Posts Tagged ‘ethics’
July 1, 2010
Rolex watches, Prada satchels, and Burberry scarves are nice, but not that nice. For far less than these cost you can get similar items that keep time better, hold more, and keep your neck warmer. Rolex-, Prada-, and Burberry-labeled goods are so desirable because they are positional goods. That’s the economists’ term for products whose value lies in their scarcity.
You can buy a genuine Rolex for $3960 at Amazon.com, or you can buy a knock-off at iReplicaStore.com for $115. Or on the street for $10. You won’t be able to tell the difference. The price comparisons for Prada and Burberry are similar. The real things sell for $1398 and $150, respectively, while the fakes go for $110 and $18 on the internet, much less on the street.
So what’s a person to do? You can fool everybody for a tenth the cost. And you won’t be alone: lots of people do it, even brag about their ten dollar Rolex. But “everybody does it” doesn’t make it ethical. The law gives Rolex, Prada, and Burberry exclusive use of their designs and labels. It’s called their intellectual property. You’d be stealing the intellectual property of the real brand. An ethical person doesn’t do that.
But maybe there’s another reason to shun knock-offs (more…)
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Tags:Amazon.com, Burberry positional goods, cheating, deception, Economist, ethics, fake designer goods, intellectual property, iReplicaStore.com, knock-offs, Prada, Rolex, scarcity, self-esteem, University of North Carolina
Posted in Business ethics, Ethics-general | 5 Comments »
June 29, 2010
When you make a mistake the ethical thing to do is to correct it as best you can and take action to prevent a recurrence. Right? Not if you’re the head of FIFA, the world’s soccer federation (football everywhere but in the USA) running the world’s biggest—by far—sporting event.
The 2010 World Cup in South Africa has been beset by ugly and blatant refereeing errors that cost the USA team a win against Slovenia, and disadvantaged England and Mexico in their losses to Germany and Argentina.
The most egregious error was the referee disallowing a clear England goal when Frank Lampard’s shot hit the crossbar and bounced a good yard beyond the goal. Instead of tying Germany, 2-2, a disappointed England team went on to lose, 3-1. Just three hours later, another referee gave Argentina a go-ahead goal on a ball hit by a clearly offside Carlos Tevez (see photo).
When the Tevez play was replayed on the stadium’s giant TV screen, the fans erupted and the Mexican players protested to the referee. But the referee held his indefensible ground.
FIFA’s response? “FIFA will not make any comments on decisions of referees on the field of play.” But they did admit one mistake: close plays are not to be shown on stadium TV screens anymore, because it incites fans and leads to on-field arguments. Yes, the truth often does that.
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Tags:Argentina, Carlos Tevez, cover-up, England, ethics, FIFA, football, Frank Lampard, Germany, Mexico, offside, questionable plays, referee errors, replay, soccer, South Africa, stadium TV, World Cup
Posted in Ethics-general, Sports | Leave a Comment »
June 28, 2010
I watched the USA soccer team win its group in the World Cup, then lose to Ghana in the knockout round. Then I turned to my second favorite team, Brazil. I’m part of a World Cup television audience of more than a billion fans, and like most of them I lusted after the official team jerseys—a white USA shirt, perhaps, with number 10, Donovan, on the back, or a brilliant yellow and green Brazil shirt, also with number 10, Kaká. No, I think I like best the red and green number seven jersey of the world’s best player, Portugal’s Christiano Ronaldo. Seventy dollars for the home jersey, sixty for the more colorful away version. But I won’t be buying any.
All these official jerseys are made by Nike. Well, actually, Nike doesn’t make any sports gear. The shirts are made by a Nike contractor in Indonesia, whose workers earn $4/day, barely enough to pay rent, transportation, water, and two small bowls a day of rice and vegetables.
Nike long ago took the position that it has no responsibility for the pay or working conditions in the factories that make Nike gear, but over the past ten years it has slowly (more…)
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Tags:Brazil, Business ethics, Christiano Ronaldo, ethics, Indonesia, Jim Keady, Kaká, Landon Donovan, Los Angeles Times, Nike, Nike contractor, Portugal, team jerseys, USA soccer, working conditions, World Cup
Posted in Business ethics, Ethics-general, International, Sports | Leave a Comment »
June 24, 2010
General David Petraeus had it made. For the past twenty months he has led United States Central Command, with responsibility for actual and potential military operations from Egypt to Pakistan. He has lived the luxurious life of a four-star general at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa—one of the most prestigious, glamorous, and comfortable assignments the U.S. military has to offer. After spending most of the last ten years separated from his family on assignments on Bosnia and Iraq—the last two as commander of the multi-national force there—he was on the verge of retirement, praised as America’s greatest general, perhaps the greatest since the glory days of MacArthur, Patton, and Eisenhower.
Then General Stanley McChrystal invited a reporter from Rolling Stone magazine to live with his command in Afghanistan for weeks, where the reporter chronicled for the world the contempt that McChrystal and his senior staff had for the President and his national security team. Obama fired McChrystal and asked Petraeus to take a demotion, going from McChrystal’s boss to his replacement. And going from palatial four-star housing with his wife in Tampa to battlefield accommodations in Afghanistan.
