Business Ethics

It is always in one’s rational self-interest to be ethical.

The DEI terminology may not have disappeared entirely from business but the ideology (if it ever amounted to more than virtue signaling in corporate communications) has been extinguished.

We should thank billionaire entrepreneurs like Jim Pattison and patronize their businesses – not attack them.

One of the reasons businesspeople dismiss moral principles is that they see them as burdensome duties to benefit others by sacrificing one’s own interests.

Combine an incompatible culture with socialist leadership in our government, and fraud is the result.

Are principles and profits really in conflict?

Most successful entrepreneurs become rich, not because of luck or having been handed extraordinary opportunities, but because they have worked productively.

Many people have a dim view of profits; they see them as the result of immoral exploitation by business for selfish gain.

Conceptions of “fairness” pursued through taking from those who have produced more and giving it those who have produced less or nothing are morally unjust and economically destructive.

“But I don’t want to be moral!” That’s what a CEO spontaneously exclaimed when he was given my book, How to Be Profitable and Moral. Why did he say that, and did he really mean it?

A stronger argument to defend capitalism and business against government coercion is needed. It comes from morality.

Proposals for a moratorium on land sales risk making the restoration a lengthier and more wasteful affair.

On the growing coalition countering capitalism for the “common good.”

Did you work to make or take advantage of your own luck?

The proper, moral attitude toward great achievers, those who have merit, is admiration.

Poison pills are more likely a defense of bad management than a defense of stockholders rights. They undermine the market for corporate control and, as a result, the value of stockholders’ investments.

It is a mistake to do business in authoritarian countries in the first place due to the political risk it poses.

A company that turned its ESG report into an opportunity to proudly defend its industry and itself.

Because a politically connected businessmen wants more for himself, and politicians have the power to demand that developers kiss their rings, Edgewater’s dump is still a dump.

The false standard of equity leads to bad outcomes for everyone. The standard should not be equity but justice.

Welch’s proper answer to his critics should have been this: “I earned the benefits through decades of hard and successful work. I am proud of what I earned, and I intend to keep it.”

What is needed is a new moral philosophy and proper anti-fraud laws

Fischel demonstrated that the “crimes” Milken allegedly committed were mere bookkeeping infractions which violated no legitimate rights and harmed nobody.