The narrative that many have about business and capitalism is that it's fundamentally a selfish, greedy and exploitative system.. and that all corporations are sociopathic by their very nature. Nothing matters to them but to drive profits, and therefore, businesses cannot be trusted.
They bribe governments and authorities (1) (2), sneak around international laws (3) (4), sell poisonous things (5) (6), lobby against regulating laws (7) (8), and they are through and through evil.
POPULATION 3 itself is dedicated to unmasking such exploits of large fast fashion brands and unethical corporations. There are many examples of cold, calculating cruelty machines in our industry... but the short answer to this question is simply no. We are not anti-capitalists. (That would be hypocritical of us to claim either way.)
THE REALISATION STAGE
Looking at all these facts it's easy to get jaded. Rules don’t seem to apply to ones too rich and powerful to be held accountable, and not nearly enough people seem to care about it to affect their bottom lines. Even when people do end up becoming aware of the issues on massive corporate evils, and even when they do find their actions morally apprehensible, they soon realize:
- That the result of all the exploitation is to their own benefit, as the products they would like are cheaper, and that there is nothing specifically to be.
- It’s meaningless to question the status-quo, and they don't particularly mind what's going on some far place else in the world anyway. So, most people turn a blind eye. Out of sight, out of mind.
Realizing this universal truth, that money rules and the only rule is money, will turn any idealist into a bitter cynic, resentful with the world. After all the world establishment that they grew up in which they occupy, interact, and transact with daily is nothing more than an evil and corrupt enterprise. The current economic system left unchecked is sure to lead us to our annihilation. (9) (10)
NIHILISTIC ENTRAPMENT
There is nothing more demoralizing than having the world as your enemy. It is a crushing existence to feel psychologically trapped this way. Personal choice does not seem to matter and masses are too easily mislead. It's pointless to resist and there is no way out. We're in the belly of a dying machine and the machine is on fire, heading into a wall at breakneck high speed. We do not even know half the long term causes of the technologies we have developed (11) (12). If anyone is to exist in today’s modern society without remaining ignorant and easily manipulated, we need a new narrative to emerge to give us some form of resolution.
RIDDING OF IDEOLOGICAL DISTORTION
Firstly, we must state and understand that there is nothing wrong with making money. Every profession in the world, when asked their purpose, will point to the contribution they have made and the value they have created by them for others. A doctor heals, an engineer builds, an artist makes beautiful things... At the end of the day “purpose” comes from the social connections people have between each other. Businesses at their best are vehicles to create value; value for their customers, for their employees, for the community that they’re a part of, and for all the families thriving through the business's income.
Businesses can add life to an otherwise inhospitable location, be it a town or a street. They can make people compete to come up with better and better solutions to real problems. Make products, services, and communication to sell them. Constant improvement. The further out a business gives (further than their major stakeholders and their immediate circles) the higher a company’s value creation seems to be. That is when businesses are good and necessary. When they are at their best, entrepreneurs and businessmen can be heroes. This must be recognized.
THE MISUNDERSTOOD SOURCE
Let us look at it from an intellectual angle. Adam Smith is often recited as the father of modern economics. He brilliantly made the first comprehensive study on the distribution of wealth and power using reason, rejecting the previous explanation that it is simply due to God's will in his classic work: “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776)” (Abbreviated into “Wealth of Nations”). However, his other classic work is often overlooked. The one that came before Wealth of Nations: “The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759)”.
For Smith, the market is a mechanism of morality and social support. A place where self-interest and empathy & care for others can coincide to create the foundations for a great economic system. The ethical foundations for “Commercial Society” are totally ignored by both political extremes of society (He referred to his system as "Commercial Society" before it was coined “Capitalism” after the mid-19th century. Capitalism in the modern sense is attributed to Louis Blanc. He declared it to be the appropriation of capital by some to the exclusion of others.)
Arguments for and against capitalism today are reduced to "It's Greed" or "Greed is Good". The reality is that the system cannot be grounded on strict selfishness, and it cannot be put away with violent means either, as history time and time again showed us the inevitable result of attempting to create Utopian civilizations. Each time the results are dystopic instead.
Modern capitalism is always in crisis, which makes it seem undefeatable; a system that is continually pushed to its limits before resetting and integrating challenges into itself. As many social theorists have pointed out, it is an axiomatic structure. Many opposers have figured out that you cannot defeat capitalism by becoming a part of it, ie. by taking an active part in the free market. A total paradox.
In this realization is where conscious capitalism and de-industrialization (which we will not get into in this excerpt) becomes logical options.
