Morality in a free market

Are the markets moral? Should we expect them to be? Moral according to whom? 
If they’re not moral, are they immoral? Amoral? Or value-neutral?

• Morality describes the codes of conduct put forward by a society. It can refer to a system of conduct to which all rational persons, regardless of culture, would subscribe. Morality deals with our sense of fairness and our sense of responsibility to others. Implicit in morality is the idea that there are right ways and wrong ways to act.
• A market is any structure under which commerce takes place: the purchase of land, stocks, airline tickets, vegetables, sporting events, whatever it may be. These structures begin as neither moral nor immoral. They are indifferent as water. Markets are meant simply to be vehicles for finding the most efficient way to balance supply and demand. The freer the market, the less encumbered by regulation, and the more efficient it should be. 
• From a social standpoint, unfettered markets can lead to situations most of us would consider immoral: vast populations of have-nots, a ruined environment, plutocracies and other dystopian scenarios.
• How can we influence markets so that they can help us build the kind of world we believe we should have?The misalignment between markets and morality -- public good versus individual rights. How markets should be governed is a discussion about capitalism itself. Capitalism has brought so much to so many in so short a time. Is it perfect? No. 
• Even as our free-market system has raised living standards to levels once unimaginable, the backlash against the markets has gotten louder. The Occupy Wall Street movement is the most visible example. Most of the protesters say they aren’t against the markets. They’re against injustice and inequality and that the system is rigged against them. They say it’s criminal for a CEO to make several hundred times the earnings of an average employee. 
• It’s disgusting for a company to shut down a plant, throw workers out on the street, and, destroy a town’s economy for no reason other than that a cheaper source of production has been found elsewhere. Only government can make the markets work in the public interest and not in their own interest.
• Something in our society is out of whack. The stock market is up but people don’t have jobs. The gap between the rich and everyone else is growing. There’s an international super-class traveling the world in private jets, living in a series of penthouse apartments, while the rest of us can only shake our heads, grow embittered, and soothe ourselves with reality programs that exploit some of society’s most pathetic individuals so that we can feel superior to somebody, thereby mitigating our doubts about our own positions in the socio-economic hierarchy. 
• All systems tend to perpetuate themselves, to act in their own self-interest until curbed by some other force. John Ruskin believed that honesty wasn’t just the best policy; it was the only policy that would allow an economy to steer clear of chaos. Many corporations have learned that corporate social responsibility isn’t just charity. It fosters long-term value. Business is the most powerful force in the world, and when approached in a certain way, it promotes both economic and social good.
• Honesty fosters trust, and trust allows markets to function. When trust fails and when no bank would lend money because it didn’t trust the credit-worthiness of any potential counterparty -- markets crash.
• Those with great power and wealth have a responsibility to use it for good. Having accumulated more wealth than several men could use in several lifetimes, Mr. Bill Gates has devoted his fortune to initiatives aimed at eradicating disease and poverty in some of the world’s most backward geographies. 
• In the liberal democracies of the West, the free-enterprise system is not designed to enrich the few at the expense of the many. And the markets, in the purest sense, aren’t listening. They tend to follow mathematics, not morals.You can be as ambitious as you want; you can achieve as much as your abilities allow; but you have to play by the rules. And the rules make the markets more open, more transparent and more fair.
• In the context of larger issues: the individual versus the group; equality of opportunity versus equality of outcome; and the difference between legal and moral, which ones do we place at the top? Ayn Rand would tell that the individual is all. By contrast, a honeybee would tell you that group welfare trumps everything.
• We’re individuals, but we’re part of and we have the ability to affect the group. We do it at the ballot box and we can do it in the markets. In investing we can choose to restrict our investments to companies that exhibit behavior consistent with our own morality.
• Rule breaking is an example of personal wrongdoing, not evidence of a corrupt institution. Can we blame markets for thieves like Bernie Madoff? Do markets create greed, along with motivation?
• Look at Madoff’s sixty-billion-dollar swindle. He caused tremendous damage. He bankrupted successful businesses and charitable organizations. He reduced families to penury. His own son committed suicide. But anyone who considers Madoff a representative money manager is mistaken. He is simply a criminal.
• There are situations in which entire industries have acted immorally.The sub-prime lending crisis of 2007-08. Banks pushed people to borrow more than they needed, more than could really afford, because the banks made the most money that way. Some of the biggest culprits were deemed “too big to fail,” and were granted immunity for their mistakes. 
• A moral society seeks the best opportunity for all its members. It protects the weak while allowing ambition to express itself fully. A corporation seeks to maximize its profits while staying within the law and doing right by its customers, workers and the community in which it undertakes its activities. Some corporations take it as a point of pride to create excellent working conditions, encourage social commitment, and to act as a moral society in miniature.
• Whether markets seek to be moral or not is irrelevant, because they have proved an effective tool for improving lives. As Deng Xiaoping once put it, “It doesn’t matter if the cat is black or white as long as it catches mice.”
• The idea that everything in life can be reduced to supply and demand may not be the most valid way to look at all human interaction. At what point does that premise begin to corrupt the social fabric?
• In New York, Washington DC etc a cottage industry of line-standers has now grown up and you can hire people to stand in line for you in case you have more money than time. It creates a positive good for two people -- the line-stander and the playgoer.
• In Washington DC -- line-standing companies employ homeless people to stand in line for clients who want the limited seats available for Congressional committee hearings and Supreme Court sessions open to the public. Lobbyists and others are often happy to pay for access. From a market standpoint: supply and demand. Socially? It kind of doesn’t smell right.
• At Disney World, people in wheelchairs and their families don’t have to wait in long lines for rides. They’re placed at the front of the queue. That seems morally correct. So some people of means have paid disabled strangers to pose as their family members. This is immoral and dishonest.

