Joe Kainz
Amidst all the Enron, Worldcom, and other big company scandals, Krista Tippett and Prabhu Guptara reflect on how moral values can fail to penetrate the workplace. Guptara recalls that the caste his family was from in India, encouraged setting one’s own interest rates, which at times could reach nearly 3,600 percent. At this point in his life, he became to question how a culture as religious as his could be so unethical in business, often driving lenders into virtual slavery.
Tippett and Guptara then analyze the economic morality breakdown. Most people, Gupatara says, try to earn money in a decent way, but there is a small percentage of people who, in their excessive greed, intentionally cut corners in order to make as much money as fast as possible. On the flip side, something I found peculiar, there is an equally small percentage of people who think they are making too much money.
According to Tippett
God of Business= atheist
The conversation then moves to the fact that most of the world’s wealth goes to a small percentage of people. These fortunate few, can go through life without the least bit financial worry, while children die of starvation everyday. Guptara then discribes the odd situation in Europe. There, people are paid to keep farms that produce nothing, all in effort to keep market prices down. So we have Europeans that are paid to do nothing while children in third world countries are starving.
Concerning the United States, Guptara is very impressed by the overall generosity. He enjoys seeing the elementary school fundraisers, and companies donating part of their profits to charities. But there is still work that needs to be done, especially on the political front. People need to start lobbying for for more attention to be paid to countries like Sudan.
There are three main principles that work for the good of the people and of society. The first is to use the productive individual decisions and apply them to society as a whole. Work the way you want people to work for you. Sort of a “Golden Rule” for building a moral economy for society. Second, does what you do improve the life of everyone on Earth, or just a few people on Earth. Finally, does what you do that improves life right now pose a problem for society in the future.
Guptara leaves us with something to ponder. He asks how our religion relate to our individual ethics and our global business ethics. Answers to our problems would come much easier if more people asked themselves that question. The problem is people are so ignorant and refuse to see what they are doing is going against what their religion traditionally teaches.
Memorable Quotes
“We need a new generation of people willing to be transformed as individuals, willing to create a new sense of community, ready to pay the cost of working for the continued transformation of our global society, and of transforming our companies from engines to make even richer those who are already rich to engines that work to produce wealth for the globe.”
“So individuals can make a difference, individuals do make a difference, and individuals can
make a much bigger impact than they think of and they dream of if they're willing to take their
responsibility seriously.”