Category: business ethics

Science Denial

On By southwerkIn business ethics

I was watching a recently made documentary on the Mt. St. Helens eruption. It has been some twenty years.

I was astonished to see many interviews of people who believed that the scientists’ warnings were just nonsense. “Nothin’ is going to happen!” Stated one skeptic firmly.

(A cathedral of France now long gone.)

I shouldn’t have been surprised. Americans have questioned science and technology all during the various developments. My favorite anti-science rant was a doubter who did not believe that trains could ever reach the fantastic speed of twenty miles an hour because the air pressure of such a speed would make it impossible for humans to breath. That was from the 1820’s but I still see this sort of thing. Recently, I’ve seen new stories about not ever being able to settle Mars, or travel to Proxima Centauri, or break the light barrier. And they might be right, but we have accomplished so much that in the past seemed impossible.

I have always had a soft spot for science and scientists. They are truth seekers and I very much respect truth seeking. It is an almost holy endeavor, the truth. And we live in a time where lies and misconceptions are elbowing many well know facts out of the way.

For instance —

Societies that function on merit based leadership and advancement are completely superior to societies based on connections and relationships. Loyalty is important but only up to a point. Greater loyalties to one’s nation or the concept of righteousness are important to a well lived life. I consider those facts and I think I can prove them if called upon.

And because I believe in these things, I keep posting, although it often seems to make little difference.

Well, let us cast our bread upon the water having faith in the better angels of our nature.

James Alan Pilant

Sixteen Years Blogging!

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

This week marks sixteen years of me owning and posting on this Blog, Pilant’s Business Ethics.

When I started I was teaching both online and in the classroom. My son was a teenager and I was still married. It seems a whole world away.

And now, the world seems so dark and dangerous as American democracy is under attack and whether or not, our representative government survives will be seen in the next couple of years.

But I should just bask in the fact that I have persevered so long and with some success.

That you all, my kind readers!

James Alan Pilant

My Allergies Have Been Bad.

On By southwerkIn business ethics

I’ve missed posting for several days and I apologize. My allergies result in my face being swollen among other symptoms and I have difficulty concentrating enough to write intelligently.

I’m feeling a little better today and will see about posting tonight.

(I saw the news about the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and was delighted.)

You have no idea how much I appreciate you, my kind and intelligent readers.

James Alan Pilant

(I’m getting a little old.)

A Trojan Dog in Taiwan?

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Taiwan is claimed by China under a sort of “lost province” narrative, which I don’t buy into.

So, bearing that in mind, should Hammer Lee (a kind of Marvel Superhero name – got to give credit, that is one great name!) have acquired a Chinese built robot dog to patrol the streets of the city of Taipei. It might seem to the casual observer that the government has imported a artificial threat able to gather useful information for later use in an invasion.

Perhaps if this situation had happened in an episode of the Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits, the mechanical infiltrator would fall in love with a beautiful police officer in Taipei and renounce its allegiance to the Chinese Superpower. In movies and television, robots are always suckers for romance and a pretty face.

In his defense, Hammer says the surveillance camera system is of Taiwanese design. I don’t find that very convincing. The Chinese are famous for putting their own spin (and devices) in what seems like relatively benign items. And this thing looks in no way benign. Big metal dogs look daunting to me and we are seeing a lot canine inspired war machines in a number of nations.

What I find really odd about this whole thing is that Taiwan is well known as a manufacturer and international innovator in building robots. I freely admit their designs (as far as I could see) are humanoid and they may not have any dogs. But I don’t see why you couldn’t use an upright human style robot to do the same job.

The really scary thing about this is the idea of robots patrolling our streets here in the United States. Our federal government is currently bizarrely incompetent and I don’t want them to have any new toys they can misuse.

James Alan Pilant

(It is highly likely this engraving of 19th Century London will be found inappropriate by many readers. In response, I would respectfully ask, “What chances do you think there are of me finding a non copyright protected image of a Chinese military robot dog or any robot dog for that matter?” Just enjoy the picture.)

Helen Davidson and Jason Tzu Kuan Lu reporting for The Guardian in an article: Taipei City council in the dog house over Chinese-made patrol robot.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/28/taipei-city-council-in-the-dog-house-over-chinese-made-patrol-robot

Taipei City council has come under fire after admitting that a robot dog it bought to help patrol city streets using surveillance cameras was made by a Chinese companylinked to the Chinese military.

