Corporate Ethics Vs. Societal Contracts

[KlatooBNikto]

I have often wondered why our country that was founded on the noblest of principles seems to contain a large segment of people who behave as though those principles don't matter and "we have to do whatever it takes to get the job done". Sort of a nation full of used car salesmen.

I think my best explanation for this is the pervasiveness of what I call corporate ethics. Because corporations have come to dominate our lives economically, it is only fitting that all of us have absorbed the lives of survival in the corporate jungle.The first such lesson is that profits are God to the corporate big wigs and everything else comes second, third,fourth and so on.This means that anything goes, including illegal acts and screwing your competitor in the enxt cubicle or the next city or next country so long as you please your bosses. This why we have become a nation of chiselers,subservient toadies and cheaters at the corporate game.

The conflict between the profit motive of corporations and our need as social beings is what is driving the discourse in national politics these days.The Republicans obviously have a big advantage in this discourse because they buy into this story enthusiastically.As Democrats we would be expected to pay attention to our obligations as fellow citizens but that is also modified by our experiences with corporations.

[tk2kewl]

1. We need to tell the stories of cultral decline

in terms of the profit motive and turn the puke culture war of us-against-the-liberal-elite into us-against-the-corporate-machine

the problem with this country isn't "do it if it feels good" as the wingnuts claim. the problem is simply "do it if it makes money"

[IrateCitizen]

2. I don't think it's quite that simple...

Part of the problem IS an ethic of, "If it feels good, do it." Perhaps a better motto would be, "I don't care who I have to step on, hurt, or knock out of the way. The only important thing to me is that I get what I want and therefore am happy." The thing is that the right wing is at least as responsible for the creation of this mindset as the left is (and yes, we ARE responsible on a few fronts).

Nothing has "value" anymore in our society. Everything is viewed from a completely selfish perspective. Private enterprise is viewed as "good", because it better serves the needs and desires of our selfishness. Conversely, anything that is public enterprise is seen as "bad", because it is about addressing societal needs that lie outside of our selfishness.

This is a reason for the surge in religious affiliation in the US. The RW churches are successful because they are well-organized, and they provide a "values" message that is incredibly simple and is meant to make people feel as if all their questions can be easily answered. It's not that so many people are inherently "bad" or anything -- it's that they thirst for some sort of connection or community that exists outside of the selfishness and materialism that permeates our culture. This would go a long way to explaining the agreement between many left-wing groups and right-wing ones like Focus on the Family when it comes to speaking out against direct marketing to children.

Our cultural decline is not solely an issue of left or right. Democrats have been only slightly better than Republicans in recent years in checking the worst excesses of corporate power and undue marketing influence. Much of the rank-and-file on BOTH sides sees this as a problem, but the politicians on each side tell their rank-and-file that it is the OTHER side that is to blame for these problems, when in fact the problems have a wholly bipartisan root.

[tk2kewl]

4. "and yes, we ARE responsible on a few fronts"

thats true. fine. own it. but we need to change the terms of the debate. and provide people with easily digestible messages that resonate on a values and personal fulfillment level.

you are right in everything you say. but the people who the party can reach and must reach are still not prepared/capable/willing/whatever to focus long enough to hear the nuances and think about the issues in depth. they need to hear from us a message of personal fulfillment that also exposes the "I don't care who I have to step on, hurt, or knock out of the way. The only important thing to me is that I get what I want and therefore am happy" aspect of the profit motive as the root cause. and shows them that the cons are responsible.

IMO anyway.

[Redleg]

3. Well stated. Many of our cultural heroes are also corporate "heroes."

Donald Trump, Bill Gates, Lee Iacocca, Jack Welsh, etc. We judge them not on their social responsibility and environmental stewardship but on whether their businesses are financially successful. This has been the compelling story in America- how rugged individualists conquer nature and beat their competitors in the so-called "free market." You can witness this almost every week on TV's "Apprentice" where many of the competitors rely on deceit and other unethical behaviors to win the prize.

A less compelling story, but the one many of us liberals/progressives/etc like to tell, is the story of how labor unions and progressive thinkers pushed for employee rights and economic fairness in opposition to what big business wanted. Our story talks about the many excesses of big business and the work progressives have done to curb those excesses. We often criticize the actions of business and our opponents call us "socialists" and say we are waging class warfare.

Our main problem is that our story is less compelling because it goes against what people have been socialized to believe- namely, that capitalism within the U.S. system is the best and fairest economic system in the world. The profit motive, which I view as very egoistic, extends to the consumer as well because the consumer often attempts to maximize the utility of his/her dollars when making purchasing decisions. Many consumers couldn't care less if the shoes they buy were made by 12 year old Guatemalan orphans working in a sweatshop. In fact, many consumers will never know about those things because they don't have easy access to that information.

I see our nation as being very short-sighted and that short-sightedness works in the favor of Republicans. We are interested in the short-term more than the long-term. We save very little, we have difficulty controlling consumer impulses, we aren't concerned about long-term debt, we aren't concerned about the dwindling of resources, we live for today. Aren't Bush's policies and actions very much that way too?