Cheating in a Bottom Line Economy

The world is in a transition period where the economy is bigger and thriving more than ever. Each economy has had hits throughout its time. Economies are systems where money is accumulated by businesses and services. Under a magnifying glass, businesses and services are not anything without the people. People who have a role in a business have different morals and obligations to their organizations. The situations and results of what people do in their organizations are important because spectators view these situations through different lenses.

Business Ethics is important to the world. It offers different lenses in the business world to understand why businesses go into the negative or how they ran successfully. Each person is seen through the lenses of what motivates them and how they operate in the business. There is a broken culture of cheating in getting ahead. People cheat to get ahead and to be successful. Though there are people with ideas to restore balance in the capitalistic society that needs some sort of equality or justice. Business Ethics is significant because no matter how advanced the world becomes businesses will have the same motivational factors. Business Ethics provides theories and formulas for the dilemmas that happen in a business where it benefits all people in learning what issues can be avoided.

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The understanding of Business Ethics is defined by authors, John Isbister and David Callahan. Both authors’ texts go hand-and-hand with the idea of trying to restore the economy and business. Isbister talks about the capitalistic society and challenges the readers how to creatively achieve social equality amongst all people. The correlation with Business Ethics is how the systems implemented by governments are trying to regulate and distribute money to everyone. Though the systems are getting beaten by everyone and trying to make and determine their own piece of the ‘pie’. Business Ethics is aligned with economics that in which everyone is taking what they deserve. In relation to the ‘Cheating Culture’ by David Callahan who talks about Americans wanting to be a part of the Winning Class ------ the richest people who make up the top one percent and make more money than ninety percent of the population. The Cheating Culture is a serious matter and epidemic. The Winning Class cheats and faces barely any or not any repercussions for any wrongdoings. So the lower social class views these situations as a formula to become part of the social class. Both authors have based and written their books on why the essentials to live in society are hard to obtain. People cheat because in the capitalistic society to afford or maintain a way of living. Greed lies in some people's morality because they want to think they earned it.

The dilemmas explained in John Isbister’s, Capitalism and Justice are questioned with the government’s system in the way it works. Isbister starts the book with the analogy of animals and what should everyone should get if they were put in the work. The face of the dilemma starts off, in reality, it is about capitalism. The true problem is that capitalism is broken along with its characteristics. According to Isbister, he states “In the United States, governments at all levels are responsible for almost one-third of the country’s output, and the government regulations influence the way in which the remaining two-thirds,” (Capitalism and Justice, Page 39). The government is the problem because they are supposed to regulate the market but have a laissez-faire of sorts. Business Ethics, from the perspective of libertarianism, believes that the government should imply contracts and have military protection. Libertarians want to hold people accountable for their role in the economy. Plus the government only provides protection to citizens from the military. The point of view of Libertarians would not solely work. Their view is slightly hard because the government lets its people have private ownership and business and not regulating the government would make the market go haywire. The current way the government is set up now could work or from the utilitarian perspective would work much more. Utilitarianism theorists believe that everything should be for the greater good of the majority. The leaders in the government believe that system works because most people get what they deserve. In agreeance, Isbister believes utilitarianism would work more than anything because he talks about Russia transitioning from an economy that was communist to capitalist. He condemns the libertarianism view with the results of what happened in Russia: high crime and mob-crime groups. Libertarianism theorists would not work because the world would not be any better. The market is ridiculously unorganized because the government would not have any interference. In addition, contracts would not really hold them liable for their business. The morality of some people would take over resulting in greed and taking more than can because there is not any constant restorative justice. Business Ethics is important because it revolves around what is best for society, and people with the use of historical situations that heavily failed. As society advances the idea of business is the same no matter how much the market grosses. The principles of Business Ethics are significant because it theorizes what could be the catalyst for productivity and efficiency for an individual or an entire economy.

