Last week, Elon Musk declared that working from home is “morally wrong.” He went on to say that it isn’t fair that those who deliver food or work in construction can’t work from home. Musk may be a very astute businessman, but he demonstrates a lack of conceptual clarity in making such a statement.
Conceptual clarity is necessary if one wants to communicate effectively and accurately. Conceptual clarity requires precision. It requires one to clearly identify what a concept represents in reality. Musk fails to do so. He clearly does not understand either the proper meaning or purpose of morality.
Morality, Ayn Rand wrote, “is a code of values to guide man’s choices and actions—the choices and actions that determine the purpose and the course of his life.” Morality helps us determine which values to pursue and the means for attaining them. A proper morality will guide us towards success and happiness, however we define it. An improper morality will lead us to failure and misery.
An action is morally wrong when it impedes or detracts from our ability to pursue values. For many of us, working from home enables or improves our ability to pursue values. My wife, for example, avoids a daily commute of an hour or more by working from home. That is additional time that she can work or pursue other values. Her employer benefits by requiring less office space.
If it is morally wrong that some service providers can work from home while others can’t, we must conclude that it is also morally wrong that some people can afford to drive a Tesla while others can’t. This is absurd.
The source of Musk’s nonsense is the anti-morality of altruism, which holds that we must place the interests and needs of others before our own. According to altruism, and Musk, individuals should not be concerned about what will further their own lives. Instead, we must live in sacrificial servitude to others. If others can’t work from home, then we shouldn’t either.
He added that the “laptop class” should get off their “moral high horse” with their “work from home bulls….” This is a very curious statement given that Musk is the one asserting his moral superiority. This further illustrates Musk’s lack of conceptual clarity.
If we want to make good decisions regarding policy, then we must seek conceptual clarity. If we don’t, then we are guaranteed to draw the wrong conclusions.
Musk is hardly alone in demonstrating a lack of conceptual clarity. On Wednesday, we will examine a claim by an economist that home mortgages are a form of rent control.
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