Ethical Business: Good For Society

Ethics’ Impact
Ethics and ethical business practices are as paramount to a well-functioning and flourishing society in the modern world as they were in the ancient world. Ethics are important because business is everywhere – nearly every activity in society has a business component or is part of a money-using or -generating activity. Non-profit organizations and charities even have to balance revenues and expenses to stay viable for the people that they help. Health care – the way that our society takes care of the sick and elderly – is a huge and complicated business which the United States and its government is still trying to get its arms around. Our legal system – the way that we keep order in society – is directly affected by the monetary aspects of law firms, prosecutors, incarceration costs, and the wealth of a defendant. The quality of education for young people and the ability of institutions at all levels are directly affected by the revenue that they generate. And government, especially in the U.S., dispenses trillions of dollars in citizens’ taxes according to lawmakers and legislators – it’s the biggest business of all.

Do Right By Customers
It is critical to society that all these entities do right by their “customers,” and when they don’t – there are dire consequences. Each entity in society must appropriately service the people that use or need what that entity provides. When governments fail to effectively regulate food production practices, such as with the recent melanin-tainted formula in China which led to tens of thousands of sick Chinese babies and deaths, the ethics of lax enforcement of laws is fatal. Here in the Western world, we have our examples too. Our oil companies seem to always put the accelerator to prices during “perceived” crises, such as in the weeks after a hurricane in The Gulf of Mexico and during peak travel times like early summer. Do you really believe that “changeover to summer blend at the refineries” stuff can raise a gallon of gas by 20% to 40%? Doing right by American drivers would see a proportionate lowering of gasoline prices as barrels of crude oil fall. As I write this, oil is at about $80 per barrel, down nearly half its $140 per barrel peak – is a gallon of gas down to $2 per gallon or even $2.50 per gallon?

T. Boone Pickens and Bill & Melinda Gates’ Activism
Business people and their activism can have a huge impact on society. Relevant to my last paragraph, oilman T. Boone Pickens is to be applauded for his crusade to help make America energy-independent. His advocacy and as important, his financial backing of energy-generating wind turbines has the potential to change America’s oil addiction. His effort is especially impressive and scarily enlightening and insightful when you consider his multi-billion dollar fortune comes from oil. He understands better than most, the consequences of America’s huge oil consumption, and the box that foreign oil dependence puts us in currently – and will cause us further desperation in the future if we do change both the oil demand and energy supply side. Bill & Melinda Gates and their foundation’s emphasis on education can also change America. Their participating academic institutions are developing and implementing ways to use technology to advance American education – and more importantly provide needier young people with access to current technology. This helps level out disparities between affluent and less affluent areas and locales.