On Wed, 7 Feb 1996 David Markham wrote
>Do you think that fairness is an intuitive sense we all have
>like hearing and vision or is it socially constructed or a little of both?..
I think that fairness is taught, or not taught. There is a body of
anthropological work, sources of which I am unable to quote, that holds
that to survive our ancestors learned to support and respect each other.
There are even theories that say this behavior has been so useful to human
communities that it may be genetically based. Perhaps some other list
member can more fully illuminate these theories.
IMHO the community of family, neighbors, friends teach fairness and ethics
from very earliest ages.
>In other words, the only way we can get ahead is to find the loop
>holes, create the short cuts to beat the competition
I personally will not live this way, and I have lost money and position
because of my choices. My opinion is that looking for loopholes is a
short term view that eventually leads into dead ends. Even as I and my
company compete with other company's for business, to be unethical is, to
me, counter productive. My competitor today may be my best partner
tomorrow. My competitor today may be my employer tomorrow.
>I guess in the last analysis we all have to struggle with what is more
>important: the bottom line or justice. It is very clear to me that in our
>American way of doing business it is the bottom line.Caveat Emptor.
I see a body of evidence that the businesses that persevere on the top of
their industry are almost ruthlessly ethical. The businesses that
exclusively focus on profits are shorter lived than most would suspect. I
think that the book "Built to Last" cites examples of successful ethical
large companies. I know that the great majority of the American consumer
businesses that I deal with treat me fairly. William J. Hobler, Jr. Bill
bhobler@cpcug.org
--
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Collaborating and learning for mutual growth.
The job is not done until we are all humbled by what
each of us accomplished together.
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"William J. Hobler, Jr." <bhobler@cpcug.org>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations
For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>