As long as we would prefer to pay more for a good that is produced in accordance with our values than pay a lower price for an article that is made by taking advantage of those without the means to redress unfair conditions, we will be moving the markets towards a more just, more moral position. The fact is we aren’t always willing to do that. Regulation can fix some of the problem, but personal responsibility -- knowing what you are investing in and buying -- can play a bigger role.

Principles aren’t principles until they cost you money.

Read the source article

Epidemic of dishonesty

Entrepreneur, philanthropist and former New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg discussed the importance of honor and honesty in bringing the country together as he addressed graduates at Rice University’s 105th commencement May 12, 2018 in the Academic Quad. 

The excerpts are:

• The concept of honor has taken on different meanings through the ages: chivalry, chastity, courage, strength. And when divorced from morality, or attached to prejudice, honor has been used to justify murder, and repression, and deceit. But the essence of honor has always been found in the word itself.
• The words ‘honor’ and ‘honest’ are two sides of the same coin. In fact, the Latin word ‘honestus’ can mean both ‘honest’ and ‘honorable.’
• To be honorable, you must be honest. And that means speaking honestly, and acting honestly, even when it requires you to admit wrongdoing -- and suffer the consequences.  The commitment to honesty is a responsibility that you accepted as an Owl.  It is also a patriotic responsibility.
• One of the first things, young children learn about American history is the story of George Washington and the fallen cherry tree.  ‘I cannot tell a lie,’ young George tells his father. ‘I cut it down.’ We’ve always lionized our two greatest presidents -- Washington and Lincoln -- not only for their accomplishments, but also for their honesty. We see their integrity and morals as a reflection of our honor as a nation. However, today when we look at the city that bears Washington's name, it's hard not to wonder: What the hell happened?
• In 2016, the Oxford English Dictionary's word of the year was ‘post-truth.’ And last year brought us the phrase, ‘alternative facts.’  In essence, they both mean: Up can be down. Black can be white. True can be false. Feelings can be facts.
• Pat Moynihan, once said: ‘People are entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts.’ 
• Today, those in politics routinely dismiss any inconvenient information, no matter how factual, as fake -- and they routinely say things that are demonstrably false.  When authoritarian regimes around the world did this, we scoffed at them.  We thought the American people would never stand for that!
• For my generation, the plain truth about America -- the freedom, opportunity, and prosperity we enjoyed. The more communists had access to real news, the more they would demand freedom. We believed that -- and we were right.
• Today many of those at the highest levels of power see the plain truth as a threat. They fear it. They deny it. And they attack it -- just as the communists once did. And so here we are, in the midst of an epidemic of dishonesty, and an endless barrage of lies.
• The trend toward elected officials propagating alternate realities is one of the most serious dangers facing democracies. Free societies depend on citizens who recognize that deceit in government isn’t something to shrug your shoulders at. When elected officials speak as though they are above the truth, they will act as though they are above the law. And when we tolerate dishonesty, we get criminality. Sometimes, it's in the form of corruption. Sometimes, it's abuse of power. And sometimes, it's both. If left unchecked, these abuses can erode the institutions that preserve and protect our rights and freedoms -- and open the door to tyranny and fascism.
• There is now more tolerance for dishonesty in politics than I have seen in my lifetime, one-third of the time the United States has existed!  
• My generation can tell you: The only thing more dangerous than dishonest politicians who have no respect for the law, is a chorus of enablers who defend their every lie.
• Remember: The Honor Code here at Rice University just doesn’t require you to be honest. It requires you to say something if you saw others acting dishonestly. Now that might be the most difficult part of an honor code, but it may also be the most important, because violations affect the whole community. And the same is true in our country. If we want elected officials to be honest, we have to hold them accountable when they are not -- or else suffer the consequences. Honest people can disagree. That's what democracy is all about! But productive debate requires an acceptance of basic reality. 
