Baalzamon said:
What is a business? Isn't it nothing more than a legal entity that is controlled by people? The business effectively can't make its own decisions. Instead, it is humans that make the decisions. So just perhaps, we should be instilling a better ethical standard into the citizens of our country that go on to run businesses. They are the ones that are making these business choices. They are the ones that need to be ethical and more responsible. Just something I thought I would mention, as people always seem to be deceived that it is a business that is making unethical choices, when the business didn't do shit. The people who owned the business made the unethical choice, and the business was simply a cover that people then blame their problems on. |
Ethics need to be instilled in business people who make the decisions. You can make a culture of a business ethical. Problems happen, however, in corporate structures, where owners of the business only demand maximizing profits as a rule (some will have ethical concerns in what stocks they buy, but such is usually after the fact because about the only thing you get out of stock ownership is an increase in stock price and dividends). The management of a business is hirelings, for the most part, in establish companies. They will get some stocks, which rewards increase in stock prices. Individuals get fired for making bad decisions that cost companies money. In none of this, is there any basis to factor in ethics, only image and avoidance of lawsuits and getting in trouble with the government. Privately owned businesses with equity held by the individual running the company, end up operating differently. In all this, a big issue is that guys involved in the company and the owners, if the company is established, very likely didn't build the company, they bought it.
This is a problem you see here and there, whenever ownership and management get disconnected.
