Wealth & Money Quote by J. Irwin Miller

Miller’s line reads like a boardroom conscience trying to clear its throat. A businessman calling out “the cynical pursuit…of personal advantage and of money” isn’t radical; it’s revealing. The intent isn’t to denounce commerce itself but to separate profit from predation, to argue that markets need manners the way engines need oil: without them, everything still moves, but it grinds.

The key phrase is “without shame or restraint.” He’s not lamenting ambition; he’s indicting the social permission slip that lets ambition become brazen. “Decline of manners” sounds quaint until you hear what he’s really naming: the erosion of informal brakes - the small courtesies, reputational risks, and civic expectations that once made greed slightly harder to perform in public. Manners here are a proxy for accountability, a low-tech ethics system that operates before lawyers or regulators ever show up.

“Characterizes our times” carries the quiet confidence of someone who’s watched institutions bend. Miller built a career in an era when corporate leadership often sold itself as stewardship - paternalistic, flawed, but tethered to a town, a workforce, a sense of legacy. His “not without exceptions” is strategic: it shields him from sounding like a scold while sharpening the critique. The subtext is a warning to his own class. If business culture normalizes shameless extraction, it doesn’t just corrode society; it invites backlash, regulation, and a loss of legitimacy. This isn’t nostalgia. It’s risk management with a moral spine.