Hammer Lee, the deputy mayor of Taiwan’s capital, introduced a “new patrol partner” for the management and repair of pedestrian areas in a post on Facebook on Tuesday.

“This robot, equipped with an optical panoramic survey system, can create 360-degree images, accurately locate facilities, and even automatically report missing items,” Lee said, noting its ability to “accumulate comprehensive data”.

414 or 1.4 Million Defective Engines, Which is it?

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Well, not quite so many as 1.4 million, at least not yet. That is the implied number. There have been 414 reports of engine failure and these are significant. They imply that we could be looking at an endemic problems that is only now be revealed.

(Mythological beasts from a lower plane of Hell, that may also require a probe into their warranties.)

So, I give you my usual advice. That is – let the story and the investigations develop and over time the truth will be revealed.

Now, I must admit we live in strange times. Our current regime is very pro-corporation and this inquiry and its possible legal consequences could simply disappear.

You might say – “James, that is a horrible libel on our elected current regime. They wouldn’t sell their honor or the lives of their fellow Americans for money.” As of this date a very large number of investigations have already ceased, and in many more situations, the rules changed to favor industry. Even now selling or renting or drilling on the precious resource of the American people, public lands and our parks, has become more and more a reality.

Well, we will see what happens.

(But if the investigation is stopped or disappeared, I will report it on this site. jp)

In an article published in Reuters, entitled: US probes into more than 1.4 million Honda vehicles over engine failure, there seems to be some concern over faulty engines in Honda vehicles.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-probes-more-1-4-082924014.html

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is opening a probe into more than 1.4 million Honda vehicles sold in the United States over concerns that connecting rod bearing failures in their engines could lead to complete engine failure.

In a letter dated August 20, the regulator said it received 414 reports of the issue in various Honda and Acura vehicles’ 3.5-liter V6 engine.

…

The investigation covers 2018-2020 model year Acura TLX, 2016-2020 Acura MDX, 2016-2020 Honda Pilot, 2018-2020 Honda Odyssey, and 2017-2019 Honda Ridgeline vehicles.

In 2024, the agency probed 1.4 million Honda vehicles on reports of serious engine issues following the Japanese automaker recalling 249,000 vehicles in November 2023.

Let’s hope it is just a few engines.

What are the business ethics here? It is wrong to sell defective vehicles. Those who have made purchased by mischance such defective vehicles should be made whole by repairs, new vehicles or money damages. There is no need for an in-depth analysis of Shareholder rights or Corporate citizenship, our laws on defective sales are sufficient for this situation.

Is AI Just Another Magic 8 Ball?

On By southwerkIn business ethics

For twenty or thirty years, we’ve seen film and television with characters like robots and computers with personalities. These have often been good entertainment.

Sometimes they combined these AI like characteristics with supernatural powers. This requires a certain suspension of disbelief but in the interest of a good story, I have often made that sacrifice.

(Do you believe in talking rabbits, bottles marked “drink me,” or AI’s ability to make sports predictions?)

But do people believe that AI has supernatural powers?

Here we have an article telling who is going to win the next Super Bowls by asking ChatGPT. It is very similar to having your horoscope read, throwing some dice or throwing the bones as in Scandinavian practice or maybe doing some magical writing, you know, putting pen to paper, looking away, writing frantically and seeing if your magical powers manifest.

I strongly suspect someone somewhere is taking this nonsense seriously.

In a Story by List Wire entitled: ChatGPT predicts the next 20 Super Bowl champions in the NFL, does your team win it all?

https://sports.yahoo.com/article/chatgpt-predicts-next-20-super-150033619.html

According to ChatGPT’s A.I., here are the teams predicted to win the next 20 Super Bowls in the NFL. …

And then it has a list.

Once again, let me be clear. This is nonsense. AI is not a predictor of sports outcomes anymore than a magic 8 ball or a Ouija Board.

I think most people know this. I hope so anyway. But sometimes reading the press reports on AI and its developing capabilities that there are those that think that it has or will have god-like capabilities.

