Category: business ethics

Wikileaks And Ethics

On By southwerkIn business ethics, ethics, Philosophy of Business, Teaching

The ongoing Wikileaks controversy has a large number of ethical elements. The best commentator on this is Chris MacDonald. I subscribe to his site and I’ve watched as he hit one ethical aspect after another. I firmly believe that the Wikileaks controversy will be an ethics textbook staple for the next twenty years and that MacDonald will probably write the quoted article.

Here’s his lineup –

December 9th, 2010 Wikileaks, Credit Card Companies and Complicity

December 11, 2010 Should Companies Judge the Ethics of Those with whom They Do Business?

December 13, 2010 Wikileaks & Mastercard: Should Companies Do Government’s Bidding?

December 20, 2010 Wikileaks and NGO Legitimacy

If you are are a teacher, these articles provided excellent teaching opportunities. If you are one of my readers, this is a business ethical analysis of complicated set of moral problems.

Whoever you are, I recommend the articles.

James Pilant

Update – Professor MacDonald has added another post on this subject. This one is called Corporate Citizenship, Apple and Wikileaks. This one was posted on his web site on December 22, 2010.

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come (via occasional links & commentary)

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism

A Christmas Dire Economic Post!

Well, I was in the holiday mood, if only for a moment.

This is a really interesting web site. It has a lot of wonderful pictures, cartoon and good number of scary economic graphs. Did I mention the good writing? You might hit the link and explore further.

James Pilant

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come Alan Blinder gets it: current economic conditions are reminiscent of the setting of Dickens's "A Christmas Carol." America may now be the greatest place on earth to be rich but an awful place to be poor.   Exactly! The problems Blinder cites are unemployment (both its level and duration), wages (the gap between growing productivity and stagnant wages), taxes (payroll taxes now bring in almost as much revenue as incomes taxes), and deficits ( … Read More

via occasional links & commentary

Wedding Insurance?

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism

Forever?
Recently, a woman sued her former fiancee for cancelling the wedding at the last minute. This generated headlines across the nation. Generally, being dumped at the alter is not something most want to publicize but apparently a very large sum of money had been spent.

So, how about you? I teach business law and every year I try to explain the value of prenuptial agreements. It’s a wasted effort. You can look out over the students and see that everyone of them is going to fall in love forever. It’s depressing. No one, it seems, expects to be left at the alter, but it happens.

Thus, wedding insurance exists. You could argue that I am mistaken and since this kind of insurance exists, people do have a genuine and intelligent skepticism about their relationships. It would be great if that were true, but the fact is, wedding insurance is more aimed at the mundane, illness and weather among other things. So, maybe you are planning nuptials and would like to consider the idea of wedding insurance.

Maybe you are absolutely, positively, completely sure you won’t get jilted but you could get the flu.

James Pilant

From CBS Money Watch –

A handful of insurance companies offer wedding insurance policies, including Traveler’s, Aon, and Fireman’s Fund. The Fireman’s wedding insurance policy, offered through the National Alliance of Special Event Planners, includes the “change of heart” coverage. A few caveats on that coverage for the jilted: the policy must be purchased by someone other than the bride and groom, and it must have been purchased at least four months before the planned wedding date. (Each of the three sites linked above have online calculators that will quickly spit out an estimated premium cost based on the particular level of coverage you want.)

Federal Reserve Proposing Mortgage Rule to Eliminate Key Foreclosure Protections (via Rortybomb)

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism, ethics, Philosophy of Business

Rortybomb has it right here. The Federal Reserve is rushing into to save the banks from their forclosure fiasco. I have blogged on this. I was expecting Congress to rush to the banks’ aid but apparently the Federal Reserve is going to beat them to it.

The banks, the forclosure industry, they never seem to lack for friends in all the right places. Have you noticed that? Where are the homeonwners’ friends? Where are our friends? Is the only value in this society cold hard cash?

Read this. It’s good writing.

James Pilant

In the early 2000s the subprime lender Household Finance settled the largest consumer fraud settlement in U.S. history. Household Finance paid a whopping $484 million in fines to a joint settlement with a group of attorneys general. One month later Household was acquired by HSBC, the London financial giant, for $16.4 billion, setting off a bidding war on subprime dealers by the highest parts of Wall Street. It's like they were being rewarded, ins … Read More

via Rortybomb

A Property-Owning Democracy (via Understanding Society)

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism, ethics, Philosophy of Business

From Understanding Society –

The past thirty years have taken us a great distance away from the social ideal represented by Rawls’s Theory of Justice. The acceleration of inequalities of income and wealth in the US economy is flatly unjust, by Rawls’s standards. The increasing — and now by Supreme Court decision, almost unconstrained — ability of corporations to exert influence within political affairs has severely undermined the fundamental political equality of all citizens. And the extreme forms of inequality of opportunity and outcome that exist in our society — and the widening of these gaps in recent decades — violate the basic principles of justice, requiring the full and fair equality of political lives of all citizens. This suggests that Rawls’s theory provides the basis for a very sweeping critique of existing economic and political institutions. In effect, the liberal theorist offers radical criticism of the existing order.

