I want to write today about three business ethics topics. The first one is a Guardian article that says “all billionaires under thirty have inherited their wealth.” I find this very concerning. Large concentrations of inherited wealth have unfortunate effects in democratic societies, even a limited democracy like the United States.
The article goes on to describe the incredible amount of inherited wealth we’re talking about as one generation give way to another, 5.2 Trillion dollars. These are world-wide numbers, of course. It would not be much of a stretch to suggests that the monarchies that dominated global politics in the 19th century are being replicated today in this dragon’s horde of incredible wealth and power. It does not bode well for the health, safety and financial security of the great mass of the population.
I have written about this often. In the United States, loony billionaires have gained more and more political power as their dark money dominates political advertising in state after state. It certainly give the impression of living in an oligarchy of inherited and incompetent wealth and power.
I will continue to cover our deteriorating governing system in later writing.
California is considering a law mandating rules that allow workers “the right to disconnect,” that is, not to be available by phone or computer twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, to their employers. The horrifying and tragic effects of our always online culture include – never being able to not be at work. Literally, many jobs follow you everywhere and demand that you be available. I don’t think I need to tell you that people need sleep, family time, vacations and simply time to regenerate their interest in life – and yet we allow businesses to place out size and fairly irrational burdens on workers.
There needs to be compensation for making people constantly accessible at home and their absolutely needs to be rules about how much of an employees life is accessible to the moment by moment needs of a business. Apparently there is some awareness of this and I am pleased that the world is seemingly moving in a positive direction.
And now in the world of business ethics, the massive dead pus filled corpse of the elephant in the room, Boeing.
I found the troubled company, Boeing’s mission statement. I must confess I was amused. Let me quote:
“To connect, protect, explore, and inspire the world through aerospace innovation.”
I have been reading about Boeing for weeks now and none of it was “nice.” Let me suggest an alternative mission statement in my own satirical way:
“To squeeze as much money as possible out of our suppliers, the airlines and the government while evading regulations, taxes and responsibility in a determined pursuit of short term profits and year-end bonuses.”
Now, you might say, “James, that is not very nice. Do you think you might go easier on the company??”
And the answer is NO. I got radicalized when the two Boeing aircraft self-crashed. This company literally built planes that flew themselves into the ground. When the blood of the innocent cries out for justice, I try and listen. I am not a friend of the company and proud not to be a friend of the company.
The worst thing about this situation is the simple fact that there is no path to redemption. You can’t take a company, strip away its engineering excellence and reputation and then go out and find people to put that genie back in the bottle. The company is dead centered on maximizing profit at all costs. It is just like diving a plane into the ground. There is no coming back from that.
I would suggest that in the interest of national security, the government of the United States provide financials incentives to tune of many billions of dollars to create two or three producers of civilian aircraft so that we have that capability in the United States. It is absolutely vital to our nation’s commercial success and national security that we have this capability. The only thing I see at Boeing is a slow and eventual corporate demise.
And a well deserved one at that.
Let me close with one of my standard gripes. There seems to be no agreement at all about what responsibilities a company has in regard to ethics or to the nation and people where they exist. The Milton Friedman school of nuttiness assumes that if you play by “the rules of the game,” your only purpose should be maximized shareholder value and this appears to be the common current “standard,” that is, if you can call a complete and total renunciation of duty, honor and religion, a standard.
Every company and every individual has a duty to obey the law, bear the common burden of taxes, as well as the duties of a common patriot, of neighbors and participant in the democratic process. We are more that atoms flying about in a free economic system. We have the ability to live not as vicious advantage seeking profit grubbing monsters but as ladies and gentlemen.
Let us aspire to higher values and reject cheap appeals to greed, gluttony and selfishness.
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