Efficiency a la Canada
I read a great book called, The Efficient Society: Why Canada is as Close to Utopia as it Gets. That book made a great argument in favour of big business, government, corporations, and all the things we like to blame when we are angry because food is expensive or rent is skyrocketing.
The book discusses how efficiency is valued differently in Canada. A truly efficient society is one which makes use of the fewest resources in order to fulfill the needs of the most people. People in Canada predominantly value happiness. So what makes organizations in Canada efficient is when they help make the most people happy using the fewest resources.
So business ethics is a discussion depending on what you think is important. If you think the happiness of people is important, than good business is one which aims to make its employees and customers happy.
Ethics is about right and wrong. If a standard for evaluating good and bad is based upon making people happy, and you observe business being focused only on making money, then you observe that business does not match your ethics.
However, it is possible to have business which is ethical, which matches itself to the needs of people as individuals and families, not only corporations. Business and commerce are tools for making money, for maintaining our economy, and from these we live.
But it is up to us to make businesses work for us, for what we find efficient, to our standards of right and wrong.

April 3rd, 2009 at 2:52 pm