OUR LOGICAL CONCLUSION
As individuals, there is one main reasonable course of action or redirection to take.
- Challenge businesses to be conscious and ethical.
- Spread information and remain aware by banding with the right communities who are vigilant.
- Avoid the whole charade of mindless consumerism as much as possible through a minimalist attitude.
Confront these companies of the larger effects they have on the world. We’re not bound to the purely passive role of an impotent observer. We do not need to become full-time activists either. We can make our own choices with higher consideration. Ultimately, ethical behaviour cannot be enforced, it must be chosen by individuals when they see the meaning in their day-to-day actions. Unethical behaviour can be avoided, as most ethics are in the absence of doing harmful things. It is in the small, daily habits of people. Long gone are the days when people felt the need to counteract their destructive consumerism by balancing their "buying karma” by giving to charities and such, just to cling to the belief that they are ethical beings. We have more options than ever.
"Ethical" is in what we choose to buy and what businesses we give support to and which we reject and protest. It is how we treat each other. It is not primarily a single large gesture we make from time to time.
Human nature might be unchanging but attitudes, cultural expectations, lifestyle habits, and thoughts of people are constantly changing. Generation after generation, year by year. We as POPULATION 3 would like to help accelerate that process.
Written by: Altay Dogahan
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Bibliography:
Bribery cases by example:
(1) https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0512/the-biggest-bribe-cases-in-business-history.aspx
(2) https://www.transparency.org/en/news/25-corruption-scandals
How corporations avoid charges:
(3) https://www.chicagobooth.edu/review/capitalisnt-how-corporations-get-away-with-crime
(4) https://knowablemagazine.org/article/society/2020/how-should-we-punish-criminal-corporations
Examples of poisonous things being sold knowingly:
(5) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction_risk_from_climate_change
Lobbying examples:
Climate change caused catastrophes:
(9) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction_risk_from_climate_change
We don't understand the full effects of our most common technologies:
(11) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6214874/
(12) https://qz.com/1699489/experts-disagree-on-the-effects-of-technology-on-children
2 comments
Firstly, thank you for commenting J.
You raise some valid points which I was hoping to hear, and I appreciate your sentiment. POPULATION 3 focuses on the negative effects of Capitalism and Consumerism; its effects on the environment, mental health& wellbeing, income inequality, and worker rights, and it will continue to do so. However, to avoid the label of anti-capitalist we felt the need to lay this groundwork first.
Your comment seems to suggest that the system within which corporations operate may be flawed. This is a point which I largely agree with and will expand upon in a separate article. Accept this blog post as one of a two-part series on the brands’ economic outlook for now.
Our main disagreement lie is in seeing individuals as powerless to change the system in which they are born into. It is true and important to emphasise the necessity of systematic change instead of relying solely on individuals’ actions. However, there are three elements that must be acknowledged first before falling into defeatism and nihilism.
1) That these global issues such as Climate Change and worker exploitation are too big to handle in a single swoop, as they themselves are a culmination of decades and decades of bad trajectory.
2) That for systematic change to occur the population at large must be in support of it, as the alternative is a fall into authoritarianism and restriction of basic freedoms.
3) And perhaps even more importantly, recognising the importance of small actions and drawing a line for the minimum threshold to be an ethical consumer on an individual basis must be identified. As I’ve noted repeatedly, people should think for themselves and not fall astray to general trends and norms. That applies to reverse thinking too.
The fallacy that if everyone is doing something bad, one’s good actions don’t matter is known as the “fallacy of relative privation”. The fallacy of relative privation can hinder constructive discussions and actions by discouraging people from making positive changes or addressing problems that are within their reach in their own domains. Please pay mind to this elusion.
As for the “There is no ethical consumption under capitalism”:
Acknowledging that capitalism can be a good thing would not be to turn our backs on communities and ecosystems in desperate need of support. As you have said yourself: it is the abuse of corporate power rather than consumer power that lies at the heart of many of the problems around us.
A consumer is not the problem for being alive in a deceitful society. Those with the access to right knowledge must use it to help dismantle immoralities. Being educated is not a privilege, it is a gift.
We’re doing our own part as suppliers by being ethical and sustainable. The rest is up to the consumer to be informed and pick better.
I’m of the overwhelming belief that while it may not be inherently “evil”, the point it has gotten to certainly isn’t anywhere near ethical for the large majority of its participants and therefore I think it’s fair to describe it, currently, as a corrupt and evil system. We were born into it without the individual power to change it however, so while there is no ethical consumption under capitalism you can still try to make your production/consumption more ethical than your predecessors & contemporaries.