If you are new to socialist theory, you might assume that socialists think capitalists are greedy—that owners and bosses are selfish and immoral and trying to get as rich as possible because of their personal acquisitiveness. But, especially among Marxist socialists, a lot of thinkers on the left actually reject this way of talking. For instance, in Vivek Chibber’s forthcoming book Confronting Capitalism: How the World Works and How To Change It, a useful plain-language primer on socialist economic theory, Chibber writes that “capitalists aren’t motivated by greed but by market pressures.” He elaborates:
Capitalists don’t cause harm to their employees out of malice or greed. Their motivation comes from the brute reality of market competition. If a capitalist doesn’t produce at the lowest price, he knows that he will lose customers, and if that continues, his firm will start bleeding money. So he has to keep his selling price as low as possible. But if he’s going to lower his selling price, he also has to lower his costs, or he won’t make any money. Hence, he tries to pay out as little as possible for his inputs—the machines and raw material that he buys, and the wages he’s paying to his workers. So every capitalist constantly tries to get the most out of every dollar he spends, including from his workers. This is how firms survive in the market. It has nothing to do with greed.
Ben Burgis, in Jacobin, says along the same lines:
Crucially, the capitalist drive to accumulate money isn’t primarily about individual capitalists being bad, greedy people, but rather the relentless pressures of the system itself. A capitalist who doesn’t ruthlessly pursue profits will be outcompeted by those who do.
This fits with the story that many capitalists tell themselves, which is that they are not in it for themselves. If your boss cuts your pay, you will be given an explanation to do with market forces. No capitalist ever confessed that they just want to earn as much money as possible because they like money.
Now, the story told about market forces putting pressure on capitalists to cut costs is true, and it explains why exploitation may not be purely the result of employers’ selfishness. But the Marxist argument is wrong, because it concludes from this that capitalists are not motivated by greed and selfishness, even though this is precisely why capitalists they go beyond “surviving” in the marketplace and actually become rich.
One reason I can tell there is no necessity beyond selfishness to pursue gain is that I have started and run a “business” …….
Source: https://www.currentaffairs.org/2022/06/is-capitalism-built-on-greed