VOLUME I, CHAPTER 3, SECTION 2
Capital does not care whether a man lives or dies, but it is not evil.
The first section set down two root understandings. Capital chasing profit is an instinct, the way of things, like water running downhill. And everyone is a capitalist, a single coin in savings makes you one. This section takes one step further. Capital does not care whether a man lives or dies. That is a fact. There is no item in capital's profit-chasing instinct for whether a man lives or dies. Capital looks only at profit. An investment can earn, and capital invests, and never minds whether it puts some worker out of a job, breaks some family, hollows out some city. A production line can cut cost, and capital installs it, and never minds whether it wipes out some trade, puts some worker on the street. Capital does not care whether a man lives or dies, and laid out plainly that fact stings the eye. But see it clearly. And here is the more important thing. Capital does not care whether a man lives or dies is not the same as capital is evil. This section sets down that difference.
One. First, the fact. Capital does not care whether a man lives or dies. There is no room for a moral verdict in capital's profit-chasing instinct. Capital does not ask how many workers this investment puts out of a job. Capital asks only how much profit this investment earns. Take a few plain cases. Nineteenth-century British textile capital invested in the steam loom, and hundreds of thousands of handloom weavers lost their work. Capital did not mind their living or dying. Capital saw only that the steam loom earned. Twentieth-century American auto capital moved the plants from Detroit to Mexico, and hundreds of thousands of Detroit workers lost their work, and Detroit fell from the fourth city of America to a ruin. Capital did not mind their living or dying. Capital saw only that Mexican wages were cheaper. Twenty-first-century internet capital invested in the recommendation algorithm, and hundreds of millions of the young across the world sank into short video, their attention drained dry, their schooling wrecked, their mental health broken down. Capital did not mind their living or dying. Capital saw only the ad money rolling in. In the AI Stampede age Silicon Valley capital invested in training the large model, and hundreds of millions of white-collar workers face unemployment. Capital did not mind their living or dying. Capital saw only the cost it saved by replacing the human with AI. In every act of capital investment there is no item for whether a man lives or dies. Capital simply does not mind. That is the fact.
Two. But not caring whether a man lives or dies is not the same as evil. This difference matters. What does not caring mean? Heaven does not care whether a man lives or dies. Heaven does not stop the wind and rain because one man fell. But heaven is not evil. Heaven is just heaven. Earth does not care whether a man lives or dies. Earth does not refuse to turn because an earthquake crushed people. But earth is not evil. Earth is just earth. Water does not care whether a man lives or dies. The flood does not change course because there are homes downstream. But water is not evil. Water is just water. Capital does not care whether a man lives or dies. Capital does not give up a chance to invest because the investment will cost workers their jobs. But capital is not evil. Capital is just capital. This law extends the ancestral position from the first section, heaven and earth are not kind, they treat all things as straw dogs. Heaven and earth are not kind means heaven and earth turn by instinct, favoring no side. Capital is not kind means capital turns by instinct, favoring no side. Not kind is not evil. Not kind is not standing in the position of kind or unkind at all.
Three. Here you may push back. Water does not care whether a man lives or dies, but water has no mind and no intent. Behind capital there is a mind and an intent, the capitalist. The capitalist plainly could choose not to put the worker out of a job, and the capitalist chose to put the worker out of a job, and that is evil. This is sharp. Let me answer it seriously, because if I skip it you will not trust the rest. The answer has two layers. Layer one. Capital itself, as a social force, is not a person, has no intent. It simply turns by instinct. Once that is set down, capital itself does not stand in the position of a moral verdict. Layer two. The one who operates capital, the capitalist, which is everyone with savings, is a living person, with intent, with room for moral choice. Layer two is the living person's position. Is the living person evil? The answer is that the overwhelming majority are not evil. The living person is pushed along by the pattern of position.
