The Morality of Business.

[coloradodem2005]

It is a foregone conclusion that business is inherently amoral. I was talking to a friend about Wal Mart and saying that there was something evil about it. While he believes that it is amoral and is certainly no fan of Wal Mart, he does not think it is evil.


I guess the main question is when is a business simply amoral and when is a business evil? What are the differences?

[lanparty]

1. No it isn't

Most small businesses are 100% moral. The individual takes risk and reaps the reward for those risks.

The modern for-profit corporation by contrast is inherintly immoral. The sole purpose of the organization is to generate profit. All other concerns are secondary.

Any person who valued money over all other things would be considered evil. Why do we give the corporation a pass in this regard????

[Make7]

2. A gun

was used to shoot someone, was the gun amoral or evil? Or was it the bullet that was amoral or evil?

-Make7

[lumpy]

3. The missing ingredient

in the mix of mega-corporate business is integrity. That ingedient has been on the wanted list for some time. Lost competition, customer dissatisfaction, faulty products and last but not least degraded workers rights and unfair labor practices. This lack of integrity has filtered down to the masses. Remember Lincoln and the return of the famous penny?

[unkachuck]

4. I think most businesses are inherently.....

....evil because they are designed to give you less than what you are truly worth in the market place to account for non-prime labor and owners profits....and they, and only they, decide what your work is actually worth....in accordance with the 'Invisable Finger' of Adam Smith, of course....

Your choice is to accept what your boss/owner says or to leave and go across the street to the same bullshit....it's the only game allowed in town....

Businesses are militaristic, demand your blind obediance, suck up you life and have carved up the natural world with borders and fences (governments serve business).....you have little (realistic) choice but to grow up and join/start some business....

....and anything that limits your existance on this planet that much, just has to be naturally evil....

....but then again, don't listen to me, I'm just an old union guy who barely made it out of high school....

[leftyandproud]

5. DIFFERENCE

If a lefty is a billionaire (Soros, Ted Turner, Teresa Heinz), the business is good! If a right winger is in charge, it is EVIL..and must be severely taxed and penalized.

seriously
;)

[Deja Q]

6. Amoral when not immoral.

Wal-mart is immoral. It destroys competition and treats its workers like overpaid slaves.

All businesses try to destroy competition and pay the smallest amount of money to its workers and laborers. The difference is, the larger the business is directly related to how immoral it is.

I don't know of even one example of a company that's honest and ethical and is a big corporation. Well, Costco (?) I gather does treat its employees reasonably well and their CEO still rakes in multiple millions of dollars.

[rman]

7. i think it's pretty evil to be amoral

"Those who are fit to rule are those who realize there is no morality and that there is only one natural right, the right of the superior to rule over the inferior". - Leo Strauss