Pellius,
There is absolutely no evidence that capitalism promotes moral behaviour. You are simply making a leap from someone being polite when they serve you, calling this moral behaviour, and asserting that it is a by-product of capitalism. Surely you can see that this logic is flawed.
In fact, what you are really espousing are: the virtues of customer service, and your belief that this can provide a competitive advantage in a capitalist system. With this, I would agree. But this has absolutely nothing to do with morals.
I just gave you an abundance of evidence. Any system the promotes good, polite and civil behavior and promotes this behavior regardless of how you personally feel I consider a moral system. You don't understand this partly because you are from Europe where your values are based on secularism, pacifism and socialism. Any mention of morals or standards based on principles of right and wrong is almost abhorrent to you.
You don't like the idea that someone gets something out of good behavior. That this diminishes it. They should act good simply because they are just good. It doesn't matter if they are rewarded or punished for it.
And there in lies the problem. You're a liberal and you live in fantasy land. That man is born basically good and it is society that corrupts him. You, my naive friend, have much more faith in human nature than I do.
If you have kids you teach and promote certain behavior and if they don't follow it you punish them. You created an environment based on reward and punishment that promotes moral behavior regardless of how they feel about it or if their good behavior is "genuine". In a religion you follow a certain code of behavior or you go to hell. At McDonald's you better be polite and provide good service or you get fired.
What you don't understand is that behavior influences the heart. As you behave so will you become. Behave good, and just by performing acts of goodness transforms you into a good person. It works the other way as well.
When I was a kid I shoplifted a candy bar. I was scared and nervous as hell. I was sweating and shaking lie a leaf. Now, if I continued to steal it would have gotten easier and easier. Eventually it would have been just another day at the office. By behaving like a thief I would have literally transformed myself into a thief.
You think anybody starts out as a serial killer? Just randomly killing and mutilating their bodies? You think when someone does this that this is their very first act of cruelty? Of course not, they develop into a monster by a lifetime of behaving like a monster. They start out killing and torturing bugs, lizard, frogs. Then of course cats. They always kill and torture cats. They work their way up. They work their way up to humans.
For me, I always say thank you when someone gives me a gift. It's not because I was born with gratitude and expressing thanks. It was taught to me. Drilled into me. "What do say, Pellius?" Was the constant refrain growing up. Eventually, it became part of my nature. It would now feel wrong not to say thank you.
A system that promotes moral behavior, and I consider civility and courtesy moral behavior, is, well, a moral system.
In this age of malignant narcissism -- such a profound level of self-absorption -- is what makes these ideas so foreign and incomprehensible to you. That's why even though it sucks getting old, I am so, so grateful that I grew in my generation before the pathologies of the cultural revolution in the late sixties took hold (around the 1990s when those hippies started teaching at universities and holding political office). When I compare people now to how they were just 30-40 years ago it's truly a tragedy.
You will learn far more about life working at McDonald's than you will at the majority of Universities today.
