Integrity for the Common Good: The Missing Link between Neoliberalists and the “Occupy” Discontents

Abstract

Wealth disparities have always been present in human history. Indeed, globalization and free market economies generally increase the ‘wealth of nations’ but do so unequally. U.S. and European right-wing advocates often depict the necessary ‘market reality’ that the world will have winners only if it tolerates losers. The opposite view argues that large social safety nets ensure confidence in the future and allow financial risks and wealth redistributions avoiding extreme poverty. No matter the different economic views and ideologies, the fact remains that eight million people around the world die each year because they are too poor to stay alive. This is a central moral dilemma facing our global society. This present study examines the ideological divisions and current debates between neoliberal and Keynesian economic models. In light of the current global financial crisis, the growing or persisting inequalities in countries and societies, and the manifestation of dissents of the ‘Occupy’ movement and other ‘discontents’ of the neoliberal economic models, we suggest an integrated ethics for the common good as a necessary solution. First, we examine growing societal divisions between ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ manifested in economic inequalities and human development. Second, we rediscover the common-good purpose of the economy, manifested as social economy, in the humanistic tradition and within its moral foundations.