Our exploration of Sir John’s thoughts on spirituality and business continues today with another excerpt from his speech at Buena Vista College entitled “The Religious Foundation of Liberty and Enterprise.” In this excerpt, we’ll look at what he calls the fifth economic vice: moral relativism.
The proper kind of tolerance is closely related to the fifth and last of the economic vices: Moral relativism, that doctrine which argues that we cannot know the difference between right and wrong, vice and virtue, moral and immoral, truth and falsehood. The economic vice of moral relativism says everything is okay, so long as it pleases us.
Yet no vice can be more destructive for society and the economy, especially where people have the freedom to choose right from wrong.
Some businessmen will say the profit motive should determine all. This statement is a version of moral relativism, because it pretends that profit and loss can substitute for right and wrong.
Profit and loss are accounting devices. They callow business to determine whether they are meeting the needs of consumers or not. In that sense, they are invaluable. But profit does not always equal morality, and loss does not always equal immorality.
