Prof. Franz Josef Stegmann Bethlehem Social ... - Ordo Socialis

Stegmann
"The framework is the main place - not the only, but the main place - where morality in the
market economy is to be situated." 81 (Die Rahmenordnung ist der systematische - nicht der
einzige - Ort der Moral in der Marktwirtschaft).
3. FRAMEWORK: MAIN PLACE OF MORALITY IN MARKET ECONOMY
In this section I will explain why the main place of morality in modern market economy is the
framework and will provide reasons for this thesis.
3.1 Distinction between individual motives and national economic results
The starting point is the distinction between individual motives for economic activities and
national economic results of activities. Enterprises and individual economic participants
rightfully try to make a profit; even as large a profit as possible is their legitimate aim.
As a rule, self-interest is the motive for their activities. People work and are busy in order to
meet their needs, to fulfil their purposes and to realise their aims. These mainly economic
motives do not exclude other motives. For example, a father naturally wants to provide well
for his family,. He regards this as his moral duty and therefore tries to get an appropriate
income in order to do so. Thus, to a great extent, economic activities are inspired and
motivated by individual economic interests. In other words in the broader sense self-interest -
which is not necessarily selfishness - is the driving force and incentive for individual
economic activities.
In addition, whenever market participants are unable to make a profit but, for a longer time,
suffer losses and go into the red, they will be eliminated by the market and do not survive.
With regard to what is called the national economy, the situation is completely different. The
task of the national economy is to ensure the best possible provision for all people; ie. "the
'social aim and object' of market and competition is the welfare of everyone, the public
weal", 82 (a part of) what Catholic Social Teaching calls the "common good'. This distinction
between the level of individual motives (of individual economic participants and their targets)
and the level of the national economic system (the national economy and its task) is decisive
and must not be overlooked or mixed up. This separating of individual economic participants
and their motives on the one hand, and the national economy and its task on the other, already
forms the basis of Adam Smith's (the founder of classical liberal economics) statement:
"It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect what
we need to eat but from their regard to their own interest. We do not talk to them of our needs,
but of their advantages". 83
3.2 Distinction between framework for activities and activities within the framework
The activities of individual economic participants do not, however, automatically realise the
best possible supply to all people, the public good. Historical experience and modern economics
teach this. They put it into effect only within an adequate framework, within a proper
81
Karl Homann, Wirtschaftsethik. in: Lexikon der Wirtschaftsethik. Ed. by Georges Enderle a.o., Freiburg 1993.
1286‐1296. 1290.
82
Karl Homann, Wettbewerb und Moral, in: Jahrbuch für Christliche Sozialwissenschaften 31 (1990) 34‐56, 39.
83
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. London 1776 (Der Wohlstand
der Nationen. Eine Untersuchung seiner Natur und seiner Ursachen. ed. by Horst Claus Recktenwald, München
3
1990, 17).
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