• It's always good to be skeptical and ask questions.
• Scientific discovery permeates practically every aspect of our lives.
• Political leaders are being dishonest about facts and data, and too many people are letting them get away with it.
• So how did we get here?  How did we go from a president who could not tell a lie to politicians who can not tell the truth?  From a George Washington who embodied honesty, to a Washington, D.C. defined by deceit?
• It’s popular to blame social media for spreading false information. 
• It's the public's willingness -- even eagerness -- to believe anything that paints the other side in a bad light. That's extreme partisanship -- and that is what's fueling and excusing all this dishonesty. Extreme partisanship is like an infectious disease. But instead of crippling the body, it cripples the mind. It blocks us from understanding the other side. It blinds us from seeing the strengths in their ideas -- and the weaknesses of our own. And it leads us to defend or excuse lies and unethical actions when our own side commits them.
• For example: In the 1990s, leading Democrats spent the decade defending the occupant of the Oval Office against charges of lying and personal immorality, and attempting to silence and discredit the women who spoke out. At the same time, leading Republicans spent that decade attacking the lack of ethics and honesty in the White House. Today, the roles are exactly reversed -- not because the parties have changed their beliefs -- but because the party occupying the Oval Office has changed.
• When someone's judgment about an action depends on the party affiliation of the person who committed it, they're being dishonest with themselves and with the public. And yet many people -- in both parties -- don't even realize that they are making them.
• When people see the world as a battle between left and right, they become more loyal to their tribe than to our country. When power -- not progress -- becomes the object of the battle, truth and honesty become the first casualties.
• Honesty leads to trust and trust leads to freedom. In democracy, it's no different. If we aren't honest with one another, we don't trust one another, then we place limits on what we ourselves can do, and what we can do together as a country. It's a formula for gridlock and national decline.  It doesn't have to be that way.
• Arguments were won and lost on facts and data -- not parties and polls. 
• At the national level, in Washington today, partisanship is everything.  And I think the dishonesty that it produces is one of the greatest challenges that your generation will have to confront.
• Partisanship is not a new problem. George Washington warned against it in his Farewell Address. He referred to the ‘dangers of parties,’ and called the passion that people have for our parties, ‘worst enemy’ of democracy -- a precursor to tyranny.  Washington urged Americans to, ‘discourage and restrain’ partisanship.  In recent years, the opposite has happened.
• There is now unrestrained, rabid partisanship everywhere we look. It's in the communities where we live, which are becoming more deeply red or more deeply blue. It’s in the groups and associations and churches we join, which increasingly attract like-minded people. It’s even in the people we marry. 
• Fifty years ago, most parents didn't care whether their children married a member of another political party, but they didn't want them marrying outside their race or religion, or inside their gender. Today, polls show a strong majority support for inter-racial, inter-religious, and same-sex marriage and that is progress. 
• But the percentage of parents who don't want their children marrying outside of their political party has doubled and the more people segregate themselves by party, the harder it becomes to understand the other side, and the more extreme each party grows. The country is more divided by party than it has ever been since the Civil War.
• In like-minded groups, fringe ideas can gather momentum with dangerous speed.
• Bringing the country back together won't be easy. But it can be done -- and if we are to continue as a true democracy, it must be done.
• Americans are facing an "epidemic of dishonesty" in Washington that's more dangerous than terrorism or communism, also warned that "an endless barrage of lies" and a trend toward "alternate realities" in national politics pose a dire threat to U.S. democracy.
• The 76-year-old billionaire, did not call out any politician by name.
• Bloomberg evoked the legend of the nation's first president, George Washington, who as a boy said he could not tell a lie when asked if he cut down a cherry tree. "How did we go from a president who could not tell a lie to politicians who cannot tell the truth?" he asked.

