Category: business ethics

Wind is Japan’s strongest alternative to nuclear (via madaboutthenews)

On By southwerkIn business ethics2 Comments

I suspect that Japan will retreat from nuclear power only temporarily. The influence of TEPCO, a very passive government sympathizing media and an aggressive nuclear industry will work for the necessary years to bring reactors back to the table as a choice.

However, over the next few years while the press, the government and industry struggle for more nuclear power, Japan will have to seek other energy sources. Should these prove workable and successful, history may be changed.

What is ethical here? Those pushing nuclear power argue that it is proven technology with only the most occasional of problems and that these problems are highly overrated. Those opposed point to its enormous cost, regular reports of problems, the vexing conundrum of what to do with spent nuclear fuel and disasters whose full scope won’t be known for centuries.

I believe that the pro-nuclear side has enormous sums of money on its side and that this may be blinding them to any interest but their own. On the other side of the argument, it is very difficult to point to any large number of those opposed to nuclear power and say, “You only oppose nuclear power because if we quit building nuclear power plants, you will become immensely wealthy.”

Ethics gets twisted when there is money and the more money the worse the ethical problems become.

I worry that in the United States today, the only sound heard on many issues is the rustle of the green.

James Pilant

Special thanks to madaboutthenews.

TWO months after the explosions and radiation leaks at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan, the prime minister, Naoto Kan, has announced that the country will not build any new reactors.

If Kan really means it, the government will have to abandon the plans for expanding nuclear power it adopted only last year. To make up the energy shortfall, Kan has set the ambitious goal of using renewables.

From further down in the article –

Taking into account wind strength, available land and the potential for offshore farms, the report estimates that Japan could install wind turbines with a capacity of up to 1500 gigawatts. More realistic estimates in the report suggest that with appropriate financial incentives, turbines with a capacity of 24 to 140 GW could be installed. Assuming the turbines operate a quarter of the time, this would provide up to 35 GW of electricity on average, matching the combined output of about 40 of Japan’s existing 54 nuclear reactors.

Koch Foundation Hires and Fires Economists at Public University (via Wake-up Call)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

It is questionable morally to use money and influence to diminish or destroy the rights of Americans. It is questionable morality to subvert or buy the media to prevent unfavorable stories or to spread lies and misinformation. And it is questionable morality to buy influence at American universities so that your perverted economic doctrines can become mainstream, to use public institutions as private breeding grounds for followers, to pollute the social science with the continuous contributions of bought academics, not searching for the truth, but in opposition to it.

Shall large Christian denominations dispose of evolutionary biology using the same methods? Shall opponents of gay marriage dispose of social scientists using the same methods? Shall we give up the field of criminology, after high dollar contributors insist that crime is produced by demonic possession?

Think of the possibilities! These independent researchers, these tenured beasts, all brought to heel. Is global warming a problem? Buy enough academics and it disappears. Some damn nosy professor says dumping radioactive material can damage our genetic heritage, that can be fixed. We can buy as many professors as we want. History can become what we want. The very definition of reality can be changed, literature and painting cleansed of subversive influences.

Are public universities in need of money? Let them get money the old-fashioned way. Haven’t people justified their immoral actions by saying they did it because it was part of the job and they had to feed their families? Haven’t people said they had to do it, it was part of the job? Let’s put academics in that same boat. They shall have their jobs only if they give the proper respect to the contributors, only if their search for truth is predetermined, I promise you that every university in this nation will be rolling in money the moment they realize just like Florida State University that selling the “right” kind of education is more profitable than the pursuit of knowledge. Educating the young has never been very profitable.

We can double, triple administrative salaries. We can build new buildings and a first class physical plant. There will be stadiums and first class football teams at the smallest of institutions. No more begging to the state legislatures, the money will never stop. Donors will compete against each other for professors. If one gets five, then the other must have six.

We can price them. The more influential the professor, the more money they will be worth. It’s easy to measure, who’s on television more often. Who testifies before Congress the most. Whether or not they teach or get published is insignificant. Who wants to buy that?

We have sold so much in this country. Let’s follow free market economics to their logical conclusion.

The brave new world of green is out there waiting for us. Let us walk forward bravely, open palm extended, to sell our last possession, our integrity.

James Pilant

Koch Foundation Hires and Fires Economists at Public University by Rebekah Wilce on May 12, 2011     PR Watch     According to news reports, the Charles G. Koch Foundation has bought “the right to interfere in faculty hiring at a publicly funded university.” Kris Hundley of the St. Petersburg Times reports that the elder Koch brother’s foundation “pledged $1.5 million for positions in Florida State University’s economics department. In return, his representatives get to screen and sign off on any hires for a … Read More

via Wake-up Call

The Myth of Morality (via Patrick Nathan)

On By southwerkIn business ethics3 Comments

I found this an interesting review with many references to morality. Take this quote below –

Everyone agrees that The Pale King enshrines boredom. What has been glossed over, however, is how fiercely and unrepentantly American these pages are. Yes, the book expounds upon the marvels of boredom and the “heroic” nature of doing a quiet but necessary task without audience or recognition, but juxtaposed are endless descriptions of bureaucracies, American culture at its most dysfunctional, and even extended Platonian dialogues about the decline of American society, complete with terms that never fail to surface in today’s news: “liberal individualism,” “corporations,” “conservatives,” “founding fathers,” “consumer capitalism,” etc. “Americans are crazy,” one character remarks to another: “We infantilize ourselves. We don’t think of ourselves as citizens—parts of something larger to which we have profound responsibilities. We think of ourselves as citizens when it comes to our rights but not our responsibilities.” The selfishness described here again harkens back to Wallace’s speech, in which he revealed that our “natural, hardwired default setting” is to be “deeply and literally self-centered.”

