To Whom It May Concern,

The economy is entering a recession. Companies are going to have to examine their bottom lines and their practices.

The question is simple.

What do you consider ethical and/or acceptable business practices?

Sincerely Yours,
C. David Neely

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I've always been against giving the corporate managers disproportionate pay raises compared to the lower waged employees. Other things include: Board of Directers doling out pensions to the top tier but not anyone else, giving the top cost of living increases, and being given cars to handle their travel needs. I don't mean car rentals I mean car ownership.

I know there are all kinds of specific compensation deals going on but those are the ones that I know have happened. These kinds of things are wrong, and whenever companies talk about cutting costs the ones at the top rarely seem to be involved.

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Is our children learning? -George W. Bush

"I think—tide turning—see, as I remember—I was raised in the desert, but tides kind of—it's easy to see a tide turn—did I say those words?"—Washington, D.C., June 14, 2006

"[T]he illiteracy level of our children are appalling."—Washington, D.C., Jan. 23, 2004

pay and compensation to mgr.s ceo's etc. can always be contested by the board or the share holders. Thats the way it is.

The more these folks get the less the shareholders realize after operating costs as to payroll etc. is deducted, its none of our biz.

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"The captain has turned off the `No Dubbing' sign. You are free to speak any language you choose."

My two cents:

"The business of business is business." Don't know who said that. Everything that's legal is acceptable practice, ethics are irrelevant. If do-gooding helps the bottom line - and it can - then that's awesome... if not, that's just too bad. We have the public sector to implement our values - the private sector has a different purpose, and acting out an ethical ideal isn't necessarily in the mission statement.

Nobody AFAIK. Calvin Coolidge said "the business of America is business."

I'm going to have to agree with this, but point out the logical consequence: that business must be carefully regulated by government. In a competitive environment, business sinks to the level of depravity allowed by law. That's because an unscrupulous competitor will enjoy an advantage over a more principled one, and ultimately drive the principled competitor out of business.

The law does not allow businesses to hire assassins and rub out their competitors; if it did, this would become standard practice. (Those whose moral convictions didn't allow them to resort to it would soon be dead.) The law does not allow business to employ people at gunpoint; if it did, they would do it. The law does not allow business to hold their customers' families hostage and force them to make purchases; if it did, they would do it. And so on.

We must recognize what a corporation is: an amoral institution dedicated to naked greed, without morality or ethics, inherently untrustworthy and unable to police itself. If we do not wish a business to engage in any nasty practice that would give it a competitive edge, we must forbid that practice by law. If we do not, some businesses will engage in it, and over time, through the natural selection of the competitive marketplace, it will become the common practice of all.

I'd say that the question is far from simple. Thousands upon thousands of pages have been written on the subject (I've only read a few hundred of those, unfortunately).

I think that the easiest way to describe my take on business ethics is that an ethical business (through its leaders) remembers that it has a responsibility to all of the stakeholders (not just the shareholders) involved in the business. From the community surrounding the business' facilities to the community surrounding the landfill/recycling center where the products it creates will end up, a business must balance the needs and wants of all of these stakeholders.

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Really?

Go buy a share of GE and try to bitch about CEO pay. Buy 100. Buy 1000. See how far that gets you.

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Okay, attribute the quote to me then.

Of course we need regulation, and of course businesses are dedicated to profit. Except for the value judgments, I don't disagree. Like I said, law is the baseline. It's not to say that corporations are necessarily evil or glorious, just that their business is to make money. And there's nothing wrong or unethical with making ridiculous amounts of money if you play within the rules.

Polluting the Niger delta for reducing costs when producing oil is unacceptable.
Dumping subsidized food on the African market below production prices is unacceptable.
Using wood from unverified sources is unacceptable.
Selling dozens of million tonnes of used electronics to people in Ghana, Ivory Coast, Pakistan, China etc who will take out the valueble metals and dump all the poisons into nature is unacceptable.

It's all happening now on an industrial scale.

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5% of the total surface of the Netherlands is used to grow hemp

My favorite is how the Canadian government is spending money to push sales of asbestos in the developing world.

Asbestos. WTF.


Oh, my source is an issue of The Economist I read recently.

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Re AjaxPress:

"Board of Directers doling out pensions to the top tier but not anyone else",

This is IMO against the law. However .....Various other methods are used to accomplish the same thing e.g. A "Rabbi Trust".

Note: The term is legitimate (Look it and its use up)

It's really far too broad a question...

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Science flies you to the moon.

Religion flies you into buildings.

I would say that any practices which do not violate the law and offered in good faith to the stakeholders in the business.

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"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."

-Thomas Jefferson

why is it against the law ?

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Socialism doesn't create a rising tide that lifts all boats. It drains the lake and teaches the boat riders not to help themselves by rowing.

Jesus loves you, allah wants you dead

"Every government interference in the economy consists of giving an unearned benefit, extorted by force, to some men at the expense of others."

Ayn Rand

I've found a good guideline personally is to avoid doing/saying anything that I wouldn't want to see on the front page of WSJ the next day... business leaders can follow the same guidelines... but these are just value judgments, ultimately they're accountable to the bottom line