Religion - Swami Vivekananda Quotes

Swami Vivekananda was religious, but never a superstitious person. 

• All religion is to be based upon morality, and personal purity is superior.
• All religious superstitions are vain imaginations. 
• Beliefs, doctrines, sermons do not make religion.
• Believe in the doctrine, and you are safe.
• Circumstances can never be good or bad. Only the individual man can be good or bad. What is meant by the world being good or bad? Misery and happiness can only belong to the sensuous individual man.
• Despondency is not religion.
• Experience is the best source of knowledge. 
• First bread and then religion.
• Great is the tenacity with which man clings to the senses.
• In religion lies the vitality  of India.
• Intellectual assent and intellectual dissent are not religion.
• It is an insult to a starving people to offer them religion.
• Mere believing in certain theories and doctrines will not help you much. 
• No destruction of religion is necessary to improve the Hindu society.
• One religion cannot suit all.
• Religion is the greatest and healthiest exercise for the human mind.
• Religion requires hard and constant practice.
• Religion is a necessary thing to very few, and to the vast mass of mankind it is a luxury.
• Religion is the retaliation of Spirit as Spirit; not Spirit as matter. Religion is a growth. Each one must experience it himself. 
• Religion has no business to formulate social laws.
• Religion is not in doctrines, in dogmas, nor in intellectual argumentation;
  it is being and becoming, it is realization.
• Religion is manifestation of the Divinity already in man.
• So long as even a single dog in my country is without food,
  my whole religion will be to feed it.
• Talking is not religion.
• The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
• The goal of all religions is the same, but the language of the teachers differs.
• The greatest religion is to be true to your own nature. 
• The ideal of all religions is attaining of liberty and cessation of misery.
• The man who is frightened into religion has no religion at all.
• The proof of one religion depends on the proof of all the rest.
• The very rich can understand truth much less than the poorer people. The rich man has no time to think of anything beyond his wealth and power, his comforts and indulgences. The rich rarely become religious. Why? Because they think, if they become religious, they will have no more fun in life.
• True religion is entirely transcendental.
• Try to be pure and unselfish— that is the whole of religion.
• We must not only tolerate each others, but positively embrace them, and that truth is the basis of all religions.
• We must not judge of higher things from a low standpoint.
  Everything must be judged by its own standard. 
• You are what you make yourselves. 
• You are religious from the day you begin to see God in men and women.

Selfishness is the chief sin, thinking of ourselves first. The unselfish man says, 'I will be last, I do not care to go to heaven, I will even go to hell if by doing so I can help my brothers.' This unselfishness is the test of religion. He who has more of this unselfishness is more spiritual and nearer to Shiva.

मातृदेबो भब पितृदेबो भब, दरिद्रतृदेबो भब, मूर्खतृदेबो भब

The poor, the illiterate, the ignorant, the afflicted -- let these be your God. 

