Category: business ethics

What’s Hot on the Web! (as far as I’m concerned)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Debt talks collapse, Republicans walk out over taxes

From CRISISJONES (who I hope considers me a friend)

 

NEXT – From American politics to the sublime world of philosophy – JP

Proving an Argument Is Logically Valid

From the web site Ethical Realism. This post is by James Grey.

 

Dark Side of Chinese Capitalism

Reverse Mergers, Improper Accounting, a Lack of Transparency and Poor Governance Threaten the Recent Success of Capitalism Chinese Style

From my associate, The Ethics Sage.  (You should subscribe!!)

 

Radioactive Dust From Japan Hit North America Days After Disaster … But Governments “Lied” About Meltdowns and Radiation

 I started warning the day after the Japanese earthquake that radiation from Fukushima could reach North America. See this, this and this.

Mainichi Daily reports today:

Radioactive materials spewed out from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant reached North America soon after the meltdown and were carried all the way to Europe, according to a simulation by university researchers.

The computer simulation by researchers at Kyushu University and the University of Tokyo, among other institutions, calculated dispersal of radioactive dust from the Fukushima plant beginning at 9 p.m. on March 14, when radiation levels around the plant spiked.

The team found that radioactive dust was likely caught by the jet stream and carried across the Pacific Ocean, its concentration dropping as it spread. According to the computer model, radioactive materials at a concentration just one-one hundred millionth of that found around the Fukushima plant hit the west coast of North America three days later, and reached the skies over much of Europe about a week later.

According to the research team, updrafts in a low-pressure system passing over the disaster-stricken Tohoku region on March 14-15 carried some of the radioactive dust that had collected about 1.5 kilometers above the plant to an altitude of about 5 kilometers. The jet stream then caught the dust and diffused it over the Pacific Ocean and beyond.
In the article above I am including the first part of a quite long and well written article. As I have written many times the crisis at the Fukushima plants does not stop no matter how little coverage it gets in the media of the United States.  James Pilant

This next article is from a writer who I very much admire. He writes from the web site: Rogue Columnist, A Pen Warmed Up In Hell. I like it. Please read it. James Pilant (P.S. If you are wondering why this is indented like the article above. It just is. WordPress offers me no button to fix it but it will let me indent it some more!)

Rules of engagement

Last night, I finished the late Alan Bullock’s magnificent book, Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives. It’s a reminder that no matter how much one has studied a topic, he or she can have vast new landscapes opened by the best historians as tour-guides. The book was completed just as the Soviet empire that Stalin built was falling apart, and the moment was marked by the greatest hope. Yet Bullock also reminded us of the bloody paths that contingency can create, particularly when broad social, economic and cultural forces and destabilization (“history from below”) are harnessed by evil genius (“history from above”). The book ends with a deeply moving coda of promise. But that comes after a thousand pages examining the two greatest mass murderers in history; worse, men who could move nations to do their killing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Andrew comments on my earlier post – Why I do not believe in busiess ethics? (via Abqur)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

From Andrew –

“There is no religion and no moral philosophy with Milton Friedman’s dicta that corporations exist only to maximize profit anymore than we exist to maximize our bank account or our stock portfolio”

Except that a corporation is not a person. It is an organization designed and built around the sole idea of delivering a product or service to make a profit. Its business. If its not competitve, then it will die. How socially responsible is it for a company to allow itself to go under and risk the livlihoods of its employees just for the sake of doing whats “socially responsible”? Self interest creates jobs. Entrepreneurs, in the search for greater profits, will build bigger manufacturing plants, bigger offices, bigger everything. That creates jobs. How is that inconsistant with being “socially responsible”?

I dont understand the bipolar nature of this country sometimes. People expect for a corporation to act morally in the same way you’d expect a person to act morally, yet the very same people freak out when corporations are given rights the same as a person would (i.e. campaign contributions).

G R Putland comments on the post – “War on drugs” is a failure in many ways (via Eideard)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

G.R. Putland comments on an earlier post of mine.

Submitted on 2011/06/22 at 2:52 am

The reversal of the presumption of innocence in drug-possession cases is incompatible with the rule of law and is therefore unconstitutional in ALL jurisdictions. Moreover, the ECONOMICS of the drug trade dictate that criminal sanctions are self-defeating unless concentrated on RETAIL SALES.

See “The universally unconstitutional war on drugs”: http://is.gd/ccxry6 .

More hidden and ugly truth about the Marcoses revealed (via Quierosaber’s Blog)

On By southwerkIn business ethics2 Comments

I share the author’s concerns. After their wanton looting of the Philippines, they should not be welcome in any civilized society.

James Pilant

More hidden and ugly truth about the Marcoses revealed The family of the notorious Filipino strongman, Ferdinand Marcos, has been back in the country for sometime now, accepted and forgiven. As if they were the ones wronged and not the entire nation and its people physically subjugated, oppressed and robbed by them during the despot’s 20-year rule, the short-lived m … Read More

via Quierosaber's Blog

Worries Over Two Nuclear Plants (via )

On By southwerkIn business ethics

I think there is definitely some grounds for concern. If you buy the idea that corporations are only in business to make money and have no other responsibilities, the idea that they might skimp on protections becomes very viable.

Nuclear plants are indemnified by the federal government if they cause more than a certain amount of damage. Off the top of my head, I believe that amount is fifty million dollars. That’s not a lot of incentive to protect the public. For many corporations, fifty million dollars is small change.

