Comment by hahajk
1 day ago
I have a theory that "business ethics" is really just "following the law." In capitalism, outside a few select industries like journalism, as long as it's legal you can - and should - do anything to maximize profits. It has turned into (or perhaps always was) the govt's job to set those rules.
Now, the govt also has to create rules for itself. So it creates the Privacy Act and layers of beurocratic checks and balances. These rules are to protect the people, not to derisk or protect the govt. After all, the govt has all the power.
So when capitalist businesses leaders are given the keys to govt, the normal ways of ethical alignment don't work. If you don't follow your own rules, who cares? They're your rules! I think what we're seeing is what happens if you apply traditional capitalist business practices to govt administration.
The trouble is that money is power, so the people who succeed the most at maximizing profit end up getting a lot of influence over the rules.
In some countries, this is done with outright bribery. Here, we do it with campaign contributions and lobbying and “we’ll create jobs in your district.”
Yeah actually. I think that’s about right.
>In capitalism, outside a few select industries like journalism, as long as it's legal you can - and should - do anything to maximize profits.
Honestly, if you were around watching the news 30+ years ago, you would notice a stark difference in how news is covered then versus today. You can't really blame them, they are doing what they can to survive, but coverage today much more tabloid than news.
I would say the "fake but accurate," was the death knell, but it might have been sooner.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killian_documents_controversy