Ethics (via Linear perspective)

On By southwerkIn business ethics5 Comments

Should a corporation be able to influence curriculum at a college to provide it with free research? Should a school forbid publication of research that might be embarrassing to a corporate donor? These are questions discussed in this posting. We might add, “Should faculty promotion be based on winning research grants?” How about, “In a free society, how much should a public college depend on corporate money to operate?”

Where does the public and private conflict? Should higher education be an informal extension of corporate interests?

Read the blog entry. It’s good. We all need to think about these things. Just letting it happen and continue by the force of inertia makes stopping or reining this influence in much more difficult.

James Pilant

Ethics Is it ethical to modify the curriculum of a subject in a graduate studies to suit the needs of an organization? We had a marketing project that required us to estimate the market size and the positioning of competitors for the parent body of the B-school. While doing this work, I felt enraged by the thought that the school had modified the deliverable of the course and was using MBA students to perform the market research. What bothered me more w … Read More

via Linear perspective

Friday Links (via A Thinking Reed)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

I love those blog entries that list little teasers connected to links. It’s a sort of internet buffet, a little of this and a little of that. This one has some fun teasers and interesting ideas.

James Pilant

–A challenge to libertarians on the coecivene power of private entities. –A.O. Scott on superhero movies as a Ponzi scheme. –Richard Beck of Experimental Theology on why he blogs. –A political typology quiz from the Pew Research Center. (I scored as a “solid libera.l” Although I’d take issue with the way some of the choices were presented.) –An end to “bad guys.” –Def Leppard’s Hysteria and the changing meaning of having a “number 1” album. … Read More

via A Thinking Reed

MCOA rules that MERS lacks standing to foreclose by advertisement (via Great Lakes Law Blog)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

I’ve been a consistent critic of MERS, Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems. I consider incredible that the mortgage industry could set up this monstrosity which was in violation of state laws across the nation without trying to get some legislation from somebody somewhere to at least give it some iota of legality. Instead they just adopted it with an ethical sense very similar to listing your five grey tabby cats as children on your income tax. As far as I’m concerned, MERS is a semi-sorta legal device used to evade paying state registration fees and avoiding the basic work of transferring title by paper and all this so that these mortgages could be used as chips in global speculation.

This is an excellent brief discussion of MERS and the court system in Michigan.

James Pilant

In my introduction to MERS post, I indicated that a lot of litigation revolved around whether the Michigan Electronic Registration System (MERS) has standing as a party.  On April 21, 2011, the Michigan Court of Appeals decided that it did not in Residential Funding Co v Saurman.  The court said that MERS is not a party with an interest in the mortgage and cannot foreclose by advertisement.  MERS, as mortgagee, only holds an interest in the prope … Read More

via Great Lakes Law Blog

#Sustainability of Values alone would esnure profits. My reply (via Jayaribcm’s Blog)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

This is a post from one of web buddies. I am pleased to have the opportunity to put up his blog posts.

James Pilant

What’s “New” About Creating Shared Value?  05 Apr 2011 – by Michael Sadowski: This is an interesting post http://bit.ly/h5z2YL on Sustainability I give below my reply to the nice article from Michael that raises a number of basic issues. Michael, very valid points raised. Thanks. I would like to take you back to the days before ISO 9000 was introduced. In arriving at the harmonization of standards the Cecchini Committee had deliberated in detail … Read More

via Jayaribcm’s Blog

Rio Tinto shareholders not convinced on nuclear future (via Antinuclear)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

A nuclear future is inevitable? I don’t think so.

Apparently the actual owners are not so sure it’s a great idea.

The cost of a nuclear plant is staggering and other kinds are cheaper, sometimes  a lot cheaper.

James Pilant

Tom Albanese, Rio’s chiefexecutive, said uranium from the Ranger mine had been exported to Japan, although commercial confidence prevented him from confirming whether it was being used at Fukushima… ”Even before the Fukushima disaster, investors and insurers in the US, for example, could not be coaxed to back nuclear power.” – Scott Ludlam A nuclear Australia is inevitable: Rio chairman, Sydney Morning Herald, Courtney Trenwith, May 6, 2011,  A … Read More

via Antinuclear

Japan, Not TEPCO, Liable For Nuclear Damage, Official Says (via crisisjones)

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

Well, this is interesting. The TEPCO company’s unionized workers are calling for the government to assume responsibility for the costs of the disaster. There are those that claim the disaster could not have been anticipated.

