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I thought considering last week's reading, this blog post was good to look at. It coincides with Maitland's argument for sweatshops. The part I found most interesting was this: "The most important aspect relating to the morality of sweatshop labor is that it is voluntary. That is, sweatshop laborers get up in the morning and choose to work in a sweatshop instead of doing anyother possible thing on any given day. Why would they do that? It's simple, by working at a sweatshop a laborer is able to earn more for himself and his family than he would otherwise be able to were he not employed at that sweatshop. The laborer has the choice to either perform some other task for money, produce his own goods and services, or go work for the sweatshop. He has made the decision that what he gains by working at the sweatshop is more valuable than what he would gain doing anything else." It begs the question of who gets to decide what these workers do in their lives to support their families and how they should feel about those choices.

Another good reflection on this issue, jdybing. One of the issues with this type of argument is that it's rather theoretical. It simply isn't true of all people that "The laborer has the choice to either perform some other task for money, produce his own goods and services, or go work for the sweatshop." Even if this is true, the next question is whether we should just accept a type of work and working conditions that demoralize people and trivialize the value of their lives. What Maitland says of sweatshops is just as true of the practice of child labor early in the industrial era of the US, where children were not only doing dehumanizing work but doing so under extremely dangerous conditions. It's hard to see how anyone would actually "choose" this type of life given viable options for doing something else.

What does it mean to be a good man?

Unions have become a rather controversial topic within American work culture today, but they arose in a very different time and shaped people's work life today in some pretty profound ways, most would say some pretty good ways.

A friend had shared a picture on Facebook that I saw today. It was copies from two articles about two different crimes. One was of a wealthy white man and one was of a homeless black man. The pictures note the sentences and crimes committed and imply that there was disparity in the sentencing. Here is a post I found on the two cases. What are your thoughts on the different cases?

I did some extra research on these two cases as well (including Snopes). I posted the linke that I did (and only that) for a couple of reasons. 1) Because of the potential inequality of the two cases and 2) because I don't think that most people look past the information give to them. I was glad to see that someone (granted you are the professor, but still) looked into the stories a bit more. I think that also says something about ethics. I recently sent a friend of mine (who was making claims about products other than those she was selling). The claims were that there was bat guano in many brands of mascara. She told me she had heard this from an optometrist but she had never done any research on her own. When I did (because I did not want to make claims that I did not know to be true), I forwarded some of the sources I found to her. In our society, we tend to take things at face value.

Aha, very clever test :) Glad you're doing some of the critical thinking that, as you indicate, we need to be doing much more of. Keep up the good research!

Good article about women in the workplace.

Coporate idealists want to make change for businesses to do good and they believe it is within our reach.

This is an 8 page are article about what we should be doing ethically to prevent global warming

Very good essay, Marcus. Interesting angle on the ethics of inaction, and a very good analysis of the issue from a 'divine command' perspective.

It's true, when it comes to global warming, we always think it's someone else's responsibility to fix what we've destroyed.

This doesn't say it outright, but someone finding, and sharing, products like this will make some doctors angry. I think it's good for the average person who can't afford to go in for professionals to make them look better though. 

Lucy Kellaway's Financial Times podcast is a great resource for brilliant (and often hilarious) analysis of contemporary issues in the professional world. For a good example listen to her qualified version of Lord Acton's dictum on the way in which power corrupts: "Pretenders to power are the most dangerous"

This is a good article about how we need science now more than ever.

Should we be wasting money on bottled water when it is just as good right out of the tap?

This goes along with our video's for this week. It asks a good question "Does Battlefield 3's realism bring with it responsibility? Should developers like DICE provide an ethically balanced experience?"

A case about Georigia man who is to be put to death tonight and he may be innocent. Was he tried unfairly?

This article is about the SEC holding more people responsible for the wrong doings during the economic crisis. It talks about the careless things done with investor's money.

I like how this article states that this bank is pointing out that there usually are those same charges as their customers are now seeing, it's just that they decided not to hide them anymore. I see that as an ethical decision being made.

Ethics and morals can be changed and throughout history the US has done a good job of adapting even if it took years to happen.

This is a good review of all the business ethics issues brought up in one issue of Canadian Business. Very helpful if you're still getting the hang of how we're using Diigo to identify and share examples of moral issues. 

This article points out the tendency for people to notice bad behavior and not good behavior. If one business acts unethically it can be compounded by an individual to assume all business is unethical.

Here's a good example of how damaging the environment can damage your business--especially when you try to manipulate the legal system to avoid accountability. 

Article that surprisingly thinks that starting your business in this economic downturn could actually be a good decision.

I don't think it's a bad idea anytime to start a small or large business up during a economic downturn. Just have a good business plan and everything important laid out and you will be succesful. Article talks about businesses starting up in economic downturn.