I would argue that design cannot be divorced from capitalism, so its ethics problem is directly inherited.

Just by being a designer, you automatically become one link in a chain of unethical behaviour. You are doing work that is supposed to generate profits at the expense of whatever is in its way. There is no way around this: this is capitalism.

The only truly ethical thing to do is to stop being a paid designer altogether (which I have just done) unless you are lucky enough to work at the 1% of studios that only do work for social good. After 10 years as a designer I can’t help feeling that most of commercial design is, at best, pointless busywork, and at worst a self-congratulatory evil.