If the reference is to our ethical and moral responsibility, I quite agree. However, the “hard wired” setting to be deeply and literally self centered, is ridiculous, we are just as hard wired to be cooperative and self sacrificing. That being deeply and literally self centered is an American doctrine used to justify cruel and immoral policies and actions. If humans are self centered monsters salivating after every last moment of pleasure and every conceivable possession, than we can justify every kind of lie and cruelty in the name of social control.

Nevertheless, I very much enjoyed the review and I would like you to read it.

James Pilant

My thanks to Patrick Nathan

The Myth of Morality In 2005, novelist David Foster Wallace was invited to give a commencement speech to the graduates of Kenyon College. Captivating, inquisitive, and in no way didactic, Wallace unveiled to them the oncoming drudgery of adult life and all its routines—certainly nothing an ambitious twenty-two year old wants to hear. But Wallace offered an alternative to mental and emotional atrophy. The liberal arts degree, he said, not only teaches us how to think … Read More

via Patrick Nathan

Senate blocks bill repealing $2B in oil tax breaks (via CBS News)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Once again we see who is important in Washington. Giant highly profitable oil companies get the help they want need while the public pays the full amount at the gas pump.

From the article at CBS News –

“Symbolic votes like this that aim to do nothing but pit people against each other will only frustrate the public even more,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said.

“Americans really aren’t interested in scapegoats,” he continued. “They just want to pay less to fill up their cars. That’s why this Democratic bill to tax American energy is an affront to the American people.”

I can think of 2 billion reasons this is not a “symbolic” vote and if by pitting people against each other, you mean calling the multibillion dollar profiting oil companies being called to task for their cynical political machinations, pitting people against each other, you are a very cynical man.

Is it ethical to manipulate Congress for relief from taxes when you run an extremely profitable multi-national corporation? It is ethical to call your opponents Un-American for wanting fair taxation?

You do not have to do a deep analysis of the ethical components here. This is a tragedy for the American people that evades the word, theft, by a razor’s edge.

More significant is that both these oil companies and the congressmen protecting them can be found day after day preaching with complete and apparent total conviction the value and importance of free markets. But we see here the colossal hypocrisy, basically six large corporations dictating to a suppliant congress a vast competitive advantage over any competitors. What about the innovation and low prices that competition brings about? Where’s that?

I have been told I am shrill. Explain to me at a time when there are serious plans to limit or eliminate Medicare and Social Security, why these companies should be able to evade their taxes. Tell me. Apparently this nation deserves no tax money from corporations since we don’t provide laws, roads, education, or a horde of ships, tanks, and planes to defend their property. Yeah, I’m shrill. Isn’t someone supposed to look out for the citizens?

From time to time I explain these things to people and they ask me who they should vote for. I tell them honestly, “There is no one.” The only difference between the two parties is in the level of obedience that lobbyists can command. I believe the welfare of the American people figure at most peripherally in the affairs of our government.

James Pilant

While You Were Sleeping, They Abolished the Fourth Amendment (via Evil of indifference)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

I had the same thought. According the court, if the police attack my home, I am supposed to be cooperative and then complain through proper channels. What if I like my home (and possessions) a lot? Won’t this make the police feel a little too comfortable about hitting the “wrong” house?

This guy doesn’t like the ruling. I don’t like the ruling.

James Pilant

“Two recent Supreme Court cases have served to virtually abolish the Fourth Amendment in the United States of America, with citizens no longer being “secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.”” “In a precedent described by dissenting justices as “breathtaking” and “unnecessarily broad,” the Indiana Supreme Court ruled last week in a 3-2 vote that doing anything to resist police busting down … Read More

via Evil of indifference

Potassium Iodide and Radiation (via Rhoda’s Natural Health Blog)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

I have written about potassium iodide before (re-blogged a good source on it). But this is very good. It not only discusses potassium iodide but many other health related issues. I find the author to good at the craft of writing and very well-informed in these matters.

I am not medically or scientifically trained. In this case, I am happy to defer to an expert.

James Pilant

My thanks to Rhoda’s Natural Health Blog.

Potassium Iodide and Radiation The recent events in Japan are devastating and have hit some of us quite personally. My heart goes out to all those there struggling with the situation. Even though it has been two months, Japan still struggles with many small aftershocks, and with recovering from the devastation. Understandably, some of my patients have expressed concern about the possibility of excess radiation reaching our area from Japan, and wondering what we should do about … Read More

via Rhoda’s Natural Health Blog

Grades Are Due Tomorrow – So, I Won’t Be Posting Until Afterward!!

