The Morality of American Capitalism in Action

The New York Times reports that the the New York attorney general’s office tracked about $1 billion in offshore wire transfers by the Sackler family, owners of Purdue Pharma and the opioid epidemic. As usual for rich people, Swiss bank accounts are part of the story. The money transfers are Sackler family’s attempt to hide assets in advance of lawsuits against them for opioid epidemic. They don't want to pay any more than they have to. From 2008 through 2016, the Sacklers paid themselves over $4 billion, so they have a lot more wire transferring to do to hide it all.

It gets much worse

Meanwhile, the Washington Post is reporting that drug companies got together to sabotage federal drug enforcement efforts in 2016. They formed a group that successfully blunted DEA enforcement efforts at the height of the opioid epidemic. Members of the group included corrupt politicians in congress and Obama administration officials. WaPo writes:

“In 2016, the drug companies convinced members of Congress and Obama administration officials to rein in the DEA and force the agency to treat them as “partners” in efforts to solve the crisis. The crowning achievement of the companies was a piece of legislation known as the “Marino bill,” named after its original sponsor, which curbed the DEA’s ability to immediately suspend the operations of drug companies that failed to follow the law. ..... But the full story has never been told because so few of the people involved will talk about it. The list of people who have declined to be interviewed includes former congressman Tom Marino (R-Pa.), who first proposed the bill; former acting DEA administrator Chuck Rosenberg, whose agency surrendered to the pressure; former attorney general Loretta E. Lynch, whose department did not stand in the way of the legislation; and, finally, then-President Barack Obama, who signed it into law.”

One can reasonably presume that an awful lot of free speech (campaign contributions) went into that patriotic effort to vindicate the valiant revenue streams the speech was defending.

What about a social conscience for businesses?

As discussed recently here, and here, the moral code that many or most US companies operate under is ‘profit first’. That may also be the moral code that most politicians operate under. According to the code, anything that reduces profits, e.g., spending for a social conscience, is immoral. As the modern leader of the moral code once said, CEOs with a social conscience are “highly subversive to the capitalist system.” No one wants to be highly subversive to the capitalist system, right?

Opacity, especially the plausible deniability brand, is a wonderful thing. It helps shield all the bad acts of deceivers, emotional manipulators, tyrants, demagogues, crooks and liars.

And, it is not the case that such a moral code cannot exist under socialism, fascism, tyranny, anarchy, libertarianism, etc. There just seems to be something irresistibly seductive about profit and to hell with everything and everyone else. Maybe it's a tragedy of the commons sort of thing.

In view of how the profit first moral code usually seems to work, one can argue that corollary moral values often include some combination of contempt for inconvenient facts and truths, opacity is good, transparency is bad, and/or, unwarranted emotional manipulation to keep the masses fearful, angry and above all, distracted.

Does this, or some variant of it, also apply to voting democratic?

Or, is this assessment of the profit first moral code inaccurate, too harsh or unfair?