Social Darwinism:
In business, this amounted to a belief in unfettered capitalism. It was a doctrine that
took the law of the jungle (only the strong survive), and applied it to the economic
sphere. Thus any technique that allowed a business to prosper -- price-fixing, price
gouging, monopolistic practices, exploiting your work force by (literally) working them to
death -- was deemed proper and even beneficent because it was what nature intended.
Indeed, any motion to go against the course of nature and, gasp, treat your workers or
competition with favor was strongly rejected because it would upset the natural balance.