This is just sad. After TEPCO is drained, the Japanese government will have to assume the costs. But there is no way that TEPCO should be able to escape its mammoth incompetence. The Japanese government is also incompetent and also deserves a great deal of blame but governments do not disappear with as little trouble as an incompetent corporation with a loyal but misguided body of workers.

James Pilant

Japan, Not TEPCO, Liable For Nuclear Damage, Official Says AFP / NEWSCORE Last Updated: 3:35 PM, May 2, 2011 Posted: 3:34 PM, May 2, 2011 Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/japan_not_tepco_liable_for_nuclear_sE8OkBcmMp1fKxFdi6p6nJ#ixzz1LXL705DT PARIS — The head of the Japanese employers’ federation on Monday defended Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), owner of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, saying the state and not the company should compensate disaster victims. Hiromasa … Read More

via crisisjones

Cultivating hatred through “personal responsibility.” (via Check Your Premises)

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

This is delicious. I have heard many of the rationalizations that are righteously clobbered in this posting. The only thing that bothers me is he is clobbering them better than I am. Nice stuff.

James Pilant

The best way to generate hatred towards an identity (any of the myriad arbitrary ways we have to classify people) is to claim that “those people” have made the conscious decision to bring it upon themselves, that they are explicitly immoral. It is very difficult to generate hatred for people who didn’t choose their fate, and therefore it is always found necessary to place upon them some imaginary responsibility. Personal responsibility and the ab … Read More

via Check Your Premises

The Agenda Shaping Our Worldview (via It Could Be Simpler)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

The idea of a “comforting illusion” is one you can easily think of when confronted by the apathy of so many. Myself I’ve studied the mortgage crisis (more like crimes) and have seen how little it bothered so many that this was going on. So many people still say, “They made a contract, they owe the money, things didn’t work out, they should pay up or get out of the houses.”

No one seems to care whether the original contract was fair, laden with fraud, or sold to those least able to understand what they were signing.

I see a lot of comforting illusions. I don’t like them. This fellow doesn’t either.

James Pilant

My thanks to “It Could Be Simpler.”

“If we choose, we can live in a world of comforting illusion.”- Noam Chomsky Manufacturing Consent For the majority of people journalism is still the primary source for their view of the world, it doesn’t just show how events unfold from day to day, but how the world is defined. This obvious power has not gone unnoticed, since the inception of mass media governments have understood the abilities of radio, TV and print to enhance the propaganda el … Read More

via It Could Be Simpler

LOST INTERNET

On By southwerkIn business ethics

My main computer will not load the new wireless driver software. I’m writing this from another more primitive computer without my files or any of the other stuff I use. I’m sorry. I’m working on the problem.

James Pilant

Do No Harm — my UU sermon from May 1, 2010 (via Ironicschmoozer’s Weblog)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

In the last three generations of my family, there have been a good number of ministers. Of course, my family were Free Will Baptists and not Unitarians. (There is a lot more certainty in the sermons of the Baptists.)

I don’t attend church much anymore but I still like sermons. This gentleman has put one of his up as a post. It’s well written, choppy tight paragraphs, messages that seem to go in different directions but tie up like little bows into the big message by the end, and a couple of good personal stories to round it out.

I like what he has to say, I believe in ethics and morality. In the field of doing the right thing, the best move is often to do nothing at all, thus, do no harm. It’s a good topic.

James Pilant

Do No Harm Sunday, May 1, 2011 Unitarian Universalist Society Sacramento, CA Hymns: 126, 21, 162. Music:  “Trouble,” Coldplay; sung by Eric Stetson Reading  “To Be of Use,” a poem by Marge Piercy, from Circles on the Water Shared Offering: Turning Point Community Programs:  A Path to Mental Health Do No Harm.  What does this mean? This world is full of harm and woe.  We human beings feel it, and cause it, at a staggering level.  Modern-day slaver … Read More

via Ironicschmoozer’s Weblog