Adaptation as ethos of capitalism

Adaptation is the ethos of capitalism.   It says that one must be continually adapting, ready to accommodate changes in the market at any time.   Capitalism wears many disguises as part of its adaptive trait.   Do not be deceived by this trait of mastery.   There is no other ethical meaning beyond the ethos of adaptation.  The appearance of benevolence, consideration, nobility, generosity and mores all belong to earlier eras.  An individual capitalist may, in part, adopt the values of different times, but these are extraneous to his or her role as capitalist competitor.  His or her fundamental role is to read the signs of market quickly enough in order to be able to adapt to the changes in demand.

To understand that capitalism is incapable of  harboring any enduring ethic beyond that of adaptation, that there is no "moral lesson" or lesson of any metaphysical sort, to be learned from mechanisms of capitalism, does not mean one cannot benefit from many aspects of a capitalist system.

One just has to be careful enough to realize the truth, that fundamentally there is "nothing there".   Any ethics one brings into a business, institution or community must be one's own.   One should  expect one's values to be challenged to the degree that they don't correspond to capitalism's overarching demands to adapt in order to gain market share.  If you disagree with the reasons for adapting you will probably lose your battle, but be grateful that  at least you can be assured, you have not been taught any kind of "moral lesson".