TEPCO, the Japanese utility that runs the nuclear plants that have melted down would have loved to have a deal like the American government gives out to our nuclear utilities.

It should be obvious that indemnification destroys a lot of corporate rationale for safety. If the money damages aren’t that big a deal, why not cut corners?

James Pilant

Worries Over Two Nuclear Plants As record floodwaters along the Missouri River drench homes and businesses, concerns have grown about keeping a couple of notable structures dry: two riverside nuclear power plants in Nebraska. Though the plants have declared “unusual events,” the lowest level in the emergency taxonomy used by federal nuclear regulators, both were designed to withstand this level of flooding, and neither is viewed as being at risk for a disaster, said a spokesman … Read More

via

Diogo on The Myth of Morality (via Patrick Nathan)

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

This is Diogo commenting on an earlier post. His comments are intelligent and most welcome. In fact, I like putting up comments as full fledged posts.

James Pilant

Here is the comment –

Hello!

I think it would be rather important that Mr. Wallace could read some of the works of Frans de Waal, or even Daniel Goleman. What’s interesting in Frans de Waal, a primatologist, is his experiences with bonobos, considered our greatest ancestors, along with the chimpazes. And while chimpazes are more, let’s say, self centered and violent, bonobos are much more social, being called by Frans de Waal the “make love, not war” primates. Another argument of paramount importance is the kind of conclusions that we can learn from neuroscience, where in some experiments showed that when we feel emphaty there’s an old area from our brain that makes a “click”. Another argument used by Daniel Goleman is that, and concerning the traffic example, when we deal with these kind of situations we are just centered on our goal: getting home. So it is usually a question of focus, rather than genetic.

What leads us to this: our empathy, moral, is a human thing, and that argument of self-centered and selfish individuals is just used to brainwash our society and, yes, is just used to “justify cruel and immoral policies and actions”. I totally agree on that. In fact, Margaret Tatcher and Ronald Reagan took great advantage of this misleading arguments to transform society in a jailed space where the more selfish you are, the strongest you’ll be.

The works of these 2 guys are really worth reading, beacuse they go straight to the point! To our past!

Long live to science!

Unsafe Radiation Found Near Tokyo, Vast Area of Japan Contaminated ! (via Socio-Economics History Blog)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

I’ve been reading reports for some days now that radiation is being detected in “hot spots” outside the restricted in increasing amounts and in more places.

If you’ll examine a recent map of Chernobyl, you will find a phenomenon called “leopard stripes.” Hot radiation areas laid in patterns similar to leopard stripes on the map. Radiation does not spread evenly. So if we see hot spots popping up here and there, it is a new pattern forming.

I am uncomfortable with this. The tonnage of radioactive material is very large at these sites (Fukushima). Over long periods of time and with variations in wind and other weather, the radiation could contaminate countries in every direction.

James Pilant

Unsafe Radiation Found Near Tokyo, Vast Area of Japan Contaminated ! To those of you thinking of a holiday in Japan, you may want to think twice about it. The radiation level reported in the MSM since the 11 March inciden … Read More

via Socio-Economics History Blog

Access Ministries: Dissent Is Prohibited (via grey lining)

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

This is from Australia. In that country, religious groups are given time to teach their views in school. Get a good read. This is what schools in the United States could look like if religion is allowed entry.

James Pilant

Access Ministries: Dissent Is Prohibited The antics of Access Ministries alternate between comedic and genuinely disturbing – and the degree to which they appear to have permeated all levels of government and public service, both state and federal, is something that requires some serious scrutiny. The relentlessness of the disinformation and misguided, railroaded policy not representative of community requirements does not happen by itself. There are serious resources at work amongst pr … Read More

via grey lining

“War on drugs” is a failure in many ways (via Eideard)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Generally speaking, I do not consider drugs, in this case an illegal activity, a business ethics problem. However the private prison system is a business ethics problem. I have come across on more than one occasion, situations in which the counties and congressional districts in which private prisons exist, have opposed liberalizing the drug laws away from imprisonment and toward other options for fear of losing jobs.

I would like to see a debate over what drug laws are proper that does not in some way spin around local employment at private prisons. That’s not how to make good decisions.

James Pilant

"War on drugs" is a failure in many ways In a step few politicians would take, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle…declared the nation’s decades-old war on drugs a failure… “Rather than invest in detaining people in the Cook County Jail at almost $150 a day . . . we need to invest in treatment, education and job-skills training. That’s the only way . . . we are going to reduce crime and stabilize our communities,” she said… “We all know that the war on drugs has failed to … Read More

via Eideard

“War on drugs” is a failure in many ways (via Eideard)

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

Generally speaking, I do not consider drugs, in this case an illegal activity, a business ethics problem. However the private prison system is a business ethics problem. I have come across on more than one occasion, situations in which the counties and congressional districts in which private prisons exist, have opposed liberalizing the drug laws away from imprisonment and toward other options for fear of losing jobs.

I would like to see a debate over what drug laws are proper that does not in some way spin around local employment at private prisons. That’s not how to make good decisions.

James Pilant

"War on drugs" is a failure in many ways In a step few politicians would take, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle…declared the nation’s decades-old war on drugs a failure… “Rather than invest in detaining people in the Cook County Jail at almost $150 a day . . . we need to invest in treatment, education and job-skills training. That’s the only way . . . we are going to reduce crime and stabilize our communities,” she said… “We all know that the war on drugs has failed to … Read More

via Eideard