Financial self-interest is framed as advancing the common good through free-market logic

Evidence

The customary justification in the finance industry—and indeed, industry as a whole—takes the following form: Unfettered by intrusive regulations, commercial innovations flourish, and productive industries fuel economic growth. The finance industry promotes and sustains economic viability for the nation. In doing so it contributes to the livelihood of the nation’s citizenry and raises the standard of living. Market forces are alleged to be governed by rational decision making. The free market rewards good financial practices with success and punishes bad ones with failure, Thus, when left to its own devices, the free market is self-correcting. Thus, the finance industry makes life better for everyone. By vigorously pursuing their self-interests, financiers are advancing the common good. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 364 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Financiers rely heavily on economic justifications of their business practices. They argue that when it is free from obstructive regulations, the finance industry promotes economic growth by supporting innovations and providing capital for productive industries. Economic growth raises the standard of living and contributes in other ways to the common good. At the height of the global economic meltdown of the financiers own making, Lloyd Blankfein, chief of Goldman Sachs, extolled how the financial industry serves the greater good: “We help companies to grow by helping them to raise capital. Companies that grow create wealth. This, in turn, allows people to have jobs that create more growth and more wealth. It’s a virtuous cycle. We have a social purpose.” He described himself as “doing God’s work” (Carney, 2009). Viewing oneself as promoting the common good through holy work obviates the need for self-censure. The missionary claim might be dismissed as spoken in jest. However, given the financial meltdown, one must believe in the goodness of one’s work to preserve a sense of self-respect. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1515 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Current attention-organizing logics serve financial interests and are self-destructive. — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 501; Financialization establishes ideological dominance of individual profit over collective interests — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 109; Microfinance extended debt to the poorest as a moralizing free-market project — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 73 (+10 more)

Broader Connections

• Financial self-interest is justified as advancing the common good. #corroborates (0.98) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 364
• High-benefit justifications frame self-interested finance as serving the common good #corroborates (0.97) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1515
• Economic justifications let financiers view profit-seeking as serving the common good #corroborates (0.95)
• Narrow self-interest does not automatically produce efficient exchange #complicates (0.78)
• Human self-interest drives us to invent profit schemes heedless of lasting harm #complicates (0.72) — The Friends of Attention, Attensity!, 99