Petraeus said yes sir, once again answering his country’s call. His coming service as commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan may enhance or may diminish his reputation as a great general. There’s no doubt, however, that it will remind America of the meaning of the West Point ethic: Duty, Honor, Country.
Read The Ethics Challenge: Strengthening Your Integrity in a Greedy World
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Tags:Afghanistan, Bosnia, Central Command, coalition forces, demotion, Duty Honor Country., Eisenhower, ethics, General David Petraeus, General Stanley McChrystal, Iraq, MacArthur, MacDill Air Force Base, multi-national force, Obama, Pakistan, Patton, Rolling Stone, West Point
Posted in Ethics-general, military, Politics | Leave a Comment »
June 18, 2010
Turkey, long America’s most reliable, and Israel’s only, ally in the Muslim world, is now being called anti-American, anti-Israel, and most alarming, Islamist, especially after the deadly May 31 incident when Turkish activists sailed into an Israeli blockade of Gaza and came off second best.
Turkey’s Prime Minister, Recap Erdogan (pronounced Re-jep ERD-uh-WAN) is the favorite whipping boy of just about anybody who is for Israel or against Iran, radical Islamists, or Muslims in general. It’s ironic that Erdogan, who has led Turkey toward most of the western democratic-style reforms demanded by the European Union as a condition for Turkey’s acceptance, is at now being accused by many, including many Turks, of wanting to return Turkey to the Muslim caliphate of pre-Ataturk days.
One of the West’s most insightful observers of Turkish affairs is South African journalist and author Hugh Pope, who for years headed the Istanbul office of the Wall Street Journal. Pope has an op-ed in today’s Haaretz, Israel’s most respected newspaper headlined Erdogan is not the bogeyman. In it he debunks the idea of an “Islamist foreign policy for Turkey, (more…)
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Tags:Ataturk, blockade, caliphate, democratic-style reforms, Erdogan is not the bogeyman, ethics, European Union, Gaza, Haaretz, Hugh Pope, Iran, Islamist foreign policy, Israel, May 31 incident, Muslim world, Palestinians, radical Islamist, Recap Erdogan, Turkey, Wall Street Journal
Posted in Ethics-general, International, Politics, Tolerance | Leave a Comment »
June 17, 2010
Congressman Bob Etheridge (D-NC) was walking down a Washington sidewalk when a short (half-a-head shorter than the Congressman) young man in a suit approached him with a camera—perhaps in a cell phone—and asked him if he supported the Obama agenda. “WHO ARE YOU?” the Congressman demanded, before he lunged at the camera, grabbed the young man’s arm, and then his neck, before letting go.
My favorite ethics blogger, Jack Marshall, labeled Etheridge an “ethics dunce” in his EthicsAlarms.com. Shamefully, some in the liberal media, including MSNBC’s Chris Mathews the Washington Post’s Chris Cilizza, and the Charlotte Observer, defended Etheridge. Worse, Politico reports that the DNC is blaming the Republican party.
The story on the right from Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and their friends, is that the mainstream media don’t cover bad behavior on the left. Not so in this case: The incident was immediately covered by CBS News, CNN, National Public Radio, the Los Angeles Times, the (more…)
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Tags:Bob Etheridge, CBS News, Charlotte Observer, Chris Cilizza, Chris Mathews, CNN, DNC, Drudge Report, ethics, ethics dunce, EthicsAlarms.com, Fox News, Huffington Post, Jack Marshall, liberal media, Los Angeles Times, mainstream media, MSNBC, National Public Radio, New York Times Washington Post, Politico, Republican Party, Rush Limbaugh, Salon, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Washington Times
Posted in Ethics-general, Politics | Leave a Comment »
June 15, 2010
They say that our fee-for-service system of medical and dental insurance is crushingly expensive because doctors and dentists are paid for the treatments they deliver. So they treat you in overly expensive ways, and earn more at your expense and your insurance company’s.
Not my experience. I just got back from a visit to my West Los Angeles dentist, Dr. Abdolreza “Abdi” Sameni. For several years he’s been warning me that a long-ago filled tooth would eventually need an expensive onlay, costing about $2000. “But no need to do it yet,” he had told me. “It could be years before you have to do it.”
A few weeks ago he told me it was time, and the time was today. I was in the chair, anaesthetized, and he was doing the final examination of the area to be repaired, when he said, “I think we can get by very well with just a filling.” Great news—it would save me $2000 and several more hours in the dental chair.
They say that ethics is how you behave when nobody is looking. Abdi, in addition to his skill and attention to his patients’ comfort, is certainly ethical. There’s no way I could have known anything was amiss had he just gone ahead with the onlay we had agreed on. But he knew it wasn’t needed, and he saved me $2000, right out of his pocket.
