The-Morality-of-Capitalism-PDF

efrigerators and color TVs, are only available through exchange.If people did not exchange, each individual would only be ableto plant grains and cotton in the countryside, to use mud bricksto build houses, and struggle to wrest from the soil all the goodsone needs to exist. In such a way one might be able to eke out aliving as our ancestors did for tens of thousands of years. But wewould certainly not enjoy any of the benefits offered by today’smodern civilization.The people in The Land of Gentlemen already have a state anda market, which shows that they’ve already abandoned economicself-sufficiency and have instead chosen to follow the road ofexchange in order to improve their material circumstances. Thatbeing the case, why is it that they refuse to think of their own interestswhen engaging in economic exchanges? Of course, if fromthe start the point of exchange is to lessen one’s own advantage andpromote the advantage of others, “gentlemanly” behavior might,perhaps, occur. However, as anyone knows who participates in anexchange, or who has experience with exchange, both parties toan exchange participate for their own benefit, while those whoact contrary to their own self-interest during the course of anexchange suffer from an incoherence of motives.Is It Feasible to Establish a Society Based On MutualBenefit Without Price Negotiations?During the period in which the life and deeds of Lei Feng 31 werebeing promoted in China, one could often see on televisionthe image of one of Lei Feng’s committed and kind emulatorsrepairing pots and pans for an assembly of people. One wouldthen notice a long line forming in front of him, with each personholding worn-out utensils in need of repair. The intendedmessage of these images was to encourage others to emulate thatkind-hearted follower of Lei Feng, and to focus the public on hisexample. Notice that if it weren’t for the long line of people, thepropaganda would have no power to persuade. We should alsotake note that those who queued to have their pots and pansrepaired were not there to learn from Lei Feng; to the contrary,they were there to seek their own gain at the expense of others.47