Tag: people

School Teaches Students Moral Cowardice

On By southwerkIn Business Ethics

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School Teaches Students Moral Cowardice

School fires domestic violence survivor, calls her a “liability”

No one would fault administrators or parents for wanting to ensure that children are safe at school, but barring a domestic violence survivor from her job and taking away her family’s livelihood is hardly the solution, advocates say. “Firing all these women is not the answer. You have to deal with this and it’s really up to all of us,” YWCA San Diego CEO Heather Finlay told NBC, adding the school should have pursued protective measures that targeted the abuser — not Charlesworth.

I was appalled to read this article. In fact, when I saw the title, I thought it must be some kind of mistake or a joke. Unfortunately, the facts as reported are accurate. A women victimized by a stalking husband has been fired from her job.

What’s next? Will we eject any employee under threat for any reason since this may very well inconvenience a school?

I want you to think of the incredible possibilities. A stalker can automatically get a woman fired from her job. Now, that’s power. The school system can actually force women to stay with abusive husbands because they know they will lose their jobs.

And without a job, and often having support children, the woman is at the mercy of state services and the possible handout and support of Mr. Wonderful, the man she tried to leave.

Honor, courage, tradition – all demand we stand up to those who use violence to gaining their ends. This example empowers the wicked and damages the innocent.

Is there any business, any educational institution, any government facility, where a human being placed under threat is not a liability? Does that mean we should fire them for convenience sake? or out of fear? What kind of people are we?

James Pilant

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Discrimination Against Women Alive and Well in the Sciences

On By southwerkIn Business Ethics

Science documents discrimination against women in science « Kay Steiger

This means men were deemed more qualified and competent in a science setting, even if women were making the judgement. Study participants also dramatically increased the recommended salary for men. The researchers concluded, “These results suggest that interventions addressing faculty gender bias might advance the goal of increasing the participation of women in science.”

The problem of increasing women in the sciences has been a long and highly contested one. Lots point to conflicts between family and work, but this study seems to say that there are still underlying biases based simply on perception of gender, regardless of whether that person has children.

Science documents discrimination against women in science « Kay Steiger

 

Discrimination against women should be gone by now.

Discrimination against women, even by other women in the sciences, continues. It is a very sad thing. It has been several hundred years of struggle for women to rise above the status of cattle. This is evidence that the struggle has years to go and its success is by no means guaranteed.

There is much that remains to be done. Let us carry the struggle forward with confidence in the inherent goodness of humanity and faith in the future.

James Pilant

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Catherine Crier Attacks Conservative Dogma About Adam Smith

On By southwerkIn Economic Justice
Adam Smith; engraving
Image via Wikipedia

In an article in Huffington Post, Catherine Crier finds the Tea Party and Conservative view of Adam Smith and his doctrines to be ridiculous. In her interpretation (and mine), Adam Smith was at one with the principles of the mixed economy, that is, some regulation and some economic freedom. Here’s two key paragraphs –

Just as Jeffersonian democracy operates best on a small scale, Adam Smith believed his self-correcting free markets were ideal for small businesses in a domestic economy. Integrated in their communities, these businesses would be influenced directly by the needs and demands of consumers, and any dangerous or abusive conduct would rarely affect the broader economy. But Smith treated large, powerful companies very differently. He said big business was led by “an order of men…that generally have an interest to deceive and even to oppress the public”, and he referred to powerful corporations (then known as joint stock companies) as “unaccountable sovereigns” that were as dangerous to free markets as tyrannical governments. Unrestrained, they had the power to shape society and governments for their own purposes, and consumers would pay for “all the extraordinary profits” while suffering from “all the extraordinary waste”, the inherent fraud and abuse, that accompanies such immense economic power.

Smith stated emphatically that a strong government, acting through democratic and legal institutions, was the only entity capable of challenging such corporate power. Smith supported necessary government regulations, labor and human rights, public education, and progressive taxation to ease the economic and social inequities he knew would occur in a capitalist system. Without these “liberal” measures, social and political unrest would threaten a nation’s stability and his free market economy could not survive.

I have often been surprised what conservative say writers mean and what I read when I study the same text. She appears to have had the same experience. Few individuals read the Great Works of the Western World with any focus. The material is difficult and often lengthy as well but the Great Books are worth the effort.

I have long been a fan of Robert Maynard Hutchins and his belief in the importance of books and skilled reading. I have read almost a third of the books he lists at the end of his book, “How to Read a Book.” Let’s have more reading and understanding and less dogma.

James Pilant

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The Beginning of The End of Rupert Murdoch? – Rebekah Brooks resigns over phone-hacking scandal (via Kempton – ideas Revolutionary)

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

When I first saw this, all I saw was the first part of the headline, and I thought, “No, he can’t be stopped.” But then I caught the part where Rebekah Brooks resigns and thought, “Maybe he is mortal after all. ”

James Pilant

The Beginning of The End of Rupert Murdoch? - Rebekah Brooks resigns over phone-hacking scandal Given the business smart of Rupert Murdoch and the firepower one can buy from hiring Edelman, the largest global PR firm, it may still be too early to say this is the "Beginning of The End of" of Murdoch. But at least it is easier to say this may be the beginning of the end of Rebekah Brooks. Guardian, "Rebekah Brooks resigns over phone-hacking scandal – News International chief stops short of full apology, saying she no longer wants to be 'focal … Read More

via Kempton – ideas Revolutionary