The-Morality-of-Capitalism-PDF

free markets should not be expected to generate equal outcomes,nor do they rely on equality of conditions other than legal rights.The ideal of equal exchange can refer to equality of initialendowments or to equality of outcomes. If the former sense ismeant, only parties that are equal in every relevant sense couldengage in equal exchange; any differential would unequalize theexchange, which is why some reject as inherently unequal (andthus unfair) labor contracts between employers and employees.In the latter sense, it could mean that equal values are exchanged,or that the outcomes of the exchange are equal in value. For example,if the same amount of goods of the same quality were tomove from one party to the other, the exchange would satisfy theconditions of equality. Imagine a surrealistic scene in which twohumanoids, totally like each other (i.e., devoid of personal differencesrelevantly constitutive of inequality), pass quite identicalthings between themselves. Setting aside any aesthetic revulsionwe might feel at such an unnatural picture, common sense byitself should suggest that the very idea of equal exchange rests ona profound contradiction. Such an exchange changes nothing; itwould not improve the position of either party, meaning neitherparty would have any reason to make it. (Karl Marx insisted thatexchanges in the market were based on exchanges of equal values,which generated a nonsensical and incoherent economic theory.)Grounding market exchange on the principle of equality deprivesexchange of its fundamental reason, which is to make the partiesto exchange better off. The economics of exchange rests on arecognition of the unequal valuation of goods or services by theexchanging parties.Considered ethically, however, the idea of equality may nonethelessbe appealing for some. A common trait of many moraljudgments is that they are formulated in purely deontic modality,that is, in the logic of duties alone. They are concerned only withwhat should be done, regardless of the logic of economics, or ofwhat merely exists, or even of what will exist because of what (itmay be asserted) must be done. According to Immanuel Kant, forexample, a duty demands its realization, regardless of the results,consequences and even possibilities to do what must be done. Tosay that you must is to say that you can. Therefore even if such56