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Re: Good business vs. good investment


	I have to agree with Jorge Reynoza, although their is a 
problem with his use of words. A "good investment" and a "good business"
within the context of a market economy both imply the definition of
"good" in terms of the individual investor. What Jorge is trying to
argue, I feel, is better encapsulated by the comparison of "socially
conscious investment" versus "self-motivated investment". The former
implies, as he wants to suggest, the merits of looking at the social
costs and benefits--both short AND long-term--of economic investment.
The latter reflects the situation in a market economy, where the
individual investor (or investment consortium or corporation,etc.)
is forced to think only of immediate economic return to themselves or
face the threat of going out of business. Corporations and business men
are not in the BUSINESS of raising wages and providing jobs. They are
in the business of increasing their share of economic power through the
market place. Historically, this concern has been countered by workers,
who through combinations (unions) attempt to force businesses to
raise wages and increase jobs FOR THEIR MEMBERS, and governments who
attempt to increase their own share of social power as well as to
legitimate their power by attempting a minimum of redistribution of
income--but both of these groups are structurally weaker than capital
in a market economy in which capital is free to flow between industries
(escaping the power iof unions) and countries (escaping both unions
and governments--or rather, forcing them to compete against eachother
by offering the best "deal" to investors.

	The problem, then, is how is the "social good" to be defined
and how is it to be implemented. We come here to the crux of all
debates about development, social progress, social justice, etc. etc.
etc. Capuital, governments and Unions have their definitions and
their power bases, but none of them necessarily encompases the 
"social good" because of their limited set of interests.

john cross