The Ethics Of Profit

SELLING OUT:

It seems we take major issue when any one makes money doing anything at all. I look at reactions to Beyonce’s work and see criticisms like “yeah but she is rich and powerful” as if that somehow diminishes her talent.

Prince’s saving grace was that he forfeited the rights to his own name during a battle for creative freedom. Thus becoming an artistic career martyr. But he finally won ownership of his work for that earlier financial sacrifice. We praise him for it.

Mainstream white culture is constantly slammed for appropriating sub-culture for profit. But when nearly any one from those subcultures reaches a level that distinguishes them from their culture. They are criticized for “abandoning their base” “going hollywood” or “selling out.”

I wonder if we actually have such a problem with people making money or do we instead have an underlying issue with the effects money has on our valuation of human worth?

We often hear of money referred to like a scoreboard for the game of life. But that would presume that there is a winner, or you are a winner if you have a lot of money, and if you don’t you are a loser.

Perhaps the presumption is that wealth comes with a certain level of autonomy or influence that is unachievable without it. As I look at history and move forward the figures that stand out to me are ones like Harriet Tubman a cultural figure who were not wealthy and yet their names are undeniable etched into the walls of history.

But what if Harriet had charged a fee to free the slaves, kept her service and intellectual property reserved for assistance building a shelter. Which she then sold rooms in as a hotel. She would A. have made a lot of money B. Certainly be villainized for exploiting the people she freed.

There is some kind of ethical limitation on what we believe we should be able to profit from and those that do not conform to those ethics are seen as profiteers.

My question is what endeavors cross the moral line of profit? Or is it merely in the details of how the business is structured? Who is to say what opportunities are off limits in a world where everyone is looking to make a place for themselves based on the faculties they have at their own disposal?