Editing Scrooge McDuck (section)

=== Morality and beliefs ===
Both as a businessman and as a treasure hunter, Scrooge is noted for his drive to set new goals and face new challenges.<ref>[https://mises.org/wire/christmas-lets-celebrate-different-scrooge-scrooge-mcduck This Christmas, Let's Celebrate a Different Scrooge: Scrooge McDuck], [[Mises Institute]]</ref> As Carl Barks described his character, for Scrooge there is "always another rainbow". The phrase later provided the title for one of Barks's better-known paintings depicting Scrooge. Periods of inactivity between adventures and lack of serious challenges tend to be depressing for Scrooge after a while; some stories see these phases take a toll on his health. Scrooge's other motto is "Work smarter, not harder."

As a businessman, Scrooge often resorts to aggressive tactics and deception. He seems to have gained significant experience in manipulating people and events towards his own ends. As often seen in stories by writer [[Guido Martina]] and occasionally by others, Scrooge is noted for his [[Cynicism (contemporary)|cynicism]], especially towards ideals of [[morality]] when it comes to business and the pursuit of set goals. This has been noted by some as not being part of Barks's original profile of the character, but has since come to be accepted as one valid interpretation of Scrooge's way of thinking.

Scrooge seems to have a personal code of honesty that offers him an amount of self-control. He can often be seen contemplating the next course of action, divided between adopting a ruthless pursuit of his current goal against those tactics he considers more honest. At times, he can sacrifice his goal in order to remain within the limits of this sense of honesty. Several fans of the character have come to consider these depictions as adding to the depth of his personality, because based on the decisions he takes Scrooge can be both the hero and the villain of his stories. This is one thing he has in common with his nephew [[Donald Duck|Donald]]. Scrooge's sense of honesty also distinguishes him from his rival [[Flintheart Glomgold]], who places no such self-limitations. During the cartoon series ''DuckTales'', at times he would be heard saying to Glomgold, "You're a cheater, and cheaters ''never'' prosper!"

Like his nephew Donald, Scrooge has also a temper and rarely hesitates to use cartoon violence against those who provoke his ire (often his nephew Donald, but also bill and tax collectors as well as door-to-door salesmen). However, he seems to be against the use of lethal force. On occasion, he has even saved the lives of enemies who had threatened his own life but were in danger of losing their own. According to Scrooge's own explanation, this is to save himself from feelings of guilt over their deaths; he generally awaits no gratitude from them. Scrooge has also opined that only in [[fairy tale]]s do bad people turn good, and that he is old enough to not believe in fairy tales. Scrooge believes in keeping his word—never breaking a promise once given.<ref>An example is when Scrooge, his family, and the Beagle Boys are trapped in the past. Hatching a plan to return to their normal time, he is told they could easily leave the Beagles stranded in the past; Scrooge refuses, noting that he gave his word everyone would return safely.</ref> In Italian-produced stories of the 1950s to 1970s, however, particularly those written by Guido Martina, Scrooge often acts differently from in American or Danish comics productions.

Carl Barks gave Scrooge a definite set of ethics which were in tone with the time he was supposed to have made his fortune. The [[robber baron (industrialist)|robber barons]] and industrialists of the 1890–1920s era were McDuck's competition as he earned his fortune. Scrooge proudly asserts "I made it by being tougher than the toughies and smarter than the smarties! And I made it square!". Barks's creation is averse to dishonesty in the pursuit of wealth. When Disney filmmakers first contemplated a Scrooge feature cartoon in the fifties, the animators had no understanding of the Scrooge McDuck character and merely envisioned Scrooge as a duck version of Ebenezer Scrooge—a very unsympathetic character. In the end, they shelved the idea because a duck who gets all excited about money just was not funny enough.

In an interview, Barks summed up his beliefs about Scrooge and [[capitalism]]:

{{blockquote|I've always looked at the ducks as caricatured human beings. In rereading the stories, I realized that I had gotten kind of deep in some of them: there was philosophy in there that I hadn't realized I was putting in. It was an added feature that went along with the stories. I think a lot of the philosophy in my stories is [[Traditionalist conservatism|conservative]]—conservative in the sense that I feel our civilization peaked around 1910. Since then we've been going downhill. Much of the older culture had basic qualities that the new stuff we keep hatching can never match.

Look at the magnificent cathedrals and palaces that were built. Nobody can build that sort of thing nowadays. Also, I believe that we should preserve many old ideals and methods of working: honor, honesty, allowing other people to believe in their own ideas, not trying to force everyone into one form. The thing I have against the present political system is that it tries to make everybody exactly alike. We should have a million different patterns.

They say that wealthy people like the Vanderbilts and Rockefellers are sinful because they accumulated fortunes by exploiting the poor. I feel that everybody should be able to rise as high as they can or want to, provided they don't kill anybody or actually oppress other people on the way up. A little exploitation is something you come by in nature. We see it in the pecking order of animals—everybody has to be exploited or to exploit someone else to a certain extent. I don't resent those things.<ref>{{cite book|last=Barks|first=Carl|title=Carl Barks: Conversations|year=2003|publisher=University Press of Mississippi|isbn=1-57806-501-1}}</ref>}}