Know that services to these alone is the highest religion ... Swami Vivekananda

Pros and Cons of Being Super Rich

• Riches improves quality of life. Most rich people are unhappy. Happiness can't be bought.
• It’s better to be rich than poor. And it’s nice to be super rich. 
• Affluent – Still have to work. If you are comfortable but still must work to support your lifestyle then consider yourself affluent. 
  Rich – Don’t have to work. Rich people means they do not have to work on stuff they don’t enjoy. They have time and they can do whatever they want with it. In America, net worth of  $10mn or higher are Rich.
  Super rich – Have to work to give their money away. Super rich are with net worth in the tens and hundreds of millions of dollars and up. They have more money than they could ever need for their personal lifestyle. The question of not just what to do with their time but what to do with their excess money.
• It’s nice to be super rich. You’ll fly private jets. You’ll eat nice food all the time, you’ll have aides and servants who will save you time. Problem is as a person makes more money, expectations and desires rise in tandem, which results in no permanent gain in happiness. 
• The private jet doesn’t feel so special the 20th time you’re on it. Rather than marveling at the fact you’re on your own plane, you’re more likely to just compare it to other private planes you’ve been on.
• Happiness is the day to day bounce of emotions while happiness meaning is what you feel when you step back, take a minute, and reflect on what will go in your obituary. 
• A billionaire has said, “Nothing is going to make you feel better. Philanthropy is absolutely the best drug I’ve ever taken.”
• You can meet anyone in the world. The best part about being famous is the chance to meet other famous people.
• Unlike in the past, today there’s a tiny difference between the rich and the American middle class in terms of quality of life.
• Bill Gates has a bigger house than you or me, but for what really matters, we’re the same.
• Your quality of life is determined by the quality of your relationships.
• Any person you befriend while you are atop a perch of power is just trying to get something from you or so you suspect, and suspicion alone is enough to careen a relationship.
• Many presidents declared “no new friends” upon entering the White House.
• Being super rich can be lonely. If you try to talk about the perils of being rich and famous, someone will accuse you of self-pity.
• If you are a good person, the weight and duty of being responsible with the billions you have becomes a burden. And then it almost becomes criminal to pass that burden onto your kids. It is very hard not to have it run your life.
• Being super rich disconnects you from your fellow humans.  If you can’t remember the last time you waited in line at the airport, or if it’s been years since you drove your own car to a supermarket, you’re living in a different world. 
• Money changes your sense of morality, and usually not for the better. As you move up the class ladder, you are more likely to violate the rules of the road, to lie, to cheat, to shoplift, and to be tightfisted in giving to others. 
• Empathy goes down. It’s harder for the super rich to remain compassionate towards ordinary people.
• Perhaps wealth needs its own goldilocks story - not too much, not too little. Money is like gasoline while driving. You never want to run out, but the point of life is not to go on a tour of gas stations.
• Ideally you want to have a sum of money that is large enough to get most of the advantages of wealth but not its side effects. With enough money, you live entirely on your own terms.
• People are very critical of the wealthy in the UK. In the US entrepreneurs are celebrated.

That man is rich, whose pleasures are the cheapest ... Henry David Thoreau
Honesty is incompatible with amassing a large fortune ... Mahatma Gandhi 
In a country well governed, poverty is to be ashamed of. 
In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of ... Confucius

Living life of importance is egoistic, where as leading simple & frugal life has more fun and fulfillment. VIP life in total disconnect in a different world is just miserable. It is better to have sufficient money which gives security, freedom from compulsion to work and to pursue one's own interests & choices. Anything more is burdensome and less is fatigue. We should never lose things that money can't buy. Finally we should never consume more than what we produce. Wastage and  excess emissions are nothing but abusing nature.

Traffic rules jumping is crazy and immoral

• Traffic violation has little to do with being in a hurry. 
• It’s about the opportunity to leave the fellow traveler behind.
• While traffic rules can be altered arbitrarily, moral and juridical rules which are constitutive and cannot be arbitrarily replaced by another set. 
• Traffic restrictions are regulated. While morality underpins these rules, it also frames them.
• How we drive is how we are driven. 
• Jumping lights is a feature of daily life. It is dangerous and very often fatal for either the violator or the innocent passerby or both.
• If everyone crashed lights, there would be chaos. 
• With increasing lying, the difference between truth and falsity is not abandoned, but actually sharpened. We do not abandon truth, but look more carefully for it.
• Non-functioning traffic lights tempts people to take unilateral decisions when co-operative action is most called for. This is legitimising jumping lights when they do work.
• Crashing lights also alters our character. We infect each other until the malady becomes an epidemic. 
• We think little of rule-breaking, especially when no one is looking. Motorbikes and cars line up obediently at crossings only when policeman is present. The violator is aware of what he is doing. 
• For most people, practical reason is a means to achieve immediate goals, whatever they may be. In the case of the signal light crasher, the goal is simply getting across quickly.
• Slowing down the speedster includes strategies like timers on lights which show the duration of the impending wait.
• At traffic lights you only have to get the first few vehicles to stop to stop the others per force.
• The assumption that light-crashers are in a hurry is questionable. It is not the real reason for jumping lights (fallacy of pro causa non causa). 
• Those who jump lights appear to be in a hurry, but are in no more haste than everybody else, and not more likely to get anywhere faster. 
• The reason why people jump lights is that they don't know the reason themselves.
• It is not the hurry to get across that best describes such misconduct, but the opportunity to leave fellow travellers behind.
• This is what lures the criminal to make his dash. His motive is simply to get the better of others. It’s a kind of cheating, not because it makes them richer, but because it enables them to steal a march over otheers. 
• This way of accomplishing something is potentially dangerous. It is this that often makes the rider throw caution to the winds to seize the day.
• No arguments will be effective against such behaviour. 
• Suicidal behaviour is neither the privilege of fanatics nor fundamentalists. 
• This is one area where no one could rightly complain and the police seem least active. This makes one wonder if law and order are really a priority.

