4. Critics of Business
Two Fundamental Sources of Criticism
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Businesses value profit over any other consideration
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Economic development strains societies and creates a range of problems
Early Perceptions of Business
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Earliest societies were agrarian, means most people were farmers
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Greeks and Romans
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both were still mainly agrarian
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a society’s wealth was fixed, desiring more, deprived others
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early philosophers claimed that the accumulation of wealth led to greed, unhappiness,
envy, inequalities, war
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the truly rich possessed inner peace
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THE MEDIEVAL WORLD
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St. Thomas Aquinas- influenced by the Aristotelian view of business
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The Roman Catholic Church- doctrine intolerant of profit making
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A just price versus the market price
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THE RENAISSANCE
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Protestant Ethic-removed moral suspicion of wealth
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working hard was serving God
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wealth maybe be your reward for a good life
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Adam Smith and The Wealth of Nations
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free markets protect consumers
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expansion of industrialized economies dispelled notion of limited wealth
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Industrialization alters society
Economic ideas introduced during the Protestant Reformation held that accumulated wealth was a sign of God’s
approval.
In the American Colonies
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People were probably the most free in the world
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Rivers provided access to the interior
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Land was cheap
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Taxes were 25 times higher in England
Early America
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- Spring '09
- Ritchey
- Economics, Business, Poverty, The Jungle, Protestant Reformation, The Wealth of Nations, World Trade Organization
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