Businesses are leeches that feed off the sweat of the working class. They are profit-oriented juggernauts whose only real concern is which palms to grease next. In the attainment of unlimited wealth there is no room for ethics: this is the problem.
Those studying business should take the ethics course offered by the philosophy department. The philosophy department is the best equipped at teaching people how to deal with moral and ethical dilemmas. Why Learn Ethics in Business? What seems to be the case with people in business is that they either don’t grasp the concept of ethics or don’t care what effects their actions have on anybody or anything else but themselves. A study in ethics may help people understand the difference between right and wrong. These people might even do the right thing even when there’s nothing to gain.It seems that business ethics currently means smiling while you exploit the working class, or saying “please and thank you” as you legally bribe politicians.
The Role of the Business Student: People who study business learn how to make money. That’s their role and consequently their goal in life. When one’s sole desire in life is to amass as much money as is humanly possible, they may not care how they go about achieving it. They may not care that other people suffer so that they can accomplish their selfish task. Ethics play no part in their thinking; people become merely a means to an end, can be tossed like tissue paper and are often treated like toilet paper.
The business student studies to be a money making machine. They must turn a profit at almost any cost.
Current Business Practices: Business practices as of now are still very much unethical. It’s not my job to play Junior Ralph Nader, but let us not forget that businesses are responsible for the jobs and livelihoods of others. This is a responsibility they probably shouldn’t have because they don’t know how to handle it ethically.
Businesses pollute the earth. We know it, they know it and the Europeans love to remind us about it. But did we sign the Kyoto treaty? No, because business might suffer. Why would anybody care about the earth and non-renewable resources if their alternatives aren’t profitable? Businesses hire people at sweat shops, pay them next to nothing and sell their products (like shoes) at ridiculously high prices.
What’s My Point?
It’s overwhelmingly obvious that business doesn’t care about people. To them we are either walking dollar bills or faceless employees. If they understood that there is more to life than riches and that doing the right thing sometimes means taking a hit in the money belt, so many people wouldn’t have to suffer.
