I feel like Candide is a pretty good antidote to this sort of thinking, which is a form of Panglossianism.
<sarcasm>
Supporting brutal regimes because not supporting them means you might not have enough oil or gas? Of course, it works out for the best. A few sacrificed in war and oppression while the many live well. Nazis were bad for the Jews? There are more Jews now than ever, and they have control of their ancestral lands. COVID wasn't being taken seriously enough by some countries/states? They've successfully culled their elderly population and are probably saving tons of long-run suffering.
</sarcasm>
Obviously, that is all sarcastic, but there is something weird about teleological thinking. The same sort of thinking that the events that led to my birth were ipso-facto moral, because otherwise I would be wishing for my own nonexistence, and as a moral person how could I do that? An immoral person could take my place.
I just read Candide this week, I liked it. The world is pretty miserable - but you need a plan to make it better. "Avoid doing Evil" is a plan that:
1. We have tried.
2. Doesn't work.
The plan "give greedy people incentives to make people materially better off" not only works, but works better than everything else we've tried. Ergo, we want more greed, not less evil.
I wouldn’t call that a plan, just a principle. Same for “all about the Benjamins”. The plan is anything from “Think and Grow Rich” to dealing drugs.
But if your plan is to try to set up a bunch of moral slides that cause your desired outcome as the end of a chain of dominoes, well, best of luck but I am not signing on.
