
you can play according rules, and then the one who plays better wins, and common interest wins - the level of play increases. But it
is a shame for those who played worse. And, as under any system of morality in society there are people who don’t fulfil
norms of this morality (a. e., rules of the game) or part of it, they always have been
violated: the step and the invisible play a hand in the game of
football, quietly steal the rook or smoke smelly
cigars opponent in chess, etc. Of course, there is a difference between the
games in this sense: breaking the rules
in one game easier than the other
(easier to quietly play a hand in football than quietly steal a rook in chess).
And in this sense we can speak about the advantages of one game over another.
(Although it is clear that a comparison can be conducted not only by this
criterion). But, nevertheless, in any game is possible in principle to break
the rules and get through that individual win at
losing common cause.
Under capitalism in general, stress, in general, i. e. for some, we assume, normal circumstances, violating of the rules of the game on the one hand
more difficult to participants than
under socialism, but on the other hand, they have less motivation to do so.
Working harder to steal from the capitalist than socialist director, because in
the first case the stolen belongs to the capitalist and there is effect of personal interest, he stands out
not to steal. In the second case, stolen belongs to the whole state, which is
unable to keep track of all it’s property. Further,
a capitalist in general has no reason to steal
from himself and he straining for his own enrichment. He is in the best of his capability effective. A Soviet director cares not
about the real effectiveness of company, but about how to make impression of effectiveness on superior power. I am not wishing to
further develop this comparison because, in general, it is all well known
(though some seem to begin to forget about it).
But it should be noted that even in normal situation we can not say that
the capitalist and his workers just do not have the motivation and
opportunities for violations of rules of the game in capitalism. First, under
capitalism also there is the state, which
(allegedly) represents the interest of society at large and intended to take
care of him. And the capitalists and workers have relationships not only with
each other but also with the state. And then there mentioned subjects have
interest and ability to violate the rules of the game. This is - tax evasion,
corruption and other economic crimes. Dishonesty is possible and in the
relations between capitalists and
between capitalists and the workers. But here market apologists are right arguing, that the market limits the dishonesty of
this kind. Indeed, in relations with
partners more profitable to be honest, otherwise sooner or later no one wants
to carry with you affairs. As for cheating the workers with wages, then under normal competition that is also not profitable to do, the workers will go to whoever pays them
better. Ability of capitalists and workers to violate rules of the game reduces the
potential effectiveness of the capitalist system, but not to such an extent as
under socialism. That is, under capitalism, economic efficiency also depends on
the moral state of society, from the conscious implementation of the rules of
the game by all the players, but
in normal situation it depends less than
under socialism. But all this - in normal condition.
Without specifying what is a normal condition under capitalism, I
want to draw attention to the fact that no society resides permanently in the
same condition. Change, development, evolution is a universal law of nature,
extended to society also. And it covered capitalism maybe more than other formations. Capitalism is the most dynamic compared with the previous formations
and with socialism. In different countries, the evolution of capitalism has
gone in different ways and I will not give here its review in all its diversity
at times and countries. It is not for this article, not for one article and it
is the task of the historian, not a philosopher. I will take the general
scheme, borrowed from the historian and philosopher Y.
Pavlenko. (Ю. Павленко «История мировой цивилизации», Киев, 2004) and outlined it brief (and in my
understanding).
Independent economic entities, farmers and
artisans lived in the part of the
planet, where capitalism was developed. Some of
them manage to become successful and rich, others were ruined. The first began
hiring employees from within the last and so developed capitalism. This very
early capitalism, when there was a laissez-faire and the spontaneity of the market
and competition in its purest form, I had in mind when we speak about a normal
game of capitalism. Normality here is that in this phase interests of individual players - the
capitalists, mostly (although still not
completely) coincide with the interests of society.
But sooner or later, competition leads to
the fact that, as previously independent peasants and artisans formed the
capitalists, and now monopolists are crystallizing from within the capitalists. The interests
of the monopolists under the rules of capitalist game, existing before they become, i. e. laissez-faire, far
apart from the interests of society as a whole. This was the main cause of the
crises of the period when the monopoly has already arisen, but antitrust laws
have not yet been adopted. This couse was eliminated by means of the adoption of antitrust laws, i. e. changing the rules
of the game. This again brought into line the interests
of the capitalist game players and the interests of
society as a whole. But before antitrust
laws were adopted, the monopolists, not burdened,
stress, by moral, under the old
rules of the game were able to inflate as they like their prices, so robbing the rest of
society and making the harm to society
as a whole. This enabled Marx and his followers speak of monopolism, as the last stage, the decay of
capitalism, etc. In this case Marx had not occurred, that if the monopolists were morally and do
not inflate prices for their product in excess of the average profitability,
then all it would be normal and would not be need
any
socialism. But Marx did not believe, and rightly did not believe in the
possibility of absolute morality of monopolists. But in
absolute morality of superiors under socialism, for some
reason, he believed.
Marx made a mistake also, assuming that the
situation with a monopoly can not be corrected without overthrowing capitalism
and replacing it with socialism. In fakt the situation was
eventually corrected in the framework of capitalism by adoption of antitrust laws, then capitalism
has continued its successful development and win socialism economicaly. But apologists of capitalism, who believed and declared that the
antitrust laws - the final amendment of capitalism and then everything will go
smoothly, if not to communism, then to any Omega (according Teyar de Sharden), in any case, the
crisis already will no longer be, also
were not right. Crises, as we know, have continued and the current one threatening to surpass all previous ones.