For instance, we have the concept of a Technological Singularity. Here are my friends at Wikipedia attempting to define the term:

The technological singularity—or simply the singularity[1]—is a hypothetical point in time at which technological growth becomes alien to humans, uncontrollable and irreversible, resulting in unforeseeable consequences for human civilization.[2][3] According to the most popular version of the singularity hypothesis, I. J. Good‘s intelligence explosion model of 1965, an upgradable intelligent agent could eventually enter a positive feedback loop of successive self-improvement cycles; more intelligent generations would appear more and more rapidly, causing a rapid increase in intelligence that culminates in a powerful superintelligence, far surpassing human intelligence.[4]

Now, that sucker might predict some foot ball games — and on the down side, kill all of humanity. But, it would be in a real and strange way, magical – at least in terms of human perception.

I seem to recall, that great legend of science fiction, Arthur C. Clarke, saying that to a more primitive civilization, the advances of technology have the appearance of magic (or words to that effect).

Maybe we are on the road to something like that?

But let me reassure you that based on my training and my experience, currently AI has no predictive powers. That can change but I have seen nothing that leads me to believe anything of that nature has happened or is likely to happen. Not soon.

James Alan Pilant

It is Here.

On By southwerkIn business ethics

We live in a profoundly unethical time under a profoundly unethical federal government which is in the process of becoming a totalitarian regime.

We are much of the way there and Rachel Maddow is telling us in the article listed below that a key part of the structure of that regime is already in place.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/rachel-maddow-warns-americans-1-134807335.html

(Directly quoted from the article above.) She then put it even more bluntly: “We have a consolidating dictatorship in our country.” While the MSNBC host went on to acknowledge that this might sound “melodramatic,” Maddow noted the U.S. now seems to have its own “secret police,” which is commonplace across dictatorships, in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency under Trump. “A massive, anonymous, unbadged — literally masked — totally unaccountable internal police force that apparently has infinite funding but no identifiable leadership,” said Maddow. “And they act in ways designed to instill maximum fear and use maximum force.” (End of quote.)

I agree with her on this point. And we should all be concerned.

But why am I, a writer on business ethics, taking up this subject. Isn’t it just politics?

I wish it were but as the regime spirals into more and more open criminality, it is having a dramatic effect on the economy. When I say criminality, I am talking about thinly discussed bribes and charges for access and many other illegal acts.

It may be soon that speaking as I am may carry civil or criminal penalties and I have noticed that many moral people have gone silent as they see the political apparatus being constructed. No doubt they consider silence better than risk but honor is more important than life itself and it is vital to live as human beings standing tall than to crawl like a worm before a hideously deformed government.

Business ethics relies on reason, logic and evidence. These are all becoming scarce commodities under the trash talk of our current regime.

So, I write about our political downfall and current crisis.

It is only right that I do so.

James Alan Pilant

The Legendary Oceangate

On By southwerkIn business ethics

In the annals of Business Ethics, Oceangate is likely to be part of the curriculum for next one hundred years.

The disastrous implosion of a carbon fiber submersible has all the elements of melodrama as well as a long, long list of issues found in business ethics.

We can start with Hubris, an epic and fatal grandiosity seldom equaled and generally when equaled only in fiction. Then we have lies, exaggerations and misleading claims. Then we have untested materials, unproven procedures and an almost comical lack of money to do things right.

And a truly epic number of documentaries not to mention public hearings where the testimony was often fascinating, challenging and sometimes hard to believe.

In the last few days, the Coast Guard released its final report. I link to a news article on that subject below.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/coast-guard-releases-final-report-121424630.html

(Quoted directly from the article above.) Rush, the co-founder of OceanGate, was among those killed in the June 2023 implosion. Had he survived, the Coast Guard’s investigative team would have recommended manslaughter charges to the DOJ, the report said.

“This marine casualty and the loss of five lives was preventable,” Jason Neubauer, Titan MBI chair, said in a statement about the report’s release. “The two-year investigation has identified multiple contributing factors that led to this tragedy, providing valuable lessons learned to prevent a future occurrence. There is a need for stronger oversight and clear options for operators who are exploring new concepts outside of the existing regulatory framework.” (End of Quote.)

Indeed, manslaughter charges would have been appropriate. That he fooled others was not forgivable, that he fooled himself, merely ironic.

