Economics and Morality - can they meet?

My finance teacher said something interesting, that in finance it doesn't matter if you are doing something wrong or immoral, as long as you're honest about it.

I am not really convinced that a "moral economy" is even achievable in my opinion. Call me cynical I guess but as per usual it all comes down to each and every politico's own interpretation of what is moral and what is not. You could arguably say that a moral economic approach that places all people as equals and caters to all to ensure quality of life and NOT profits is ideal; but a country's economy is in essence a business just like any other business and figures HAVE to balance otherwise it is unsustainable. A "mainstream" politician would therefore immediately argue that a moral economy is one where the country sustains itself as effectively as possible and their expert team of "smoke and mirror" creators would continue weaving their magic as per usual. Increasing unemployment would be termed as a casualty of war so to speak and explained away; poverty or illiteracy trends etc would also follow a similar fate and so forth. The Greens may have managed to draw attention to certain aspects of its viability but the issue is that they lack mainstream backing for one; and their voices are just not loud enough to be heard effectively enough to even TRY to test the waters on any of these ideals. The frustrating thing about politics is that anything that falls outside of majority held party lines is immediately branded as radical and discounted very rapidly. Political expediency also reigns supreme so where does that leave alternate lines of thought? It's a sad reality I guess.

I encountered the term moral economy when I was studying history and it was about having prices for the poor that were reasonable. The markets would open for the poor first and the prices would be set to a level they could afford. The poor were known and were protected from rising prices in this way. Then when they had bought what they needed the prices were set at market level and everyone else got to shop. I thought that was a wonderful situation and it would be good if we had special prices for people who are poor. For those who think it is too hard, it is not as the government in Australia for example issues a special card to all low income earners and one to pensioners which give them discounts in many areas such as fares, medicines, rates etc but not in the case of food or goods. It would be wonderful it it could be extended to these areas.

I read in a science fiction book by E.E."Doc" Smith about a concept called "Enlightened Self Interest". Essentially, whilst a company would want to make as much profit as possible, and shareholders as muchg return on their investment as possible, and workers as high a wage as possible, there's a point where all get the maximum amount of benefit without being detrimental to anything or anyone else.

The term might then correspond to development economics, addressing issues of equity, which sadly is left out by conventional economic models?

Moral Economics is mixing economics with morality.Economics actually began as a moral issue so to say moral problem.Human beings were very happy when the jungle sufficed them food and shelter.The day the ECONOMIC SYSTEM was introduced,we followed behind notes,currencies to count,not how many fruits etc.Greed came with the idea of "not enough" even with a Bank Balance of thousands millions.Our Economic system,for the sake of peace and morality,needs reorientation.