Many people have a dim view of profits; they see them as the result of immoral exploitation by business for selfish gain.
Jaana Woiceshyn
Jaana Woiceshyn taught business ethics and competitive strategy for over 30 years at the Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary, Canada, where she is now an emerita professor.How to Be Profitable and Moral” is her first solo-authored book.
Visit her website at profitableandmoral.com.
The Moral Case Against Tariffs – and for Free Trade
According to Rand, then, tariffs are destructive because they are a form of physical coercion by the government. They violate the citizens’ freedom to choose with whom to trade and on what terms and thus limit their ability to pursue their lives.
Portraying CEOs as Cartoon Villains
It is not the corporate CEOs who deserve to be blamed: statist governments are the real villains.
Why Do Business Leaders Appease Their Enemies?
The fundamental reason for appeasing the critics of business is that company executives lack the moral argument for defense. As Ayn Rand argues in ‘The Sanction of The Victims,’ most business leaders have accepted the moral code of altruism.
More Reason and Freedom in 2025
To use reason to produce, trade and maximize profits, businesses require freedom.
Corporate DEI: Doomed To Fail
Besides abandoning DEI programs, what should companies do then if they want to achieve long-term success?
The Business of the News Media
What should be the purpose of the news media?
Clarity on the Morality of Capitalism
The moral code capitalism rests on is rational egoism, first identified by Aristotle and further developed by others, most extensively by Ayn Rand.
In Defence of Big Business
The failure to distinguish between economic power and political power leads people to believe that large corporations have grown through coercion.
Celebrating Work
Let’s celebrate the important value of work on Labor Day—and demand that our governments stop killing jobs through their taxes, climate action plans and regulations and let people invest, trade, and work freely.
Free Markets Help Workers Flourish
The fundamental principle that we need to recognize to help all workers flourish, ignored by most labor unions and governments alike, is freedom.
Antitrust Laws are Unjust and Destructive
As Ayn Rand explains, the antitrust laws are based on confusing two types of power: economic power (sometimes called “market power”) and political power. Only the latter is coercive.
Should Business Be Selfish?
Selfishness guides business to trade value for value with all parties – wages for employees’ productivity, products and services for customers’ payment, payment for suppliers’ products, and so on – by mutual consent, for mutual benefit, with no deception or fraud. This is the only way business can maximize long-term profits – and the reason it should be selfish.
Stop Eroding Freedom with Communist Conceptions of “Fairness”
Conceptions of “fairness” pursued through taking from those who have produced more and giving it those who have produced less or nothing are morally unjust and economically destructive.
Canadians Should Embrace Private For Profit Health Care
Why should Canadians embrace private health care as a moral alternative to medicare, as citizens of most other countries do?
What Does Morality Have To Do With Business?
“But I don’t want to be moral!” That’s what a CEO spontaneously exclaimed when he was given my book, How to Be Profitable and Moral. Why did he say that, and did he really mean it?
Effective Egoism: An Individualist’s Guide to Pride, Purpose, and the Pursuit of Happiness
Watkins argues that since you have only one life and it’s for you to live, you should make it the best possible: a life in which you pursue your long-term happiness. Effective Egoism describes how to do that.
Marc Andreessen’s Techno-Optimist Manifesto
The Techno-optimist Manifesto does not fully recognize the necessity of freedom.
Capitalism and World Peace
Laissez-faire capitalism is a system of world peace.
Why Business Must Embrace Individual Rights
A stronger argument to defend capitalism and business against government coercion is needed. It comes from morality.
How to Advocate for Freedom and Capitalism
A reader asked what one can do to defend capitalism given the ongoing threats to freedom and when one lacks a platform. Here are some ideas, based on my own experience and advice from communication experts.
Subscribe for free.
Read by students, professors, and citizens, Capitalism Magazine provides over 9,000 free to read articles and essays from pro-reason, individual rights perspective.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.