James Alan Pilant

The President and the Nobel Prize

On By southwerkIn business ethics

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/maddow-blog-white-house-lobbying-164641914.html

(From the Link above) Donald Trump’s desperate and yearslong desire for a Nobel prize is well documented. In fact, after his defeat in 2020, the Republican president released a weird, campaign-style video that suggested he’d already received a Nobel prize. But as pitiful as this has become, Trump isn’t lobbying by himself. Congressional Republicans have tried to please the president by nominating Trump for a Nobel prize, and foreign leaders eager to curry favor with the American leader have done the same thing.(End of quote.)

That the current leader of the United States is often delusional is readily apparent. He also craves praise and validation. His North Korean style cabinet meetings where his lickspittles thank him for his leadership and praise him to the skies are unprecedented in American history.

And he loves prizes and awards. His “amazing” string of club victories at his golf clubs are legendary. There is whole book about his golfing and what it says about him:

I have ordered a copy of the book for myself and it might be wise for you to do the same thing.

Returning to the subject of the Nobel Prize, I find it hard to believe that he would ever get one. If he did get one, how much value would any future Noble Prize have? Its value would be little more than a stuffed animal won at a carnival if that.

Newsweek Magazine commissioned a piece on Nobel Prize winners’ thoughts on the President’s chances. It’s a good piece of reporting. The hardest hitting and most acid drenched comments were those of William Nordhaus who won a Noble prize in 2018 in Economics. I have quoted him below.

https://www.newsweek.com/nobel-prize-winners-react-trump-economics-2107563

(Quoted directly from the link above.)“The way I understand Trump’s ‘successes’ is this: The United States has over the decades built up an enormous reservoir of soft and hard power as well as good will around most of the world—a vast amount of social capital,” said Nordhaus, who won the award in 2018 “for integrating climate change into long-run macroeconomic analysis.”

“Trump has drawn upon that social capital and is using it like a spendthrift teenager to achieve virtually nothing of value and to destroy many critical parts of the global institutional infrastructure,” Nordhaus said.(End of quote.)

There is some useful business ethics observations can be made here. Certainly competing for a prize for the best workplace, most effective innovation and many other things have led to positive good. But this is just another attempted reinforcement for a personality that craves attention and can never be filled. He is empty inside now and he will be empty inside no matter what awards and prizes he gets.

That’s just the way it is and his desperate need for it is more than a little unsettling.

James Alan Pilant

Elon Musk, What Alpha Males Believe??

On By southwerkIn business ethics

I apologize for the title. My rationale for it it that it appears that this kind of thought is related to the men’s movement so often seen online. In all truth, I doubt that any humanly developed classification fits for this level of weirdness.

Here’s a link to an article reporting on what he said and a short quote. However, the full post by this corporate honcho is available in the article.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/elon-musk-amplifies-bizarre-claim-202614083.html

This time, Musk amplified a bizarre claim from an anonymous social media account that described women as meek objects “built to be traded to another tribe (or captured).”

“That keeps them safe, even though they are physically weak,” the anonymous account continued, before launching into a longer screed about why women should conform to a culture dictated by white men “because the alternative is not so gentle.”

If the phrase “women should conform to a culture dictated by white men” doesn’t catch your attention, I can’t imagine any words that would. Isn’t this an alarm bell type statement? It does go with the Nazi salute rather well.

As a business ethics subject, let us pretend that you are a corporate manager in a company led by a CEO who reposted approvingly these kinds of remark. Much of your money is tied up in company stock. Are you comfortable with this stance and these words? And what if you are a corporate manage but not a white male? Does the level of offense change and the reasons that the words concern you vary from that of a white male manager?

And aside from stock price effects, do these words have implications for how the company will be run in terms of personnel and promotion. After all if women were meant to be traded and after twenty years of captivity to arise as the tribe’s cultural enforcers (Please forgive me, go read the article – I’m just quoting the reposted statements.) should you be hiring them before their twenty years of captivity are up?

It is hard to write about this. Truly this is a very high level of strangeness. But we must come to grips with the fact that a major corporate figure in the United States, a billionaire not only believes this but is willing to say it publicly.

It is truly frightening.

Any stakeholder as defined in business ethics should be concerned with these statements. Since, Musk has involved himself in American politics, that includes all citizens of the United States as as well as the more usual stakeholders of workers, stockholders and company officials.

We have had business leaders who beliefs led to endless trouble. I would point to Henry Ford and his admiration for fascist doctrines. But in this 21st century, this kind of talk is rare save on some media platforms.

James Alan Pilant