Dando damyatam asmi ... Lord Krishna

Violating traffic rules is an act of craziness that exposes all around fatalities which has nothing to gain and everything to lose. This fundamentally arises out of superiority complex. Stringent penalties will surely act as deterrent. But the chances of getting caught and/or fined must be 80% or more. More than all these, ethical education during childhood years will be helpful. Adhering to traffic rules even when no one is around will help retaining safety habits and minimises risk of accidents.

What money can't buy?

Some of the things that money can't buy:

1. Respect
2. Work-life balance
3. Manners
4. Common sense
5. Integrity
6. Good friends
7. A worry-free day
8. Trust
9. An honest politician
10. Peace of mind
11. Patience
12. Luck
13. Time to relax
14. A strong work ethic
15. A positive attitude
16. A happy home
17. True love
18. Talent
19. Wisdom
20. Happiness
21. Humility
22. A good reputation
23. Relationship with your kids
24. Justice
25. Selflessness

.... and many more.

There are many people who aren’t well-off but yet they are honest, trustworthy and happy. They are respected for what they are & not for what they have.

It's good to have money and the things that money can buy, 

but it's good, too, to check up once in a while and make sure that 

you haven't lost the things that money can't buy ... George Lorimer

Why does good things to happen to wicked people?

This question is similar to its opposite: Why does bad things to happen to good people? Both questions refer to what seems to be the perplexing injustice we witness every day. Evil people live by their own rules, enjoying all the wealth and pleasures of the world and collecting riches. They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong. Then we witness the wicked people around us getting new possessions, luxurious homes, promotions, and beautiful clothes, while good people struggle financially. 

Neighbor's prosperity is no concern of ours. In the end it doesn't matter! Our neighbors' fortunes are completely out of our hands. What is under our control is how we respond to it and, far more importantly how we handle what we have. Rather than gaze enviously at our neighbors' wealth, we should strive to be content. Having food, clothing, shelter and health, we should be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

The pursuit of wealth is a path that is likely to end in trouble, unhappiness and destruction. In the sanctuary of God, wicked people find it slippery and swept away. Those who have temporary riches on earth are in reality spiritual beggars because they do not have true riches, eternal life. If we keep God's way, the blessings will come automatically, as God sees fit. Whether we prosper financially or not, we know that God has our best interests at heart. God will give us all that we could ever need if we keep our focus on righteousness. There we will find truth, contentment, spiritual riches, and eternal joy.

It is that simple. Do good, trust God and don't worry! 

Money is difficult to earn; Money is difficult to save; Money is difficult to preserve; 
Money is difficult to invest; Money is troublesome all the way!

He who wishes become millionaire in a year will get hanged in two years.

My View:

Money is not that difficult to earn. Look at the people who earn money effortlessly by connections and manipulations. Money is only difficult to earn ethically, morally & legally. Compromise in all these three, then money will flood you. God seldom gives riches to good people. Morality is generally incompatible with amassing wealth.

