Ban the Banks!

All over the Internet, business students are up in arms about Tuesday’s occupation of the doorway to a JPMorgan event at the Kelley School of Business, saying we’ll be lucky if the big banks ever return to recruit here.

If this is indeed true, don’t save any tissues for me at the funeral service. You might have a better chance of finding me in the crowd shouting at the banks not to let the door hit their asses on the way out.

In response to the protests, many have said — with an unspeakable amount of condescension — they, unlike the liberal arts majors, want jobs after college. Moving past the terror that this bravado conceals, the basic premise of this argument is the assumption that all careers which pay are worth pursuing. I, for one, beg to differ. Whatever I end up doing, I know I want to be making a positive difference in the world.

At one time, I thought all college students would think the same thing because no one wants to see themselves as evil. My semesters at IU have proved me wrong. If you’ve never done it, listening to students defend their decision to pick a major like finance is fascinating.

Since the financial industry does very little actual good for society, and it’s not cool to admit you’re a corrupt money-grubbing bastard, these arguments often come down to an appeal to philosophic capitalism and the greed motive. Tragically, this is a complete misunderstanding of what capitalism is.

In “The Wealth of Nations,” Adam Smith expounds on how a system of natural liberty (capitalism) is a highly efficient and productive system with which to produce wealth.
This free market system, powered by the liberty to pursue self-interest, is guided to efficiency through the invisible hand.

However, what the boiled-down version misses is Smith’s argument that capitalism must function in a community because it is through community that morality arises.
In other words, man’s self-interest must include the maintenance of the bonds of community.

Without this understanding, capitalism is an emaciated, immoral shadow of itself in which the selfish individual exploits and destroys the world around him.

This is more than just an academic’s distinction. As globalization has stretched the bonds of community thin, the modern-day multinational corporation has put this emaciated capitalism into practice, producing a devastating effect.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the financial industry. What’s wrong with Wall Street is that mega-banks like JPMorgan were more concerned with their fancy financial instruments than foreclosing on families and communities. And what’s truly outrageous is their refusal to repent. With their arrogance, investment banking firms like Goldman Sachs sully our campus with their presence.

It’s high time IU bans recruitment by megabanks on this campus. No longer should they be allowed to peddle their evil morals and use our resources to sell students into a
massive Faustian bargain.

I know that there are those who would argue that banning banks from recruiting on campus interferes with students’ rights to go work for those banks. This is a silly argument.

I acknowledge the right of banks to exist and for students to gain employment there. By the same token, I accept the existence of burglars and the right of people to associate with them in a free society. But there’s no way I would let a burglar into my home, and there’s no way we should let banks on this campus.

Until IU adopts a sensible ban on bank recruitment, there will not be peace on this campus. There will be more direct actions. Expect it.

­— sidfletc@indiana.edu