10 questions with Rick Santorum.

He.Just.Doesn’t.get.it.

Name the subject, and he just doesn’t get it - economics, etc.

But he had a curious comment that capitalism encourages morality. That got my attention.

Q: You’re known as a critic of American culture and someone who’s concerned about the morality of the culture. When you look at corporate America and Wall Street, do you admire the culture?

A (Santorum). Capitalism actually encourages morality because capitalism can’t function well if people can’t trust each other and people aren’t honest, if a deal isn’t a deal. That’s not to say that people don’t do bad things and commit fraud. But the more moral the people are in their business dealings, the less paperwork you need, the more handshakes you can have, the more the wheels of capitalism work better because there’s trust in the marketplace. Business ethics is not a joke. And, in fact, I think most businesses that I’ve dealt with encourage exactly that type of behavior.

Sorry, but capitalism and morality are separate and distinct - if your motivation is profit, then you’re going to do whatever it is to maximize profit. A company or businessperson engaging in transactions that encourages a moral position (take green policies) would be willing to sacrifice profit for their position - that’s not encouraged under capitalism. It’s the opposite.

Encouraging moral behavior requires a level of regulation - good business practices so that there’s transparency on transactions, businesses don’t pollute to avoid the costs of disposal of wastes, etc.

Santorum seems to ignore that many business practices he speaks of are responses of legislative and regulatory codes to clean up business practices (take employment discrimination, safe working environments, etc.)