The dilemmas explained by David Callahan, in ‘The Cheating Culture’ are far more individualized than Isbister’s writings. Callahan writes about notable failed or corrupted businesses and the leaders of these companies in how they conducted business. Callahan theorizes after breaking down all the scenarios how to restore balance to the corruptly run business world. For example, Callahan states, “The IRS goes after less-affluent tax cheats because they are easy prey. Middle-class and lower-income Americans don’t have the resources to put up a lengthy fight against the IRS. But America’s wealthiest taxpayers, backed by top tax lawyers and accountants, are adept at trying IRS investigators up in knots for years,” (The Cheating Culture, Page 157). The dilemma here is that taxation is not fairly based on income but on loopholes. The rich are not taxed as much as the middle class or poor because the rich can afford lawyers to get out by paying out a small chunk of their salary. Callahan’s response to the unjust taxation is that the wealthiest of people is who to point the finger at. The blame goes to the wealthiest people because they shape society’s social economics. They created loopholes and cheat codes for sustaining wealth in America. There is not any way to stop it. Callahan and Isbister's theories correlate well together because capitalism is not broken equating to everyone wanting to cheat. Another example stated by Callahan is, “Economic insecurity is nothing new to the bottom third of American households. But the downsizing [...] meant less job security for professionals who should reside securely within the middle class. Most of those who are downsized find other jobs, but these often pay less and carry few pension or health-care benefits,” (The Cheating Culture, Page 171). Economic insecurity happens and people are out of jobs then affects their life and well-being. People are being laid off and have new jobs where they might not be able to retire comfortably or have the benefits of working. Benefits and pensions matter because it not only ensures the individual working but the household of the worker too. The laying off of workers leaves workers scrambling for jobs and lowers their social class. Callahan’s response to economic insecurity would be to have the government step in to ensure more jobs are secure. The government has to do so because the income becomes vastly bigger. Plus the government has a social contract with its people to sacrifice social freedom for the protection of the country, or in this case, the country’s economy. Such as Isbister believes government participation is key to making the market more stable. Fewer jobs but more money being made would hurt the economy rather than everyone being able to benefit in some way. Business Ethics is significant to government and business because values need to be maintained, questioned, or revised for mankind to be successful or avoid situations.

Dilemmas in the news that affect the world currently. Such as:

The Germany-based luxury car company, Mercedes-Benz, says it will eliminate 9,500 jobs of its 61,000 jobs. The reason for the job-cutting is that the company plans on going on to electric cars, and lack of growth in China due to the trade war. From Isbister's point of view, he thinks capitalism has to grow but there is an uneven balance as to why it has. If the car company cuts jobs mean fewer workers but more money made an appearance in the market. The owner is making that decision to appeal to the social culture of the car market on how everything is more eco-friendly. Plus Mercedes-Benz wants to have an equal market share as much or more than its competitors. With a lack of brand growth in China, the car company has to still sustain a certain economic value each year. The owner is thinking from a utilitarianism theory because it is all about what is best for the company. Or from a non-consequentialist view, the owner is not thinking about the consequences but more so the action itself. Importance of Business Ethics helps make a business more efficient which will later affect the economy in a good way or bad way.

Another dilemma happened in the United Kingdom where a deal with an advertising company caused debt for small businesses. According to the BBC, the small businesses made a deal with an advertising company and the businesses were going to finance and then be paid out later. The advertising business soon went out of business and could not pay its advertisers. The only way to be slightly compensated would be to sell more ads. Plus the paperwork that was made with the deal was not the best which resulted in them having debt. Some of the advertisers cut their losses. Then some asked the government to step in seeing what they can do to at least get out of debt. If Callahan were to figure out who to blame would be the advertising company. Callahan would think this dilemma would be categorical imperative. The owners acted and tried to get the government involved to make way for those who might have a problem like this in the future. Plus they want to make things right even though they will pay the personal debt from the ad deal. They want to be compensated but also they want other businesses to avoid a future business deal like this. Isbister would argue that capitalism and the way cash is dispensed are unbalanced. It is unbalanced people try to make their own businesses but sometimes go into debt. The debt kills the business and makes working-class individuals lose their spot in a capitalistic society. Plus the gap between the rich and poor opened more than ever due to people who tried to establish themselves in the working class to be in the Winning Class.

The last dilemma would be a Maltese businesses man who was convicted of murder. Morally, murder is wrong. According to ABC News, the young reporter that blogged about Yongen Fenech, a Maltese businessman, was an extreme lobbyist for his company. Fenech sent killers to kill her but soon was charged with her murder. According to David Callahan, Fenech would be an ethical egoist. Fenech cared about himself and his company. He knew that a blog about him would change his company economically so he did what was “right”. Capitalism corrupts the mind in how people strive to be successful.

Business Ethics is important to the world because the goal for everyone is to be successful and obtain astronomical amounts of wealth. The things people do not think of are the dilemmas it comes with them. Either the dilemmas might be with the individual, the business, or the economy. In some way shape or form, it affects a part of you. Business Ethics is important because business becomes more efficient in productivity and fewer problems to be avoided due to learning from past situations. Business Ethics questions morality and always finding out ways to achieve economic justice. Economic justice can be equality for all if sorted by the government or people cheating to gain their own economic justice.

Business Ethics deals with morality and social justice in relation to economics. The end goal is to have productivity in economics but sometimes greed and integrity interfere with seeking that goal. Business Ethics analyzes capitalism and the people involved in it. The significance of Business Ethics defines what business should or should not look like.