An ethical issue. Let's say there are two villages with a large farm harvesting corn in between.

South Village, pop. 5000, is very poor and starving. A younger population, unemployment rampant. North Village, pop. 5000 sits on a lake, is very wealthy, filled with retirees, and living in the lap of luxury.

South Village takes up a collection amongst it's people, and can make an offer to the corn farmer of $1 a bushel for corn if planted for food.

North Village has a council meeting, and offers the farmer $2 a bushel if he plants it in a fuel variety and delivers it to a local plant.

$1 for food for the hungry, $2 for fuel for the wealthy.

For the capitalist there is no doubt as to what to do. The only value is capital, people are irrelevant. (Exactly what capitalists accuse everyone else of.) Harvest the wheat, trot it off to the fuel plant, and send the profits overseas into a hedge fund.

For the socialist there is no doubt as to what to do. Buy the capitalists farm at a fair market value and grow food.

Are there any lessons in ethics, values and compassion here? Is the fastest, highest profit the best for the ultimate good? What is the role of people in the human-economic equations?

How was the capitalist ethical,