Archive for the ‘Ethics-general’ Category
March 5, 2012
To mark two years of EthicsBob.com and 25,000 views I’m celebrating with these two offers:
1) I’ll visit your workplace or school and do a one-hour seminar on either
· The Ethics Challenge: Essential Skills for Leading and Living, or
· The ABCs of Ethical Leadership
I’ll do the seminar pro bono; if it’s out of the LA commuting area I’ll ask you to cover my reasonable expenses.
2) Alternatively (or in addition), you can buy my latest book (co-authored with Mick Ukleja) in hard cover for only $10, with free shipping.
Here are the details on the offers: (more…)
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-118.451661
Tags:authenticity, buoyancy, conviction, Ethical Leadership, ethics training, EthicsBob, Golden Rule, Mick Ukleja, seminar, The Ethics Challenge, unenforceables
Posted in Business ethics, Ethics-general, Leadership | Leave a Comment »
March 4, 2012
Rush Limbaugh has apologized for calling Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke a slut and a prostitute for supporting health insurance coverage of contraceptives.
He was immediately swamped with outrage from the Left and from several sponsors of his radio talk show who announced that they would sponsor no longer.
Rush posted an apology on his website yesterday. After explaining his position against insurance coverage of contraceptives, he concluded:
“My choice of words was not the best, and in the attempt to be humorous, I created a national stir. I sincerely apologize to Ms. Fluke for the insulting word choices.”
I’ve written before about the three types of apologies:
Category 1 is the defiant apology:“I’m sorry if you think I did something wrong.”
Category 2 is the evasive apology:“I may have made an innocent mistake, and I’m sorry for it—if I actually did it.”
Category 3 is the real apology:“I did something wrong, and I’m sorry for it.”
Rush gets only provisional credit for a Cat. 3—provisional (more…)
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Tags:ABC This Week, Ann Coulter, apology, Bill Maher, bimbo, contraceptives, Daily Beast, Democrats, dumb twat, Ed Schultz, ethics, George Will, health insurance, John Boehner, Kathleen Parker, Kirsten Powers, Laura Ingraham, Matt Taibbi, Michelle Malkin, MSNBC, prostitute, Republicans, Rolling Stone, Rush Limbaugh, Sandra Fluke, Sarah Palin, slut, types of apologies, Washington Post
Posted in Apologies, Ethics-general, hypocrisy, Media, Politics | 2 Comments »
February 27, 2012
Nike shoes are a bargain at $220 a pair. They must be, else why would hundreds of people have showed up Thursday at a Greenwood, Indiana, mall, according to the police report, “panicking to get to the front of the line” for the limited release of the $220 Foamposite Galaxy. The next day in Orlando it took a hundred deputies in riot gear to subdue a crowd waiting for the new Galaxy.
Similar riots attended Nike’s December release of the latest in the Air Jordan line, the $180 Air Jordan XI Concord.
The Air Jordans cost Nike about $16 to produce, giving Nike a gross profit of $164 a pair, or about 90 per cent, before marketing expenses. Shareholders have done well, as the stock price has increased over one hundred times in the last 25 years—in contrast, the Dow Jones average has gone up a factor of seven in that period.
The workers in Indonesia who make Nike shoes haven’t done nearly as well: they earn $4 a day—not enough to provide food, shelter, transportation, and health care. And they can only dream of someday being able to buy a pair of Nikes for themselves.
Nike could easily afford to pay a living wage—labor costs account for only $2.50 a pair. (more…)
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Tags:Air Jordan, Apple, corporate social responsibility, CSR, ethics, Foamposite Galaxy, Indonesia, iPhone, Jim Keady, living wage, Nike, stock price, sweatshops
Posted in Business ethics, Ethics-general, International, Sweatshops | 5 Comments »
February 22, 2012
Thomas Jefferson wrote, “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”
Jefferson would have especially valued Marie Colvin of the Sunday Times of London and Anthony Shadid of the New York Times, both of whom died this week in Syria.