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Tags:dentists, Dr. Abdolreza “Abdi” Sameni, ethics, fee-for-service, medical and dental insurance, onlay, West Los Angeles
Posted in Ethics-general, Health care | 2 Comments »
June 13, 2010
There are two dramatically different stories of the botched May 31 incident that cost at least ten lives and poisoned relations between Israel and Turkey, and perhaps damaged the relations of both with the United States.
In one version, Israeli forces attacked a peaceful group that was trying to deliver humanitarian relief to the besieged people of Gaza; in the other, violent extremists, in league with Hamas, surrounded themselves with naïve civilians while attacking Israeli forces exercising a legal search of a ship attempting to run a legal blockade of Hamas-ruled Gaza.
We won’t know the true story for a long time. The best that could happen would be an objective and unbiased inquiry, but that won’t happen. As George Orwell said, “History is written by the winners.” The Israelis won, and they released video showing Israeli commandos sliding down ropes from helicopters and being attacked with what appear to be metal pipes.
The people on the Mavi Marmara took videos, too. All have been confiscated by the Israeli forces, all except one, snuck past the Israelis by San Francisco-based activist Lara Lee, available here. It records sixty minutes, starting about 30 minutes before the commandos boarded the ship. The dialog is mostly in Turkish, perhaps five percent in English. A brief and admittedly amateur analysis of the video is posted on the website of the United States Naval Institute, here.
Like any government that covers up evidence, Israel is damaging its credibility. Israel’s friends and impartial observers will believe Israel has much to hide, else why would they be hiding so much.
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Tags:blockade-running, cover-up, ethics, Gaza, George Orwell, Hamas, humanitarian relief, Israel Defense Force, Israeli commandos, Lara Lee, Mavi Marmara, Turkey, United States Naval Institute
Posted in Ethics-general, International, military | 1 Comment »
June 12, 2010
I went to see for myself what the mosque at Ground Zero is like. Considering the fuss made over the mosque by the New York Post and by the thousands of people who post rabid anti-mosque messages every three minutes on a Facebook group, I thought it would be easy to find; just go to Ground Zero and look around.
Nope, you can’t see it from Ground Zero, and none of the half-dozen locals I asked had any idea what I was talking about. I finally remembered that it was in a former Burlington Coat Factory store. I googled “Burlington Coat Factory Ground Zero New York,” and there it was: 45 Park Place (closed). Two blocks up Church Street from Ground Zero and a half-block into Park Place.
You can’t see the mosque from Ground Zero, and you can’t see Ground Zero from the mosque. We walked in and were greeted by Kemal, the caretaker, who was busy scrubbing the floor. He invited us to take off our shoes and look around. There wasn’t much to see—old drab retail space, completely empty except for the indoor/outdoor carpet that serves as a prayer rug.
The Imam is Feisal Abdul Rauf, a graduate of Columbia University who has worked for twenty years to build bridges between American Muslims and the broad public, and between America and the Muslim world. (more…)
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Tags:45 Park Place, 92nd Street YMHA, American Muslims, Anwar al-Awlaki, Burlington Coat Factory, ethics, Facebook group, Feisal Abdul Rauf, mosque at Ground Zero, Muslim Center, Muslim world, New York Post
Posted in Ethics-general, International, Politics, Tolerance | 4 Comments »
June 11, 2010
The National Collegiate Athletic Association has imposed harsh penalties on the USC athletic program for disregarding NCAA rules and for permitting a general campus environment that made compliance efforts difficult.
USC is barred from post-season bowl games for two years, is losing ten scholarships a year for three years, is on probation for four years, and is docked 14 victories and probably the 2004 national championship, The bowl ban could be especially costly: the Rose Bowl paid its participating teams $13.5 million each last year.
USC’s sin: allowing super star Reggie Bush and his parents “impermissible benefits in the form of cash, merchandise, an automobile, housing, hotel lodging, and transportation…worth many thousands of dollars,” and allowing basketball star O. J. Mayo to collect “benefits in the form of cash, lodging, merchandise, automobile transportation, meals, airline transportation, and services.”
Pete Carroll, arguably the most successful football coach in America for the past nine years, was “absolutely shocked and disappointed” at the NCAA decision. He protested that “We didn’t know, the University didn’t know” about the Bush violations. Carroll may not have known, but Todd McNair, a USC assistant coach did. And athletic director Mike Garrett made it clear that he didn’t want to hear about the Mayo affair. (more…)
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Tags:2004 national championship, bowl games¸ scholarships, compliance, envy, ethics, integrity, Mike Garrett, NCAA, NCAA sanctions, O. J. Mayo, penalties, Pete Carroll, probation, Reggie Bush, Rose Bowl, Sport, Todd McNair, Trojans, USC assistant coach, USC basketball, USC football
Posted in Ethics-general, Sports | 2 Comments »
Rolex watches, Prada satchels, and Burberry scarves are nice, but not that nice. For far less than these cost you can get similar items that keep time better, hold more, and keep your neck warmer. Rolex-, Prada-, and Burberry-labeled goods are so desirable because they are positional goods. That’s the economists’ term for products whose value lies in their scarcity. 
Ethics Bob 