This document summarizes the origins and history of criticism toward business from ancient times to the present. It discusses how critics in ancient Greece and Rome viewed profit-seeking as inferior and how the Catholic Church condemned usury. Populist and Progressive movements in the late 19th/early 20th centuries sought to curb abuses of big business. Socialists rejected capitalism and advocated for collective ownership. The 1960s saw a collapse in public confidence in business due to social movements. Today, globalization is criticized by groups seeking to curb corporate dominance of the global economy.

1. Critics of Business
PREPARED BY:
HAMDOON HUSSAIN
B.SC (ECONOMICS), MBA HRM.
KARACHI UNIVERSITY BUSINESS SCHOOL (K.U.B.S)

2. Origins of Critical Attitudes Toward Business
o Two underlying sources of criticism of business:
o The belief that people in business place profit before more worthy
values such as honesty, truth, justice, love, piety, aesthetics, tranquility,
and respect for nature.
o The strain placed on societies by economic development.

3. The Greeks and Romans
o The civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome were agrarian societies
where most people worked the land for subsistence.
oAgrarian society: A society with a largely agricultural economy.
o The extraordinary civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome were based
on subsistence agriculture.

4. The Greeks and Romans
o Philosophers reasoned that profit seeking was an inferior motive
and that commercial activity led to excess, corruption, and misery.
o Plato believed that insatiable appetites existed in every person, but
could be controlled by acquiring inner virtues.

5. The Greeks and Romans
o Aristotle believed there was a benign form of acquisition that consisted of
getting the things needed for subsistence.
o Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius taught that the truly rich person possessed
inner peace rather than capital or property.

6. The Medieval World
o The prevailing theology of the Roman Catholic Church was intolerant
of profit seeking.
o According to Church cannon, merchants should charge a just price for
their wares, opposed to our modern idea of market price.
o Just price: A price giving a moderate profit; one inspired by
fairness, not greed.
o Market price: A price determined by the interaction of supply and
demand.

7. The Medieval World
o Catholicism condemned usury.
oUsury: The lending of money for interest.
o By the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the money supply and economic
activity had greatly expanded and interest-bearing loans were common.

8. The Modern World
o Protestant ethic: The belief that hard work and adherence to a set of
virtues such as thrift, saving, and sobriety would bring wealth and God’s
approval.
o Capitalism
o Free markets harnessed greed for the public good and protected
consumers from abuse.

9. The Modern World
o Visible wealth creation in expanding economies forcefully countered the
notion that only a more or less fixed amount of wealth existed in a society.
o The industrial revolution created new tensions that reinforced critical
attitudes about business.

10. Populists
o Populist movement: A political reform movement that arose among
farmers in the late 1800s.
o Populists blamed social problems on industry and sought radical
reforms such as government ownership of railroads.
o The populists:
o Advocated government ownership of railroad, telegraph, and
telephone companies and banks.
o Demanded direct election of U.S. senators.

11. Populists
o Sought to abandon the gold standard and expand the money supply.
o Succeeded in electing many state and local officials, but ultimately failed
to forge an effective political coalition.
o Refined the logic and lexicon for attacking business.

12. Progressives
o Progressive movement: A turn-of-the twentieth century political
movement that associated moderate social reform with progress.
o Progressivism was less radical than populism and had wider appeal.
o It was a mainstream political doctrine.
o Sought to cure social ills by using government to control perceived
abuses of big business.

13. Progressives
o Progressives:
o Broke up trusts and monopolies.
o Outlawed campaign contributions by corporations.
o Restricted child labor.
o Passed a corporate income tax.
o Regulated food and drug companies and public utilities.

14. Socialists
o Socialism: The doctrine of a classless society in which property is
collectively owned and income from labor is equally divided among
members.
o It rejects the values of capitalism.

15. Socialists
o The originator of the modern socialist doctrine is Francois-Noël
Babeuf (1764-97).
o Advocated seizing the possessions of the wealthy and giving them to
the masses.
o 1848 – Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published The Communist
Manifesto.
o Argued that the basis for socialism was an inevitable process of class
struggle underlying and explaining the history of human society.

16. Socialists
o Marx and Engels envisioned an equalitarian society that abolished private
ownership of capital and instituted wealth sharing among all members.
o Discovered historical theory that class warfare was the underlying
dynamic that changed society.

17. Socialists
o United States of 1850-1900:
o Child labor was widespread.
o Factories injured and wore down workers.
o Wealth and power were concentrated in great banks, trusts, and railway
systems.
o Inequality between rich and poor seemed obscene.

18. Socialists
o The masses suffered through financial panics and unemployment.
o Industrial growth created a new social working class.

19. Socialists
o Unionization - Early unions tied to single companies or locations.
o 1869 - Knights of Labor was set up.
o 1886 - American Federation of Laborformed.
o 1877 - Beginning of violent union strikes.
o 1905 - Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) was formed.
o 1912 - Peak of socialism in the United States.

20. The Great Depression and World War II
o There was a period of high confidence in big business during the 1920s,
ending with the stock market crash of 1929.
o The war years washed away the populist/socialist/depression era
image of the corporation as a bloated plutocracy.

21. The Collapse of Confidence
o Strong public support for business collapsed in the mid-1960s.
o Four strong social movements attacked big business:
o Civil rights.
o Consumer rights.
o Environmental rights.
o Vietnam war opposition.

22. The Collapse of Confidence
o Theoretical “confidence gap” created in the 1960s.
o The steep fall of public trust after 1966 opened the door for reformers to
increase government regulation dramatically.

23. The New Progressives
o Old Progressive: Members of a broad political and social reform
movement in the early years of the twentieth century.
o New Progressive: Members of contemporary left leaning groups who
advocate more radical corporate reform than did old time Progressives.

24. The New Progressives
• New Progressives seek to avoid being branded as liberals and try to take
advantage of favorable connotations in the word progressive.

25. Global Critics
o Corporate power grows in the world economy.
o Nongovernmental organization: A term for voluntary, nonprofit
organizations that are not affiliated with governments.
o NGOs animate civil society, which is a zone of ideas, discourse, and action
that transcends national societies and focuses on global issues.

26. Global Critics
o Civil society: A zone of ideas, discourse, and action, dominated by
progressive values, that transcends national societies and focuses on global
issues.
o In the 1990s a global justice movement evolved within civil society.
o Global justice movement: A coalition of groups united by
opposition to economic globalization dominated by corporate
capitalism.

27. Global Critics
o Neoliberalism
o Liberalism
o Economic
o liberalism
o Keynesianism
o Chicago School
o Group of Eight

28. GlobalActivism
o Activists attack corporations using a range of devices:
o Consumer boycotts.
o Shareholder attacks.
o Harassment, ridicule, and shaming.
o Corporate campaign.

29. Conclusion
o Each era brings new personalities, new targets, and some new issues, but
the fundamental substance endures.
o Industrial capitalism is a historical force for continuous, turbulent
social change.
o Capitalism, for the most part, brings changes that represent progress, a
condition of improvement for humanity.

30. Thank You