Madam CJ Walker Colloquium: "Do Markets Corrupt Our Morals?"
Monday, April 11, 3 p.m. • Art and Journalism Building 175 (AJ 175)
Virgil Henry Storr, PhD • Vice President of Academic and Student Programs
at the Mercatus Center, George Mason University
The most damning criticism of markets is that they are morally corrupting. As we increasingly engage in market activity, the more likely we are to become selfish, corrupt, rapacious and debased. Even Adam Smith, who famously celebrated markets, believed that there were moral costs associated with life in market societies.
This lecture explores whether or not engaging in market activities is morally corrupting. Storr demonstrates that people in market societies are wealthier, healthier, happier and better connected than those in societies where markets are more restricted. More provocatively, he explains that successful markets require and produce virtuous participants. Markets serve as moral spaces that both rely on and reward their participants for being virtuous. Rather than harming individuals morally, the market is an arena where individuals are encouraged to be their best moral selves. This lecture invites us to reassess the claim that markets corrupt our morals.
Named after the early 20th century African-American beauty products entrepreneur and social activist whose business was headquartered in Indianapolis, the Madam C J Walker Colloquium in Political Economy is an annual event sponsored by the Ball State University Institute for the Study of Political Economy (ISPE) that explores the relevance of entrepreneurship and free enterprise for the past, present, and future of historically marginalized groups.