The reason for this is that after the
adoption of antitrust laws, capitalism continued to evolve and the interests of
so-called oligarchs under today's existing rules of the game (laws) again
strongly disagreed with the public interest. What kind of changes have taken
place in capitalist society since the adoption of antitrust laws and in what is
now the divergence of interests of oligarchs with the interests of society as a
whole, I described in the article “Современная олигархия»
(www.philprob.narod.ru) and therefore are not going to describe it here. Ibid, I set about how to correct the law, so the interests of the oligarchs came
again in line with the interests of society. We need not only create new laws, but also new institutions, and not only in countries but in the world, because, as a result of globalization, oligarchy crossed national boundaries and
only national laws and institutions can not
control it.
I contend that if all it will be done, the situation will be better, the economy will again become more
efficient and crises will draw on time. But
unlike the authors of antitrust laws, I'm not saying that it would eliminate
all crises in future. No, the evolution
of society continues, the divergence of interests of individual and groups with the interests of society as a
whole will begin to increase
again and eventually will require changes in legislation and institutional. And
if they are not made on time, then again there will be a crisis.
Moreover, the farther away, the less all
these amendments will be effective. Even the first
reconstruction of capitalism with antitrust laws and antitrust committees and
other bodies did not return to him the pristine performance, in terms of
convergence of interests of all players in the interests of society as a whole.
Did not return, because the market has not returned to its primordial
spontaneity, to unlimited freedom of entrepreneurship. These (and similar) laws
have expanded the role of the state, the capitalist state in regulating the
economy, multiplying the number of bureaucrats to manage the economy. The
farther, the more free businessmen, now "free" in quotes, must coordinate their actions with officials to
get them all sorts of permits: a license, quota, etc. And in some ways, those
who argue that capitalism is shifting towards socialism are right. Moreover, I
note, he shifted to the negative side, taking over, above all, the shortcomings
of socialism. Since the freedom of entrepreneurship limited more and more, as
human nature remains the same, then the motivation to violate the rules of the
game is increasing. And at
the same time the possibility of this violation also increases. For more officials, the more bribes. As
a result, in countries such as
Russia and Ukraine, not to mention the former republics of Central Asia, honest
business is simply impossible, and major officials at a relatively modest
salary live richer capitalists.
But to give up control of the market economy
is also impossible, because that once again increases the divergence of
interests of various economic entities with the interests of society as a whole
(as in the case with
monopolists). And, more and more and more often we have to enter the new species state management, creating more opportunities
and motivation for the violation of the rules of the game. It turns out a
kind of evolutionary trap for humanity. The solution of this problem, I see, is to strengthen the morality of society.
As I said above (and substantiated
this in my book “Неорационализм
", Kiev, 1992), morality does not depend on the system. But is there something,
that influence at morality of society? A cursory glance at history to see that, historically,
morality was not just influenced, but to a large extent determined by
philosophical and religious ideas that are adopted by any society. The adoption
of Christian morality was one of the components of the economic success of
Western society until recently. And the
demoralization of the society under the influence of philosophical ideas of
existentialism and Freudianism facilitated and contributes to the current
crisis. Similarly, Confucian ethics, whose roots are still alive in Chinese
society, contributes to the economic success of China today.
But it is insufficient
or even impossible to simply return to the Christian or Confucian morality. The
fact is that never before moral was formulated and justified as a rational
scientific theory. That
led to situation, when any
moral concept, whether it is Christian and Confucian or any other, allowed a
different interpretation. In Christianity, in particular, that
led to the emergence of myriad denominations, each with its own understanding
of the teachings, different from the other sometimes to the contrary. And since God is single and the truth is single, then the question arises, does even one
of these religions posseses the truth. In addition, as I said, life
develops and puts in front of society and individuals questions, to which no answer in the Bible or from
Confucius, because at the time of Jesus Christ and Confucius, there were no
such problems. There were no monopolies and oligarchs, no the financial pyramid, not the issues,
refinance or not refinance thievish or incompetent banks at the expense of the
poor taxpayers in a situation where, unless they are refinanced, the economy
falls, etc. Moreover, here were no question: to clone or not to clone, to allow or deny
GMOs, etc. On these questions are
impossible to obtain unambiguous and meaningful answers, based on the Bible or
Confucius. Such responses can be retrieved only from a moral theory, built as a
rational science, i. e., based on a general method of substantiation, worked out the
most rational science, but finally articulated by my (Философские исследования, , №
3, 2000, № 1, 2001; № 2, 2002). Based on this approach, I developed a theory of
optimal morality («Неорационализм», Kiev, 1992, part 4) and
showed that it basically coincides with the Christian morality, but it allows
you to extract conclusions from it,
projected on contemporary reality. In addition, I applied a general method of substantiation to the study of Bible scholars that
allowed for a clear and reasonable interpretation of this doctrine. («От Моисея до постмодернизма. Движение идеи», Part
1,"От Моисея до Иисуса Христа", Kiev, 1999, Part 2,
"Христианство"). If the Fathers of the Church (churches) have been
able to understand and accept this approach, it has used the long-awaited
unification of Christian faiths, which supposedly crave their leaders. In the
latter, however, I highly doubt, because of their hypocritical belief that God
is single and the truth is single, and because a thirst-man rule, which
they would lose by joining, is their moto.
Practical application of my approach in
the current circumstances, I illustrated from the case of Hodorkovsky («Дело Ходорковского» and «Дело Ходорковского 2 », www.philprob.narod.ru). If case of Hodorkovsky would solved with a single to all business
entities and a fair approach, based on my theory, Russia would pass the current
crisis is much easier than it is to pass. Similarly, Ukraine is now severely
affected economically because when refinancing its banks are not applied my
approach. Injustice of refinancing greatly
undermined public confidence to the authorities and to the banks. This increased the outflow of deposits
from banks with all the consequences from
that.
No account the moral
aspects also takes
place in foreign policy the major players in this arena in the world,
especially America and Russia, and this leads to an aggravation of the global
crisis and increases the risk of military conflict.