| Capitalism and the Corporation | |
| Is Capitalism the Best Route to Human Happiness? YES: Adam Smith, from An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, vols. 1 and 2 (1869) NO: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, from The Communist Manifesto (1848) If we will but leave self-interested people to seek their own advantage, Adam Smith argues, the result, unintended by any one of them, will be the greater advantage of all. No government interference is necessary to protect the general welfare. Karl Marx disagrees; leave people to their own self-interested devices, he replies, and those who by luck and inheritance own the means of production will rapidly reduce everyone else to virtual slavery. The few may be fabulously happy, but all others will live in misery. | |
| Can Individual Virtue Survive Corporate Pressure? YES: Robert C. Solomon, from ldquo;Victims of Circumstances? A Defense of Virtue Ethics in Business,rdquo; Business Ethics Quarterly (January 2003) NO: Gilbert Harman, from ldquo;No Character or Personality,rdquo; Business Ethics Quarterly (January 2003) Is there, finally, any free choice or moral agency left in the business world? Robert Solomon argues that there is, and that virtue ethics makes a real difference in the life of a business and its employees. Gilbert Harman fears that Solomon has underestimated the force of the determinist arguments, and presents a powerful restatement of them. | |
| Can Restructuring a Corporation’s Rules Make a Moral Difference? YES: Josef Wieland, from ldquo;The Ethics of Governance,rdquo; Business Ethics Quarterly (January 2001) NO: Ian Maitland, from ldquo;Distributive Justice in Firms: Do the Rules of Corporate Governance Matter?rdquo; Business Ethics Quarterly (January 2001) Josef Wieland, director of the German Business Ethics Network’s Centre for Business Ethics, argues that the performative nature of communications like codes of ethics in a corporation gives moral impetus to the corporation that issues such a code. It announces its willingness to be held accountable to the code as to a promise. Ian Maitland, professor of business, government, and society at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management, thinks that such moral structuring has no effect at all on the corporation’s moral performance (for instance, in distributive justice), but if taken too seriously, might impair the efficiency of the corporation and therefore its ability to create wealth for all its stakeholders. | |
| Should Corporations Adopt Policies of Corporate Social Responsibility? YES: Robert D. Hay and Edmund R. Gray, from ldquo;Introduction to Social Responsibility,rdquo; in David Keller, man. ed., Ethics and Values: Basic Readings in Theory and Practice (Pearson Custom Publishing, 2002) NO: Milton Friedman, from ldquo;The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits,rdquo; in Thomas Donaldson and Patricia H. Werhane, eds., Ethical Issues in Business: A Philosophical Approach, 4th ed. (Prentice Hall, 1993) Business leaders now recognize, Robert Hay and Edmund Gray argue, that in the long run, business will only be successful if it is directed to the needs of the society—and if it chooses to ignore that advice, government regulation is likely to fill the gap between business operations and the welfare of the people the government is sworn to protect. Milton Friedman argues that businesses have neither the right nor the ability to fool around with "social responsibility"; they serve employees and customers best when they do their work with maximum efficiency. | |
| Current Issues in Business | |
| Are Pharmaceutical Firms Obliged to Cut Their Prices for Poor AIDS Victims? YES: Debra Watson, from ldquo;U.S. Pharmaceutical Companies Reap Huge Profits From AIDS Drugs,rdquo; World Socialist Web Site, (June 5, 1999) NO: Robert Goldberg, from ldquo;Wrong Prescription: Don’t Rush to Embrace the Bush AIDS Plan,rdquo; National Review Online, (February 7, 2003) Debra Watson argues, very simply, that the greed of AIDS profiteers is killing impoverished people with AIDS all over the world (including the United States). Only drastic price reductions will make necessary drugs available to the victims. Robert Goldberg doubts that reducing prices will make much of a difference to AIDS sufferers, while the educational and health infrastructure remain inadequate to reach and teach the victims. | |
| Should Casino Gambling Be Prohibited? YES: William A. Galston and David Wasserman, from ldquo;Gambling Away Our Moral Capital,rdquo; The Public Interest (Spring 1996) NO: William R. Eadington, from ldquo;The Proliferation of Commercial Gaming in America,rdquo; The Sovereign Citizen (Fall 1994) William Galston and David Wasserman claim that the moral arguments against legalized gambling far outweigh the economic arguments from the apparent contributions of the gambling industry to state and local prosperity. William Eadington argues that gambling is a normal extension of commercial activity, and can safely be managed to promote the welfare of the host areas; he is less concerned about the reported downside of the gaming enterprise. | |
| Is Wal-Mart a Good Model for Retail Sales? YES: Sam Walton with John Huey, from Made in America (Doubleday, 1992) NO: Silvia Ribeiro, from ldquo;The Costs of ‘Walmartization’,rdquo; (January 16, 2005) Wal-Mart has become a focus of controversy, but Sam Walton was absolutely convinced that he and his associates had set up a model company, totally dedicated to giving consumers what they want, which is what retail sales are all about. Yes, Silvia Ribeiro agrees, but at a terribly high cost, and in the long run, the monopolistic practices cheat even the consumer. | |
| Does the Enron Collapse Show That We Need More Regulation of the Energy Industry? YES: Richard Rosen, from ldquo;Regulating Power: An Idea Whose Time Is Back,rdquo; The American Prospect (March 25, 2002) NO: Christopher L. Culp and Steve H. Hanke, from ldquo;Empire of the Sun: An Economic Interpretation of Enron’s Energy Business,rdquo; Policy Analysis (February 20, 2003) Writer Richard Rosen contends that the disastrous collapse of the Enron energy company—accompanied by soaring prices in California, disruptions of the market in the United States and abroad, and accusations of fraud all around—means that America needs more government oversight. Christopher L. Culp, adjunct professor of finance at the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago, and Steve H. Hanke, professor of applied economics at the Johns Hopkins University, maintain that it was unwise regulation that caused the Enron problem in the first place. They conclude that only deregulation will let the market clear up the problems with the industry. | |
| Human Resources: The Corporation and the Employee | |
| Does Blowing the Whistle Violate Company Loyalty? YES: Sissela Bok, from ldquo;Whistleblowing and Professional Responsibility,rdquo; New York University Education Quarterly (Summer 1980) NO: Robert A. Larmer, from ldquo;Whistleblowing and Employee Loyalty,rdquo; Journal of Business Ethics (vol. 11, 1992) When Time magazine chose three whistleblowers—Sherron Watkins, Cole | |
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