This post takes John Rawls, quotes his writing in the context of what he considers a just society and then compares that with our current situation. The author is not pleased. Many of the objections that Rawls would have made according to this author are the same or similar objections that I would make myself.

The veil of ignorance: great thought experiment (via The Hannibal Blog)

On By southwerkIn business ethics, ethics, Philosophy of Business1 Comment

In this 2009 posting, The Hannibal Blog, discusses (approvingly) Rawls’ concept of the “veil of ignorance.” It’s a good discussion.

James Pilant

The veil of ignorance: great thought experiment What if we could get together to form a new kind of society … and we did not even know who we would be in that society? This is a famous thought experiment, proposed by the Harvard philosopher John Rawls in his 1971 book, Theory of Justice. Jag, of "idiomology" fame, mentioned it in response to my previous post on (Einstein's) thought experiments, and it … Read More

via The Hannibal Blog

Varieties of Liberalism(s) (via Chasing Fat Tails)

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism, ethics, Philosophy of Business

Yesterday, I called attention to a post from Grand Strategy: The View from Oregon about a comparsion between the writings of John Rawls and Aristotle. Today in Chasing Fat Tails, I find further discussions on the importance of Rawls.

James Pilant

Over at Crooked Timber, John Holbo has a good post on Zizek's supposed critique of liberalism. Holbo is see what Zizek has to say about liberalism, qua political philosophy, but he's disappointed to find that Zizek (shock of all shocks!) basically straw-mans liberalism (qua political philosophy) by equating it with neoliberalism: "I’m writing an article on (wait for it!) Zizek on liberalism, and one point I want to make is that when Zizek critiqu … Read More

via Chasing Fat Tails

Experimenting with Thought Experiments (via Grand Strategy: The View from Oregon)

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism, ethics

This is great, quite a coincidence in fact. I have been reading a lot of philosophy lately and had been reading, I believe, it was Rortybomb who had an interesting discussion of Rawls and the “veil of ignorance.” Before that, I had been watching videos about Aristotle which was then beefed up by a very kind comment by The Ethics Sage, Steven Mintz. So, I go to see what’s cooking at Grand Strategy: The View from Oregon, and it’s an essay quoting Rawls and comparing his writing to Aristotle’s. Of course, it is thoughtful and in depth as all of his work.

I’m just grateful. This is keeping me on the path. Thanks!

James Pilant

Experimenting with Thought Experiments Saturday Yesterday in Risk Management: A Personal View I asked the question, in relation to John Rawls' thought experiment involving choosing a just society from behind a veil of ignorance, "How would Aristotle’s Great Souled Man judge a society from behind a veil of ignorance?" Here is Rawls' original formulation of his thought experiment: "…no one knows his place in society, his class position or social status, nor does anyone know his fortun … Read More

via Grand Strategy: The View from Oregon

A 12 Cent Credit Card Fee?

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism, Corporate Social Responsibility, ethics, Philosophy of Business

From the Houston Chronicle –

A proposed cap on the fees that banks charge for debit card transactions would substantially reduce the cost for businesses. But it’s started a death watch for debit card rewards and renewed predictions that free checking is done for.

At issue is who will ultimately benefit from the savings? The Federal Reserve’s proposal to cap these fees, officially known as interchange fees, at 12 cents per transaction would enable retailers to pass on annual savings of $10 billion to $13 billion to consumers. But banks and card networks maintain that retailers will pocket the savings. This would leave consumers to bear the brunt of the new law through higher costs for banking and reduced rewards programs.

In releasing its proposal Thursday, Fed staff members said they found the cost to banks for processing is between 7 cents and 12 cents per transaction. Yet every time a customer swipes a debit card, the average fee is 44 cents.

The banks are making out like bandits and then telling us it’s for our benefit. I always worry when someone says they are doing something for my own good. I can’t help but feel that someone is going to hit me.

Banks love to bill as if some dedicated employee was carefulling examining the transaction, which was undoubtedly true in 1947. The actual current circumstances is a high speed computer instantly calculating the transaction.

We can adjust for the times.

James Pilant

Commerce Department Calls For Internet Privacy!

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility, ethics, Philosophy of Business

From the Star Tribune –

The Commerce Department is calling for the creation of a “privacy bill of rights” for Internet users to set ground rules for companies that collect consumer data online and use that information for marketing and other purposes.

The proposal, outlined in a report Thursday, is intended to address growing unease about the vast amounts of personal information that companies are scooping up on the Internet — from Web browsing habits to smart phone locations to Facebook preferences. That data is often mined to target advertising.

The new report is intended to guide lawmakers, industry and a White House group looking at the issues surrounding Internet privacy.

Absolutely necessary.

There’s enough tracking software on my computer to slow it down (and I play Fallout 3, that means power). We don’t even know who these people are. Who is playing with our data? Who’s selling it? And for what purpose? Scammers? Is is the Russian Mafia, the Communist Chinese or the North Koreans operating in the only area where their technology is equal to the West (there might be another exception for counterfeiting, they’re really good at that)?

This proposal is important and I hope something comes of it.

James Pilant