In a capitalistic society, the objective seems to be to make as much profit as possible, of which, that profit deservedly goes then to those that created or helped to create that profit. In regards to utilitarianism, this theory seems to stipulate that an action is considered to be correct when it thus produces the greatest amount of satisfaction or happiness to the highest amount of people. So too, we thus find in a capitalistic society, that those that are the biggest proponents of that capitalism, have an innate desire to determine the overall worth of an individual based upon their perceived economic value to those capitalists of that person. In other words, capitalists don’t care much for people that have little or no economic worth to them, unless it can be reasonably assumed that at some future point, these people will develop some meaningful amount of economic worth. That is to say, when it comes to capitalism, it is all about the money, and those that have a zero or even negative economic worth are typically seen by capitalists as parasites to the economic system.
It is indeed a very dangerous mindset when society at its highest level, determines that what is of most importance to that society, is whether or not, a given individual has economic value to that society. That is to say, those then, that are seriously ill, mentally challenged, troublemakers, the infirm, and the aged, are typically the type of people that aren’t going to have a lot of utilitarian value to society, because they often don’t have a lot that they can personally provide to that society, of anything that could conceivably be measured as contributing to the Gross National Product. This thus signifies that to measure a given person’s value solely from the state of their perceived economic worth, is not only going to dehumanize how we interact with other people, but also this could readily become a slippery slope, in which those that are not economic contributors to society are seen then as impediments to the continued advancement of that society, and hence are accorded no worth within that society.
A significant amount of people at the present time, do not truly believe that each human being has the same intrinsic value as another human being, thus signifying that for those that think that, there are then particular human beings that are highly valued, and quite obviously, there are then those others that have little or no value. Once a dividing line is created in which some people are considered to be of more value than others by that society, and of which, that society as it is structured and governed, supports the implementation of the rules that govern it, that serves to support this very theory, then the end result is going to be a society in which some of people will be accorded all the benefits and good accouterments as pretty much being their calling in life; whereas, those that are considered to be of the littlest utilitarian worth will be seen as those that should be fully exploited, fully taken advantage of, fully utilized, and then disposed of, without a second thought.