I've always scoffed at financial manipulation specifically, and in general at capitalism more broadly.  This is a bit of an elitist attitude in a way.   I've always taken it for granted that I have the math skills that would enable me to work at a bank or insurance company or investment house, etc... and make a ton of money.   But in addition to seeing that as a pretty "boring" life, I always have been convinced that there's something slimy about capitalism, probably best summed up in a line in the Traffic song, _Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys_

The man in the suit has just bought a new car with the profits he made on your greens

But just the other day, I let my mind wander a bit down the capitalist path and realized that despite the fact that many other participants in the global market are obviously exploiting people all over the planet as well as our natural resources, this doesn't mean that all capitalists need to be guilty of those things.

So let's try to come up with a set of rules that when combined with the existing global marketplace, would allow a capitalist with a conscience to sleep easily:

• pay workers fairly and treat them well -- also encourage them to productively participate with a minimum of travel (as travelling/commuting consumes energy unnecessarily)
• plan to avoid the use of toxic chemicals as much as possible, but if necessary, deal with them in as safe a way as is possible according to the state-of-the-art science at the time
• design a system of production which significantly adds value (by assembling inexpensive components into a more valuable and expensive finished product)
  
• produce products which do not encourage wasteful use of energy
• attempt to insure that the raw materials (inputs) being consumed are not coming from a source that violates any of the above tenets
  

And there are the usual capitalist rules (without which it's hard to make any profits):

• produce goods which are in demand
• control costs

All of a sudden, it doesn't seem that hard.  But I want to try to refine this and find something that I'm really willing to dive into.  One of the most important reasons is that this would give me a chance to really make more of a difference.   As an individual or even a family member, there is a limit to how much my own personal decisions can possibly help the planet (reducing the carbon footprint for myself is useful, but only to a limited extent).  As someone who owns/operates a factory, it's possible to truly find ways to be creative about energy use which could potentially be much more widespread.