Capitalism & Morality

• Capitalism is the most productive and efficient economic system.
• Some critics contend that capitalism is not a moral system.
• Morality is impossible unless one is free to choose between alternatives without outside coercion. Since capitalism is based on freedom of choice, it provides the best environment for morality and character development. 
• Business success not only requires but also rewards virtuous behavior by participants in the market.
• All human beings have natural rights endowed by their Creator or inherent in their nature, and have a moral obligation to respect the rights of others. Natural rights impose the obligation not to interfere with others liberty. 
• It is morally illegitimate to use coercion against someone who does not first undertake the use of force. The role of government, is to protect man's natural rights.  
• This freedom involves far more than simple democracy and an individual can pursue his freely chosen norms, actions, and ends without the arbitrary intervention of others. This freedom is necessary for individual morality. 
• There can be no morality without responsibility and no responsibility without self- determination. Self-determination implies rationality, honesty, self-control, productiveness, and perseverance. 
• Maximum self-determination for each individual is possible only when the state is limited to maintaining justice and defending against coercion, thus protecting life, liberty, and property.  
• Capitalism is a system of relationships and cannot be moral or immoral and individuals can only be moral agents. 
• A social system can be moral if it promotes moral behavior by individuals. 
• It is imperative to create a political and economic system that permits self-determination and promotes morality. Capitalism is that system. 
• Capitalism is only a means and requires individual participants to decide on the ends to be pursued. 
• No economic system can make people good. The best that an economic system can do is to allow people to be good. 
• Morality and virtue require that individuals be free to be immoral and of bad character. 
• When an individual has choice and bears responsibility for his actions can he be moral. 
• Capitalism allows the exercise of individual free will but cannot guarantee a moral society. 
• Human development requires more than material wealth. 
• Prosperity enables individuals to cultivate their talents, abilities, and virtues. 
• Capitalism is the best system for wealth creation, permits individuals to spend less time on physical concerns, leaving them more time to engage in higher pursuits. 
• Achievement of prosperity tends to reward moral behavior. 
• Businesses and their owners, managers, and employees have moral obligations. They must respect the natural rights of other individuals, which includes honoring contracts, not engaging in fraud, not using coercion against others, and honoring representations made to the local community. 
• Businessmen should not support government economic interventions, such as price supports, tariffs, and subsidies, even though doing so might result in higher profits. Doing so in nothing but use of coercion.
• Living up to these virtues will aid businessmen in the pursuit of profit. 
• The free market rewards polite, cooperative, tolerant, open, honest, realistic, trustworthy, discerning, creative, fair businessmen. 
• Lying to and cheating other businesses, misleading consumers, and mistreating workers all have serious adverse consequences. 
• In the long run, profitable businesses tend to be operated in accordance with the basic ethical principles most people hold dear.
• Under capitalism business transactions takes place by mutual agreement for perceived mutual gains only by serving the interests of others. 
• Protecting individual choice, capitalism generates enormous wealth, and creates an environment in which virtue can flourish. 
• Capitalism is not only the most productive and efficient economic system. It is also the most moral economic system!  

• Capitalism is an economic system that promotes inequality.
• Uncontrolled, capitalism will corrupt and undermine democracy.
• The vice of capitalism is its unequal sharing of blessings; the virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries. 

My View:

All the above merits of capitalistic system seems to be very nice but in reality people are selfish, greedy and does anything to maximize their profits. In a highly educated society, with abundance of awareness, consciousness of individual rights, free of corruption at least at working levels, stringent law enforcement systems with highly deterrent punishments where citizens will voluntarily comply with laws otherwise they will be compelled to fear laws, capitalism will work to great extent. In poor, less educated & developing societies, free market capitalism is a bane and a distant dream.

Capitalism is fundamentally incompatible with principles of democracy. Capitalism doesn't recognize equal rights of sharing natural resources. The rich consumes too much and poor too little. Capitalism only produces materialistic benefits and makes humans drift away from soil. A small privileged few are rich beyond conscience, and almost all others are doomed to be poor. Capitalism creates materialistic wealth, makes people insensitive and impoverishes spiritually. In the pursuit of riches, economic systems often creates jolts which only hurts the poor. In poor and less educated societies poor gets exploited with scanty food & social security. In educated & affluent societies poor people are provided social and food security only to safeguard the interests of the rich. The only applaudable achievement of capitalism is that extreme poverty & starvation deaths are eliminated. The worst aberration in capitalism is that while risk is spread out on everybody, the fruits are cornered by the rich alone. Morality is incompatible with amassing wealth. Usually amassing wealth is associated with cheating & corruption, looting public or government and destruction of ecological assets. Since the system will not change the rules, we need to change the system.