4. Critics of Business - 4 Critics of Business Two Fundamental Sources of Criticism Businesses value profit over any other consideration Economic

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