Morals and Economic Systems

 I am reading Ben Macintyre's The Spy and the Traitor, a 2018 book about Oleg Gordievsky of the KGB.  He offered himself as a spy for British Intelligence in the early 70's and became perhaps the most important Western spy on the Soviet Union.  The book recounts Margaret Thatcher's speech at the 1983 Winston Churchill Foundation Award dinner.  Thatcher opines:

        Is there conscience in the Kremlin? do they ever ask themselves what is the purpose of life? What is         it all for? Does the way they handled the Korean airliner atrocity suggest that they ever considered             such questions?

        No. Their creed is barren of conscience, immune to the promptings of good and evil. To them it is the         system that counts, and all men must conform.

I find Thatcher's comment ironic, especially in consideration of her economic policies.  Perhaps she excused the near term suffering caused by her policies of slashing government spending and privatizing services as necessary pains to a longer term good.  An invigorated capitalistic society could provide more relief, less suffering, and greater opportunity than the socialist state she inherited.  But capitalism itself can only be described as amoral.  There is no collective conscience.  Only the 'invisible hand' that miraculously and blindly attends to all social ills.

I don't think so.  To paraphrase Thatcher, there is no creed of conscience in capitalism, as it responds only to the profit motive.  To the free market capitalist, it is the system that counts, and all men must conform.  If monopolies arise and wealth is concentrated, it is to the credit of those who best exploit capitalism.  And if the resulting creates powerful monopolies that rival democracies, there is no safeguard. 

I am no communist, and I am unsure of the definition of socialism.  But it is clear to me that unregulated capitalism has no conscience.  So, like Thatcher, I would opine that capitalism does not ask what is the purpose of life, or what is it all for.  Like it or not, our government must represent our collective conscience, and that conscience might just be defined as socialism.