Colvin was killed in a savage artillery bombardment of a residential neighborhood in Homs, Syria’s third city. In her last report, filed hours before she was killed, she explained to CNN’s Anderson Cooper why it was important to show video of a two-year old boy dying of shrapnel wounds to the chest.
“I feel very strongly that it should be shown. That’s the reality: there are 28,000 defenseless civilians being shelled. That baby will probably move more people to think ‘What is going on and why is no one stopping these murders that are going on every day?’
“The Syrian Army is shelling a city of cold, starving civilians.”
Shadid died of an asthma attack as he was walking out of Syria to file his latest report. He knew of the danger he faced, and (more…)
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Tags:Anderson Cooper, Anthony Shadid, asthma, CNN, courage, ethics, Homs, Marie Colvin, New York Times, NPR, Sunday Times of London, Syria, Terry Gross, Thomas Jefferson
Posted in Ethics-general, International, Media | 2 Comments »
February 18, 2012
Foxconn Technology, maker of iPhones, iPads, and countless other consumer electronics goods, announced Saturday an immediate pay raise of 16%-25%, to about $400 a month, for the lowest paid workers in its Chinese plants.
At Apple’s request the industry-sponsored Fair Labor Association has started an audit of its suppliers’ factories in China. The pay raise won’t affect the audit, but it’s nevertheless good news for the workers who build Apple’s products as well as reassurance for the people who buy them. (Like me.)
34.064458
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Tags:ethics, Apple, Foxconn, Fair Labor Association, iPhones, iPads, pay raise
Posted in Ethics-general, International, Business ethics, Sweatshops | 2 Comments »
February 17, 2012
Last March a few young Syrian boys— all under 17 — wrote on a wall in the farm town of Dara’a in southern Syria, a slogan that had appeared first in Tunisia, then quickly in Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, and Libya: ”The people want the regime to fall.”
The local governor threw the boys in jail, and so the Syrian revolution started.
Thirty years ago Syria’s brutal president, Hafez al-Assad, put down an anti-government demonstration in the city of Hama by killing 20,000-40,000 residents. His son and successor, Bashar al-Assad, appears to be made of the same stuff. His forces have killed 5,000-7,000* in towns all over Syria, and his killing machine seems to be gaining momentum.
The Arab League and the UN General Assembly have called for an end to the killing and for Assad to leave power. Assad’s answer has been to double down.
It’s anguishing to watch the newscasts or read about the slaughter of innocents and feel helpless to stop it. Until the past few weeks outside help was impossible: unlike Libya, where the rebels controlled large chunks of territory and could be supplied and aided easily, in Syria the opposition was scattered and controlled no territory.
Now that’s changing. CNN’s Ivan Watson is reporting that militants in northern Syria hold substantial territory (more…)
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Tags:Arab League, Assil Anwar Jabr, Bashar al-Assad, CNN, conservative foreign policy establishment, Dael, Dara'a, ethics, Hafez al-Assad, Hama, Homs, Ivan Watson, Libya, NATO, Obama, Syria, Turkey, UN General Assembly
Posted in Ethics-general, International, military, Turkey | 2 Comments »
February 14, 2012
My amazing iPhone 3GS was made in Foxconn’s huge factory in Shenzen, China, where workers toil long hours under unhealthy and downright dangerous conditions, put in forced, unpaid overtime, sleep in crowded dormitories, and—occasionally, commit suicide.
Now I’m ready to upgrade to the newest iPhone 4S, with Siri, the personal assistant with attitude. But can I give Apple more business with a clear conscience?
The outsourcing of millions of jobs to low cost countries has eliminated the American consumer electronics industry. Virtually all desktop and laptop computers are made in Asia, along with nearly all mobile phones, TV sets, and radios. Americans have gone on to other jobs, but many have never found employment as good as they had in manufacturing.
The cost to Americans is arguably far outweighed by the benefits of a dizzying variety of goods that are far, far more affordable than they were years ago. But do our benefits come at the cost of exploiting workers in China, for example?
If we look at the working conditions at Foxconn we’re tempted to say yes. And many people have taken what they consider a principled stand against buying Apple products, or indeed, any products made under sub-standard—by American standards—conditions.
