Greed, Inc. by Wade Rowland

Author:Wade Rowland
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781628722048
Publisher: Arcade
Published: 2012-08-14T16:00:00+00:00

It seems to me altogether more reasonable to suggest once again that, in fact, the “inhuman” decisions are being made not by humans, but by their master, the corporation. What is missing in Bauman’s analysis is an acknowledgement of the fact that no “sound-minded” corporate manager in a position of authority would ever, all things being equal, choose responsibility over profit. To do so would be to behave irrationally in the context established by the market.

One can of course imagine scenarios in which a choice in favor of responsibility could be contrived to result in profit, or at least the avoidance of loss. This would be the case, for example, where “responsible” action is dictated by government regulations backed by effective enforcement and heavy fines. Most business school ethics texts in fact argue that ethical behavior need not impinge on profit maximization, that ethical behavior is actually profitable.20 However, what is being promoted in the text books is not really ethical behavior, but mere prudence. Authentic ethical behavior takes place outside any consideration of benefit, and may frequently involve a sacrifice. In any case the routine behavior of large business corporations suggests that they do not perceive the text-book advice as holding true in real-life market conditions. It can be stated as a general rule of corporate life that to place moral responsibility ahead of profit is to fatally imperil one’s executive career. Corporate employees, as a condition of employment, place responsibility to the corporation (the responsibility to maximize profit) ahead of everything else, including responsibility to humanity.

Is this too harsh?

Consider the consumer electronics industry. For many years it has been known that materials widely used in the manufacture of electronic gadgets of all kinds, from computers to cell phones to clock radios, present a range of hazards to human health ranging from various cancers to nerve damage and mental retardation. Materials such as lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, flame-retardants such as PBE and PBDE are extremely toxic even in small quantities, and can and do contaminate ground water when disposed of in land fill dumps. Despite this knowledge, and despite explosive sales and enormous profits in the industry, no action was taken by any of the corporations involved to eliminate these dangerous materials. It was not until the European Union, China and Japan all passed legislation prohibiting manufacture or import of electronic products containing these materials that the industry finally took action, initially to meet Europe’s July, 2006 deadline for compliance.

Why hadn’t any of these enormously wealthy corporations—giants like Apple and Sony and Philips and GE and Westinghouse—acted on their own? Why had no courageous corporate leader taken the initiative? After all, a serious, well-documented and widespread risk to human health and welfare was at stake, and the families and loved ones of corporate executives were in no way immune.

A fascinating insight into the internal processes of a corporation faced with a straightforward choice between profit and morality is provided by one of the corporate participants in the classic case of the Ford Pinto discussed earlier in this chapter.

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