Four. Take a case. A fund manager runs a pension fund of several hundred million dollars. The money in the fund is the retirement money of several hundred thousand old people. His duty is to preserve and grow that money, and his contract says so in plain words. He faces two choices. Choice A, put the money into a tech company that will lay off at scale, expected annual return fifteen percent. Choice B, put the money into a traditional firm that will not lay off but earns little, expected annual return five percent. Which does he pick? By the contract, he must pick A. Why? Because the owners of the fund, the several hundred thousand retirees, have authorized the manager to pursue the highest return. If he picks B, the retirees will not draw enough pension when the time comes, and they will sue him for breach of duty. He can be fired, stripped of his license, even sued. The manager is not evil. He is only carrying out his duty under the contract. But the result of his choosing A is that the tech company lays off, and thousands of workers lose their jobs. Is that a living person's choice? It is. Is it evil? It is not. It is the pattern of position pushing the living person along. And the several hundred thousand retirees behind him are not evil either. They only want their pension to hold its value and to keep their old age secure. That is a need in the way of things. But the retirees' need in the way of things, through the manager, drives the tech company to lay off, and thousands of workers lose their jobs, and their families break. Every living person in every position is not evil. But stacked together it becomes capital does not care whether a man lives or dies. This is the mechanism itself. Chapter 2, Section 4 set it down. The mechanism itself needs no bad man. Every living person makes a rational choice, and stacked together the choices put hundreds of millions on the ground.
Five. Set one thing down. Capital not caring whether a man lives or dies is the mechanism itself. And the mechanism itself cannot be simply moralized into evil. To moralize capital does not care whether a man lives or dies into capital is evil is the road Marx walked. The result was hundreds of millions of the poor falling in the movements to overthrow evil capital. The first section set that down. The root error of moralizing the mechanism itself is this. The object of a moral verdict is the living person. The word evil can only land on a living person. To put evil on the mechanism itself is to curse the mechanism as though it were a living person. Curse it ten thousand times and the mechanism will not change, because the mechanism does not stand in the position of a moral verdict.
Six. The ancestors said it. The way of heaven has its constants. It did not exist for the sage-king Yao, and it does not perish for the tyrant Jie. The running of heaven has its own law, and it does not change because a sage is present, and it does not stop because a tyrant is present. The law of heaven is the law of heaven, and it does not stand in the position of a moral verdict. Capital chasing profit is the same. The law of capital is the law of capital, and it does not stop because there is a high-minded capitalist, and it does not chase harder because there is a wicked one. Capital is just capital. The gentleman stands in harmony without sameness, the ancestors said, the small man in sameness without harmony. To see the position clearly is not to take a side. This talk of capital not being evil is not me taking capital's side. It is the pattern of position. Investigate the thing and the knowledge comes. See the thing itself clearly first, then make the verdict. See what capital is, how capital turns, who the capitalist is, and only then make the verdict. The root of Marx's boundary is that he wrote the prescription before he investigated the thing and let the knowledge come. Credit to the ancestors. I am only setting it out again in plain words.
Seven. Set down the direction of the whole chapter. Section one, capital chasing profit is an instinct, everyone is a capitalist. Section two, capital does not care whether a man lives or dies, but it is not evil. Section three, capital is only a tool, the operator is the living person, the responsibility is the operator's. Section four, rein in capital without destroying it, channel it, do not wall it. The four sections together are one of the deepest turns of position in the whole of Justice Way. Not overthrow capital, you cannot overthrow it, to overthrow it is to overthrow everyone. Rein in the pace at which capital turns. How, exactly, Volume VI lays out point by point.
Eight. Close the section. Capital does not care whether a man lives or dies is a fact. There is no item in capital's profit-chasing instinct for whether a man lives or dies. But not caring whether a man lives or dies is not the same as evil. Heaven does not care, earth does not care, water does not care, and none of them is evil. Capital does not care, and it is not evil either. Nothing that turns by instinct stands in the position of kind or unkind. To moralize the instinct is out of position. Marx's craft was not whole. He moralized capital's instinct into capital is evil, wrote the prescription overthrow capital, and hundreds of millions of the poor in the twentieth century fell on it. By the real pattern of position, capital not caring whether a man lives or dies is the necessary end of an instinct. Grant the fact, but do not moralize the fact. Granting that capital does not care whether a man lives or dies is how you find the fitting response. The response is not to curse capital as evil, cursing does nothing, but to rein in the mechanism by which capital turns. The next section sets down that capital is only a tool, and the operator is the living person, and the responsibility is the operator's. That law carries the responsibility off the tool and back onto the living person. How it is carried back, the next section lays out. Turn to the next section.
Or go straight to the way out. Volume VI, Saving People: A Race Against Time Before the Blood Runs.
Credit to the ancestors; the mistakes are mine: Tiger Lyon.