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Time to do my grades – happens every semester. I’ll be posting again beginning Tuesday afternoon. I’m very sorry.

James Pilant

Ethics and Education: the beginning (via Just a Word)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

This is a good article and I always enjoy essays where the author struggles with difficult moral conundrums.

I teach college classes and I lean heavily on opinion writing because it’s difficult for students to speak in anything but their own voice. I have observed a great deal of teaching and while it varies in quality, I doubt if the principal blame lies there.

I believe the problem is the bleed of toxic philosophy from Milton Friedman and Ayn Rand. Isn’t buying a term paper an economic choice (Friedman) that maximizes shareholder worth while following the “rules of the game?” If productivity is the only measure of morality(Rand), shouldn’t our modern John Gaults enhance their productivity? Aren’t the unproductive sheep, the dead weight of society, the helpless proles, the creators of these rules designed to limit the productivity of the great minds, the only real producers of value in our society?

If rules are designed to create a level field and you don’t believe in a level playing field, you are not going to play by the rules. I am sure that many of these students are unaware of the origins of their philosophy about rules and choices but that does not make the connection any less real. Obviously there have always been rule-breakers. But have we ever lived in a time where the public ethos is so accepting of this kind of behavior?

I tell you it is always a weird experience to meet the prototypical John Gault, an individual who has discovered their own specialness and that humanity, kindness, compassion and brotherhood are limits placed on their success by the common herd. Or the weirdness of the Friedman follower who believes if only we gave people free choice about seat belts, air bags, food, drugs and inoculations, our lives would be enhanced.

You see, in their world, it is perfectly obvious that brotherhood is the enemy, common rules a bacteria weakening the human specie, and compassion, a tragedy, binding people to their own lack of success.

What is the rule on buying term papers but an annoyance to the superman, the new man?

Well, I await patiently for the John Gaults to ascend the mountain and leave the rest of begging, pleading our our knees, crawling on our insignificant bellies, that if only these paragons of production, the new successful breed of humanity, would only return to make society work and, in return, we would swear to no longer limit them by taxes and rules from their proper and obvious role in society. (Read Atlas Shrugged.)

I’m sure it fills the longing in my students to be special, kings and queens under the flesh. Humanity is hard. Being productive and resilient is difficult. Sharing and caring is a burden. But those are the things that make us significant, not a Nietzschean philosophy of destiny and specialness.

There are other philosophies in our nation: virtue ethics, several hundred variations of Christianity, citizenship, and the doctrines of honor, responsibility and chivalry.

When these are in place, we will solve many of our problems with obeying the rules.

James Pilant

Ethics and Education: the beginning I call this “the beginning” because I have a feeling that this will prompt several posts on the subject, but I am not promising that yet. This actually coincides well with my post on Friday regarding a University’s attempt to eliminate cheating by allowing collaboration and internet use on exams. This post however, follows a slightly different vein. I was reading an article from the Chronicle of Higher Education this morning called The Shadow Sch … Read More

via Just a Word

Who will make them pay? (via Livinglies’s Weblog)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Let’s saddle up! The Wall Street Banks absorb every kind of benefit from being in this nation including taxpayer dollars. Yet, when it comes to taking any responsibility as citizens, they are notably absent. Is there a kind of vicious hypocrisy in absorbing benefits but paying none of the costs?

Let’s make these people know that we know they have failed to act in accord with basic patriotism.

James Pilant

My thanks to Livinglies’s Weblog.

Who will make them pay? You will. Yesterday, in six cities across Illinois, people stood together and demanded Wall Street banks like JPMorgan Chase pay their fair share to end the revenue crisis, create jobs, and stop illegal foreclosures. In New York City, thousands marched on Wall Street demanding that Millionaires and Big Banks pay their fair share. In North Carolina, community leaders made sure the shareholders of Bank of America faced up to … Read More

via Livinglies’s Weblog

What’s the point? (via Spook Moor a rambling blog)

On By southwerkIn business ethics2 Comments

I’m always pleased to see a blogger return to the struggle, in this case, a blogger’s most simple struggle, to be heard. Some of favorite bloggers have decided to hang it up and leave blogging to others. I know it’s hard to get an audience. You have to blog every day and I’m told you have to stay at it for at least  a year. I read one blogger who said his blog is like an octopus that never lets go. You blog on holidays, you blog on trips and you blog when you don’t feel like it. (The last one of those is hardest on me.)

Our blogger is 56.  I’m 54. This means we are both kinda’ scary looking and women have learned to ignore us. So, we are blogging compatriots.

Welcome back!

James Pilant

The more and more I look around, the more and more flummoxed I become. I’ve often wondered if there is any point in having a blog? I had one ages ago and two men and a dog visited it. Not even the dog stayed, which about sums it up. This after I had spent some time in snazzing it up so lost heart and stopped doing it. Just lately however, some people have talked me into it again, so here I am. But I still insist that unless you are famous, or pre … Read More

via Spook Moor a rambling blog