But the Foxconn workers aren’t slaves—they flock to Shenzen (more…)
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Tags:ethics, Apple, iPhone, forced overtime, sweatshops, Foxconn, Shenzen, Siri, outsourcing, consumer electronics industry, poverty, Nicholas Kristof, a code of conduct, Fair Labor Association, supply chain
Posted in Ethics-general, International, Business ethics, Sweatshops | 5 Comments »
February 3, 2012
Mitt Romney said he’s not concerned about the very poor because they have a safety net. And if the safety net needs repair he’ll fix it.
This proves he doesn’t care. If he thinks the safety net is OK he’s out of touch, and his out-of-touchness proves his lack of concern.
The safety net leaves millions of minimum- or low-wage earners without enough to feed, clothe, and shelter their families, leaves them dependent on emergency room visits for any medical care, and—if they’ve been unemployed for a long time—facing termination of their unemployment checks. And candidate Romney, along with nearly unanimous Republican Senators and members of Congress, are reflexively opposed to “fixing” the safety net.
But appearing so heartless can be costly to a Presidential candidate. So Romney tried to lie his way out of it, saying he misspoke. But he didn’t misspeak. Misspeaking is when I call my granddaughter by her sister’s name. Misspeaking is when John McCain tells a Romney gathering that he’s confident that President Obama will cure the nation’s ills. Misspeaking is not saying something, then when challenged explaining what you said. He didn’t misspeak.
The interview that got Romney into this mess went like this:
The candidate told CNN’s Soledad O’Brien on Wednesday that he’s “not concerned about the very poor,” explaining that he’s concerned about the middle class (more…)
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Tags:CNN, compassion, ethics, Jon Ralston, lying, Mel Gibson, Michael Richards, middle class, misspoke, Mitt Romney, pants on fire, poor people, safety net, Soledad O'Brien, very poor
Posted in Apologies, Ethics-general, Government, hypocrisy, Politics | 1 Comment »
January 30, 2012
Hollywood pioneer Samuel Goldwyn famously said of a colleague he admired, “His verbal contract is worth more than the paper it’s written on.”
This ‘Goldwynism’ applies to new Washington Redskins defensive backs coach, Raheem Morris, who verbally accepted a Washington offer on January 11. The very next day Morris was offered the job of defensive coordinator by the Minnesota Vikings.
Morris turned down the bigger, and likely much more lucrative, Minnesota offer, explaining,
“I believe that in this game, all you have is your word and your tape, and I gave these guys my word, and I wanted to come here and help them this year, and I was going to do it.
Keeping your commitment, even when—or especially when—it costs you a lot of money—is a central tenet of ethics. The Redskins have a winner in Morris.
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Tags:ethics, Goldwynisms, keeping your commitment, Raheem Morris, Redskins, Samuel Goldwyn, verbal contracts
Posted in Ethics-general, Sports | Leave a Comment »
January 24, 2012
Rick Santorum explained today why he didn’t challenge the woman who, at a Santorum town hall yesterday, pronounced President Obama a foreigner and a Muslim.
“I’ve said repeatedly that President Obama is not a Muslim and he’s qualified. It’s not my responsibility to defend the President. I’m not here to defend the President against scurrilous attacks. It’s not my job, it’s yours [referring to the media]. It’s your responsibility to defend the president, not mine. When the media and others say lies about me and call me names and do things … it’s OK and, in fact, it’s promoted and encouraged and made fun of when we do it. Stop it.”
Santorum was being questioned on MSNBC’s Morning Joe program by political writer John Heilemann, who then pointed out that John McCain had responded honorably in a similar episode during the 2008 campaign. Santorum responded indignantly.
“It’s very clear. I am not John McCain. I’ve never been like John McCain. I’m not running as a candidate who’s anything like John McCain.”
Amen.
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Tags:ethics, John Heilemann, John McCain, Morning Joe, Obama Muslim, Santorum
Posted in Ethics-general, Media, Politics | 4 Comments »
To mark two years of EthicsBob.com and 25,000 views I’m celebrating with these two offers:
